A $6 billion data center is being proposed for southern Nodaway County, which would be located in the South Nodaway school district. It is a 600-megawatt data center powered by a natural gas-powered energy facility. The facility is being designed to meet data and energy infrastructure needs.
A buildout of 10 years is planned, and the estimated life cycle of the facility is estimated to be around 35 years. It would redirect wastewater from the City of Maryville, where it would be used for the facility’s needs, and then redirected back to the Maryville wastewater treatment facility, where it would be treated by the city and released into the 102 River like any other wastewater. It would have to comply with DNR and EPA regulations like any other wastewater the city treats.
The goal is to minimize any water usage from Mozingo Lake and any electricity usage off the Evergy grid, which could drain Mozingo Lake and drive up the costs of electricity in the area.
The project is estimated to generate 1,000 construction jobs in Nodaway County, 130 permanent jobs during the lifetime of the facility, and a local investment of around $1.1 billion in local tax contributions over the life of the project.
The proposed facility would be located on around 700 acres.
However, the facility has attracted a large number of opponents. Opponents came to the Nodaway County Commission Meeting Tuesday, April 29th and to the Maryville City Council Meeting Monday, April 28th. Ugly rumors have been flying around Facebook regarding the project, and a Facebook group against the project has attracted a lot of members. Around 39 people attended another Nodaway County Commission meeting Thursday; while there were three people there who were supportive, the great majority were opposed, citing quality of life, noise, water supply and quality, pollution, wildlife, and other concerns.
The County Commission, and others like it, are limited in what they can do. Nodaway County is a non-zoning county and any efforts to pass zoning would be met with heavy opposition. Polk County passed zoning to cover the area of the township outside of Maryville but did away with it because it was unenforceable. Back in the 1990’s, Worth County passed a zoning measure in an effort to keep Confinement Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s) out of the county, but the zoning board appointed by the County Commission could never come to an agreement on how to regulate such structures.
Another solution that has gone by the wayside is passing a health ordinance. Last decade, Worth County passed a health ordinance in an effort to stop a proposed CAFO from being built. It was a massive ordinance, and it gave the Tri-County Health Department the authority to enforce it. But it, too, went by the wayside when the Missouri Legislature passed a law superseding it and other county health ordinances around the state and prohibiting counties from passing ordinances that are stricter than DNR or EPA standards.
Nodaway County used to have a health ordnance even after passage of the state law; however, back in 2021, they repealed it in order to make Nodaway County an Agri-Ready County in an effort to attract new businesses to the county. Worth County has not taken such a step.
One thing that counties can do is refuse to pass a tax abatement or grant one and then use it as leverage in case the company is in breach of contract. However, Nodaway County Commissioner Chris Burns said they have not been asked for a tax abatement. The county has been pressing the company for a public hearing regarding the proposed facility so that people can have more answers. Commissioners at Thursday’s meeting said they were trying to get answers like everyone else.
The problem is that nobody knows, as of May 2nd, 2026, who they are dealing with. Commissioners said they have dealt with representatives of the project twice. It has been under two developers. The first developer was Reload, which then handed it off to Scale Microgrid, a company based out of New Jersey. The developer would then hand the project off to some other company that could be a massive corporation like Amazon or Meta (Facebook) or a startup.
Josh McKim, the Nodaway County Economic Developer, said at Thursday’s meeting that he had dealt with representatives of Reload and then Scale Microgrid several times. The first was back in October or November when they came to him with what they were planning to do and the basic numbers. Mr. McKim said that he went to the Missouri Partnership, a state agency which seeks to attract businesses to the state. He said they told him that the job figures Reload quoted him were in line with what other projects generated.
At first, the facility was proposing to use 1.5 million gallons of water a day; the City of Maryville uses 3 million a day. However, they went back to the drawing board and found that a closed-loop system, like the one that would use Maryville’s wastewater, would save water and only mean using 600,000 to 650,000 gallons a day of wastewater and 10,000 to 15,000 gallons directly out of the rural water system. Any water that is filtered out of Maryville’s system after going through the closed-loop system would still have to meet DNR and EPA standards. The City of Maryville would have the authority to determine how much wastewater could be used in the project; for instance, they could sign a contract stating that the facility could not exceed 650,000 gallons of wastewater a day.
The City of Maryville, County of Nodaway, and the Rural Water District are teaming up to hire a lawyer with experience in dealing with data centers so that they can draw up a contract.
Such a project would have to have backup generators in the event of an outage. They would have to periodically test the generators, which would create noise issues. There were concerns raised about ongoing noise, which would need to be addressed by sound barriers. Another issue raised by people at the meeting was light issues; one possible solution would be to have lights pointed downward and only turn on when someone was around. The gas turbines would generate an air quality issue, which would require dust collectors and a scrubber system.
Mr. McKim said that he was not a spokesperson for the company, he was not under any non-disclosure agreement, and that he was not for or against the proposed data center. He said that he viewed his job as listening to people and their concerns and trying to mitigate them as much as possible if the project does go forward. He said that his door was always open. He said that the proposed data center was not a done deal and that they had not even begun the permitting processes needed as of Thursday. “I won’t believe that it’s a done deal until the dirt starts moving,” he said. Mr. McKim noted that there was another project in which they had lined up the governor to come and give a talk for a groundbreaking ceremony. A week before the groundbreaking was to have happened, the company called and advised him that they were not moving forward with the project.
Tim Hatfield, a supporter of the project, spoke at the meeting. Mr. Hatfield said that his family has been in Nodaway County since 1857 and that they had taken out an option to purchase some of his land for the project. He said that he shared everybody else’s concerns about the project, but that, “Everything I’ve asked them to do, they’ve done.” He said that he made a special trip to the Meta data center in Kansas City and that he didn’t hear any noise and that the security guard he talked to and that when he talked to people he knew in Smithville, near where the project is located, he got laughed at. Another person who was at the meeting said he had talked to other people in Smithville and that they did have noise issues.
Mr. Hatfield said that this was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to turn the area’s economy around. He said he could remember the times in Barnard when there were two banks and a grocery store in town. In addition to the jobs created at the plant, Mr. Hatfield said it would be an opportunity for Northwest to create a curriculum so that people who wanted to live and work in the area could have the skills necessary to work at the data center.
Billy Miers of Pickering, an opponent of the project, said that the commission should prepare itself for 4,000 citizens opposed to the project to contest it. He said that it could take years to get some of the permits needed for the project. “They are certainly free to do that,” said Mr. McKim. “Every day, I’m looking into negative concerns that people raise to me.”
Concerns were raised about migratory birds' routes. Currently, there are thousands of migratory birds that periodically stop near the 102 River just east of Maryville. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says that research shows that bright artificial light strongly attracts and disorients migratory birds, pulling them into developed areas where they face higher risks of window collisions and habitat scarcity. Bright lights at night are responsible for countless bird deaths. Modern data centers operate 24/7 and use exterior lighting for security.
Another concern raised was that if the county were to use tax abatement as leverage over the end user, it would be pocket change for the company if it were to renege on any agreements between it and the county. Power Systems Technology, a website which reports on tech companies, reported that Scale Microgrids raised over $1 billion cumulative to support distributed energy projects across the US as of last year. On its own website, Scale Microgrids says it was acquired by EQT, which manages microgrid assets around the world, in January 2024. Since it is a privately owned company, they do not publish annual revenue or annual capital-deployment totals.
Another concern raised was that of eminent domain. Under Missouri law, eminent domain can only be exercised for a public use and only with “just compensation.” The court system would have the final say. Since Scale is a private company, it cannot exercise eminent domain to force reluctant landowners to sell property. The only entities which can condemn property under Chapter 523 include road and railroad companies, telephone companies, electric utilities, oil and gas pipeline companies, other entities created by statute for a recognized public use, and any governmental body. Courts require the condemning authority to prove public purpose and public necessity before condemnation can proceed. Landowners would have the right to contest the government’s right to condemn.
Steve Etcher, a consultant with the South Nodaway school, logged in to talk with the commissioners and Mr. McKim on Zoom about data centers. He said that abatements can be structured in different ways. He said some early data center projects involved 98% to 100% abatements for the first 20-30 years. Given that the proposed facility has an estimated 35-year lifespan, such a deal could mean a short window of opportunity for taxing entities before the facility closes down.
If the project is built at the scale that it’s estimated to be, the revenue for the South Nodaway school in year one alone could be as much as $40 million. Tax abatements are up to county commissions, but by law, it has to be done within the framework of the taxes that it charges. Mr. Etcher said that one thing he has seen is “community benefit payments,” where the county abates certain taxes, but the company turns around and pays a certain amount of money to taxing entities such as schools, since there is nothing stopping private companies from donating directly to taxing entities.
Another possibility for a “community benefit agreement” could be for the company to build certain roads and infrastructure as part of the tax abatement agreement. Even if the project were to go under, the roads and infrastructure would be the taxing entities to keep. Such roads would be under the control of the townships and the county; only they would have the authority to close roads.
An ongoing concern is that such a massive facility might go under. But Mr. Etcher said that the US is underdeveloped, with only 30% of the country’s tech infrastructure needs being served in the US, forcing the US to look overseas. This could be a nightmare for the US if they were to go to war with China over Taiwan; tensions between the two counties periodically flare up. That makes projects like the proposed project for Nodaway County a growth area for the country.
One concern raised was that of property values, especially among houses that are within two miles of the proposed facility. FOX 47 News, based in Michigan, reported that some studies show increases in home prices near data centers, while others show declines due to noise, aesthetics, and environmental concerns. FOX 47 cited a study from George Mason, which is located in northern Virginia, which found that home values actually went up as people wanted to be closer to places with good infrastructure, roads, and jobs.
But House Digest, a news site about homes and the real estate market, reports that there is a downside. Higher assessments mean higher property taxes, which could affect first-time homebuyers as well as people on fixed incomes. It says that these factors could make homes harder to sell.
Another concern raised was rising electricity and water rates. In February, Senator Josh Hawley and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill to stop data centers from driving up energy costs. They would be required to build their own power sources, ensuring that the costs of their business are not passed on to American consumers. Water and electrical rates have been going up for the last two decades for reasons that have nothing to do for data centers. Even Ravenwood, which had one of the lowest water rates in the state for a long time, recently raised its water rates so that it could hire a city maintenance worker.
The Nodaway County Commission meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 8 am to 11 am and sometimes in the afternoon. All meetings are open to the public. They are held in the Commissioner’s room in the Nodaway County Administrative Center in Maryville.
