TSMC Arizona looks like an imposing factory from Interstate 17.

And it’s even bigger when you drive by on Loop 303, a series of giant buildings rising from bare desert.

Combine its stature with national news stories asking why Phoenix is building a water-intensive semiconductor plant in the desert, and, understandably, people have concerns.

They want to know how much water the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is planning to use. And how big of a bite that will take out of Phoenix’s water supplies.

Now, we have a much better idea.

The first of three fabrication facilities — called fabs — is on track to use 4.75 million gallons a day when it becomes fully operational early next year.

That’s roughly the water it takes to supply 14,250 Phoenix homes — or about 2% of the city’s housing units — each day.

And that’s just raw water use. It doesn’t count the recycling TSMC is putting in place to reduce that number.

According........

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