Webster County residents call for moratorium on data center development

The audience at yesterday’s public meeting about a data center being built in rural Marshfield made a demand of Webster County commissioners: They want a moratorium on its construction.

Webster County resident Kevin Runyon told commissioners that his home is exactly 2,526 feet away from the data center, and that he was present with a group of his neighbors.

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

He asked the commission to consider signing the one-year moratorium to give them time to gather necessary research – including impact studies, environmental studies and information from other communities with data centers.

Runyon said residents need to know what’s going on.

“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.

“I’m just saying, there’s one already written – it’s already been paid for,” he said.

There were few empty seats on the ground level or in the balcony of the Carl and Glessie Young Community Auditorium at Marshfield High School, which seats 646 people on the lower level, according to the Missouri State High School Activities Association.

Seated behind a table on the stage were the three commissioners, Paul Ipock, Dale Fraker and Randy Owens; Webster County Health Unit Administrator Scott Allen; and County Clerk Stan Whitehurst.

The commissioners hosted the meeting at the off-site location instead of their small courthouse chambers to hear questions or concerns about the facility, but officials admitted the raucous atmosphere was something entirely new for them.

“We’re not practiced at this type of thing,” Whitehurst said. “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.”

Whitehurst's comment came 15 minutes before the end of the two-hour session, which was marked by interjections of questions and exclamations from the audience, as well as comments by commission members and by Trent Overhue, a partner in Lumon Solutions LLC, which is bringing the data center to the county; Tom Houston, general manager at Webster Electric Co-Op; and Aaron York, the property owner who sold 5 acres to Lumon Solutions.

Following Runyon’s comments, there were frequent shouts from different areas of the audience for a moratorium. Meanwhile, construction is underway, and commissioners point to their lack of authority over the development.

Limited authority
Ipock, the presiding commissioner, emphasized that the data center represents a learning process for the county leaders.

“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.”

Ipock was referring to Webster County’s status as a Class 3 county – a Missouri county 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 he 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.

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

“Another disadvantage we have as a commission – or advantage, however you look at it – there is no planning and zoning in Webster County. It has been put on the ballot and it has failed two or three times,” he said.

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

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

He added that the commission is receiving advice from an attorney with Carnahan Evans PC in Springfield so it can make a legal, informed opinion and recommendation.

“We are not making the rules up as we go … and we’re not going to start now. That’s not the right way,” 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 metropolitan statistical area with no oversight on what goes on in the county, 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.

Fraker promised transparency and to provide answers to the community’s questions, but he cautioned that those answers can’t come overnight. He also promised to make sure Lumon Solutions has followed federal and state protocols.

“Moratorium,” someone shouted from the audience in one instance of many to invoke the term.

Concerns about center
The meeting began with comments by Katherine Wiltse, the Norwood resident and data center activist who requested the public 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.

She applauded Lumon Solutions for water consumption plans, which she called a non-issue.

“They’re using a residential model that’s 20 gallons per minute; it’s 500 feet deep,” she said, saying she was excited to hear that information. “How are we going to know if we have an issue if we don’t listen to the details?”

But she noted the facility as planned is 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.”

She 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.

She also mentioned fire dangers of an ultra-high-density data center.

“We are talking about lithium-ion batteries,” she said.

She raised the concern of a scenario when a lone Lumon employee on-site experiences a sudden lithium fire.

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

Developer comments
Overhue addressed the crowd after Wiltse’s remarks, noting he understood there was a lot of concern and clarifying that the Lumon Solutions facility would not be like the hyperscale data centers that take up millions of gallons of water, thousands of acres and gigawatts of power.

“Those type of data centers are environmentally harsh,” he said. “That is not what we do. We look to fit into existing areas – pockets where there is existing power or resources that we can work with the co-ops, work with the community. It truly is a non-invasive use.”

He said the development has five acres, and within that is a 12,000-square-foot pad with multiple buildings.

“We do high-performance computing,” he said. “We do research models for various industries, like healthcare, banking, logistics, defense.”

Overhue said the facility would use a few gallons a day from a 5-inch well operating at 20 gallons a minute – the smallest available for residential use, he said.

He added that there would not be toxic sludge or environmental waste.

“It should be pretty environmentally safe,” he said.

Representing Webster Electric Co-Op, Houston said the development is limited by the size of the substation.

“There is a reason he cannot put 100 acres of data center out there,” he said.

The center will be limited by the size of the transformer in the substation, the size of transmission lines and more on down the line, Houston said.

“This is one circuit out of that substation,” he said. “We have lots of industrial customers right now. Will it be the biggest? Yes. But we have a lot of large customers we serve at this point. This will not be a burden on Webster Electric. This is 10 megawatts. Our current system is 120 megawatts.”

Commissioner viewpoints
A speaker identifying himself only as Moe asked the commission members if they were for the data centers.

Fraker said in the way the body handles government, their personal opinions make no difference in their decision-making processes.

“When it comes to voting, we vote, just like everybody else does,” he said. “And then we do what we are told – what the public votes on, what the legislature makes us do.”

Moe then asked the audience: “Are you guys for this data center?”

The answer was a resounding no.

“If our elected officials are not here commissioning for the people, who are you commissioning for?” he asked.

Fraker said the commission members are taking in all of the information they can to make decisions within statutes that must be followed. If they do not follow rules, a suit could be filed against the county, and the county would lose.