An acre-foot is about 325K gallons, and an irrigated farm uses 1 or 2 acre-feet per acre per year. So the "inefficient" fab you work at uses less than 2 acre-feet/day, or maybe 700 per year. About what a 500-acre farm uses.
Arizona has about 1.3 million acres under irrigation. So 2,500 similar fabs would use all the irrigation water.
It's a lot of water, but maybe not a deal breaker?
The USDA says Arizona cotton farmers make 1,138lbs/acre/year (sorry world, not converting units this time). There are 165,500 acres growing cotton in Arizona, so the 500 we stop to get water for Intel is negligible.
So we are talking about agriculture forgoing 569,000 lbs of cotton per year. Farmers get about $0.60/lb for cotton. The impact on the agricultural industry is $341,000/year.
Buy out the worst cotton farmer in the state. Take his water. Move on.
Arizona has about 1.3 million acres under irrigation. So 2,500 similar fabs would use all the irrigation water.
It's a lot of water, but maybe not a deal breaker?