Residents demand moratorium on Webster County data center

A data center under construction just outside the city limits of Marshfield has many Webster County residents demanding a one-year pause on its construction.

In a public meeting May 11 at the Marshfield High School auditorium, Webster County Commission members learned that a legal document for a moratorium was already written and ready for their signatures.

Meanwhile, the development is happening quickly on a 5-acre site on Rifle Range Road, across Interstate 44 to the north of the city. Developer Trent Overhue told Springfield Business Journal he anticipates completion by June 1.

Overhue is a partner in Lumon Solutions LLC, whose October 2025 articles of organization filed with the Missouri secretary of state say the purpose of the entity is to provide AI data centers. He said the Marshfield data center – being built for an undisclosed client – will be the company’s first.

The other partner identified in the company is Ashton Owens – like Overhue, a Springfield businessperson.

While the partners have described a small-scale data center with limited water use, no emissions and attention to limiting noise, many residents are skeptical. Having researched data centers, some residents are concerned about negative environmental and health impacts attributed to larger, hyperscale centers, some of which span more than 1,000 acres.

The speed at which the Lumon Solutions facility is being built has led some residents to want to hit the brakes for more study.

Overhue addressed the crowd at the public meeting and attempted to answer a few questions in a setting that Webster County officials admitted was a little out of control. As Overhue answered questions, audience members yelled out follow-up queries and objections.

Near the end of the meeting, Stan Whitehurst, Webster County clerk, indicated the county officials were not experienced with the kind of forum they were trying to conduct.

“We’re not practiced at this type of thing,” Whitehurst told the audience. “We’ve not had this type of situation before, so we’re learning how these meetings ought to be structured, but the back-and-forth isn’t really working.”

There were few empty seats in the school auditorium with a capacity of 646 on its main floor – not counting a packed balcony – according to figures from the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

When the questions began, lines of audience members – many holding handfuls of paper with questions or comments – extended up the two rows of the auditorium. Two-plus hours was not enough time to accommodate everyone who wanted to speak.

Lumon Solutions officials describe the project as a “small-scale, high-performance computing facility.” The facility’s buildings will be cooled by a closed-use system with water usage estimated at a few hundred gallons per month, all supplied by a standard, residential-style well with a depth of 500 feet and a capacity of 20 gallons per minute.

An official statement from the commissioners said company representatives told them there would be no chemical discharge or hazardous materials released, nor any air pollution or emissions.

In an interview with SBJ, Presiding Commissioner Paul Ipock said after meeting with Overhue, he does not believe the center is a cause for worry.

“I don’t believe it’s a big 400-pound gorilla that people are afraid of,” he said. “I think people google what’s out there about data centers, and there are some very scary stories out there. This is not what the guy’s bringing to Webster County. We don’t have the electrical power that could handle such a thing.”

Community activism
Despite assurances from the commission, residents of Webster County have expressed serious concerns about the center, and particularly about the unknowns surrounding its plans.

The meeting was punctuated by heated outbursts, mockery of officials and multiple shouts of the word “moratorium,” something a neighbor of the property, Kevin Runyon, said was available free of charge for the commissioners to sign.

“There is a group of people in Marshfield that hired its own attorney,” he said after waiting his turn in line. “As of 8 o’clock a.m., that attorney emailed you guys … a moratorium that’s already written up and waiting for your signature.”

Runyon said residents need to know what’s going on, and the moratorium on the facility’s production would allow a year for officials to gather impact and environmental studies and information from other communities with data centers.

“There’s really nothing for our county to gain, so as our representatives – you guys – that’s got to be the No. 1 thing on your mind,” he said.

“Why would we care to let this project happen if – if – it’s going to have negative impacts, right? Because there’s also no positives.”

If, after a year, the studies show there is no concern, the developers can “build on,” Runyon said.

Details from developers
SBJ interviewed both Overhue and Owens about their plans for the center prior to the meeting.

Overhue verified that he and Owens were partners in the project, but he declined to disclose whether other partners exist or the estimated cost of the facility. He did indicate that Lumon Solutions is made up entirely of local people.

Citing nondisclosure agreements, he also declined to disclose potential customers for the site, though he said similarly sized data centers often have just one.

Overhue said work on the facility is progressing rapidly.

“It’s going to be a pretty quick turnaround,” he said. “Most of our infrastructure work will be in in the next few weeks.”

The scaled-construction building is being assembled off-site, Overhue said, and will arrive largely intact, speeding processes.

Overhue said he was aware of the concerns about the data center.

“I would just want to educate, all uses within this field are not created equal,” he said.

“There are data centers that are very environmentally harsh, but the large majority of them have a lot of energy efficiencies and fit within a lot of the existing grid with most people not even knowing that they exist.”

He characterized data centers as important to the country as a whole.

“This is where tech’s going,” he said. “We have to keep up on the capacity, or we lose competitive edge as a nation. It will take a whole host of small and large data centers to keep up with the day-to-day demands that we have within the U.S.”

He said facilities like the one Lumon is building do analytical research for uses like medical logistics, engineering, artificial intelligence models and banking – parts of most people’s everyday lives.

In a separate interview, Owens said his interest in the data center industry came on gradually.

“As I started looking, I thought, there’s a more effective and better way to do this that doesn’t tear down farmland and doesn’t harm the environment,” he said. “That was the journey.”

He added that the data centers provided an opportunity to partner with local co-ops, where power is sitting as unrealized revenue in substations.

“That’s honestly our mission here, and it’s why I wanted to bring it to Springfield,” he said.

He noted he has found a good person to run the Marshfield center – someone who lives in Buffalo and has 40 years in the data industry. He said the site will hire 12-15 people, and he will also use local contractors for everything from fencing to security.

“There’s a right way to do this that is beneficial to communities and economies,” he said.

Lack of authority cited
In remarks at the public meeting, Ipock said commissioners are still learning about the data center, while he emphasized that there are very few options for the county to put the stops to it.

“We’re a third-class county who you voted down planning and zoning three times,” he said.

“We have attorneys working on this and trying to guide us through.”

A check of The Marshfield Mail online newspaper archives reveals that a proposal to implement countywide planning and zoning was defeated by voters in November 2007 for the third time.

In calling Webster County a third-class county, Ipock was referring to its classification as a Class 3 Missouri county – one with an assessed valuation of less than $450 million, according to state statute, which gives the commission only limited authority to pass ordinances.

Ipock urged the crowd to listen to the developer’s comments on the plans for the facility, rather than getting what he described as scary information from social media.

“He tells us that he’s going to produce so much, use so much water, going to use an enclosed unit, we’ve got to believe,” Ipock said.

The crowd interrupted Ipock with a loud objection to that sentiment, and Ipock responded in frustration.

“I had hoped that we could have this meeting, and people would be kind enough to stop, listen and not read all the Facebook stuff that you’re reading,” he said.

Commissioner Dale Fraker attempted to step in and explain the limitations of Class 3 counties, which are governed by different statutes than larger counties.

Fraker said if county residents are interested in establishing a planning and zoning commission to give their government oversight over developments, a petition process and ballot measure could decide that.

“Us as county commissioners, we do not set laws,” he said. Rather, he said, they enforce the rules set by voters, courts and the legislature.

He added that the commission is relying on counsel to make a legal, informed opinion and recommendation. They have hired attorney Christiaan D. Horton of Carnahan Evans PC.

“We are not making the rules up as we go … and we’re not going to start now,” Fraker said.

“Like you, I believe the government has a place, and making the rules up as we go is not the place.”

Fraker said the commission was surprised by the development.

“This kind of stuff is coming,” he said. “We are considered in the Springfield metropolitan area; we are part of the 500,000 population.”

Webster County is the only county government in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area with no oversight on what goes on within its boundaries, meaning it cannot stop developments like junkyards or commercial slaughterhouses, Fraker said.

“A nuclear power plant? If it comes here, we can’t do a thing about it,” Fraker said.

Concerns outlined
The public portion of the meeting was led off with 10 minutes afforded to Norwood resident and data center activist Katherine Wiltse, the person who requested the forum.

Wiltse questioned how many data centers are planned in Webster County.

“How many campuses? Where are they planned? Have you talked to utility companies? Do commissioners know? Are there (non-disclosure agreements) signed? We deserve to know this stuff,” she said.

While she praised Lumon Solutions for its water-saving model, she described it as unusual.

“Maybe we can work with Lumon to create this unicorn of a data center that is micro and clean,” she said. “We then pass an ordinance or we pass some sort of structure that is so stringent that none of these big players can come in.”

Wiltse said Overhue had said there would be zero wastewater with the data center.

She said Lumon has not applied for a wastewater permit with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

“I cannot find a single example where there is a closed-loop cooling system that doesn’t require maintenance that could not be flushing and purging the lines,” she said.

Wiltse also expressed concerns about fire in an ultra-high-density data center using lithium-ion batteries, as well as the fact that the center would frequently be staffed by only one person, according to a job posting by Lumon Solutions.

“These fires are next level,” she said. “These fires surpass what our local guys are probably used to.”