At the latest "Nodaway Says No" meeting Tuesday, May 26th, Nancy Zeliff outlined the timeline that she says led to the proposed $6 billion data center south of Maryville. On October 16th, 2024, Governor Mike Kehoe received over $400,000 in campaign contributions from the electric utility industry. On March 25th, 2025, Governor Kehoe signed into law House Bill 4, which allows Ameren and Evergy to pass on costs from large data centers to customers. On June 18th, White Cloud LLC was registered by Scale Microgrids. On June 24th, Maryville received a $4.1 million award from the DNR for their water treatment plant. On June 30th, the Public Service Commission approved the 440-megawatt Mullin Creek plant in Nodaway County. On December 16th, representatives from Reload introduced themselves to the Nodaway County Commissioners. On April 7th, 2026, the Maryville Council election came and went without any mention of data centers. On May 26th, Rep. Jeff Farnan killed House Bill 3362, citing what he said were errors in the legislation. HB 3362 would have required electric utilities and cooperatives to develop a service tariff, required municipally owned water utilities and water supply districts to develop a service tariff schedule for large customers like data centers, and barred users from drawing and using more than 2 million gallons of water per day without a special DNR permit. Zeliff said the measure was pulled despite overwhelming online testimony in support. "Connect the dots," Ms. Zeliff said.
Ms. Zeliff called for transparency. She has a family farm near Skidmore. "Maryville is my community; I worked there for 35 years," she said. She promised the group of 200-300 people that she didn't have the answers, but, "We have a lot of questions that need to be addressed." One of the purposes of the meeting was to collect questions from people, which they will then share with elected leaders.
Laura Klass, a lifelong resident of Nodaway County, said that when she heard about the data center, she sought out likeminded people, had some conversations, and the group arose out of it. Kim Swyers said that the group was formed with a specific goal in mind. "We believe it's the residents of this county who know what's best for us," she said.
Susie Strauch of Barnard, who lives next to where the proposed project would be built, said that if the data center was short of water, they would dig for it, which she feared would contaminate her water. Ms. Strauch lives off of well water. She worried that it would lead to the closure of her road, that it would hurt the quality of the air, and that the massive concentration of electricity from both it and the nearby electrical plant would create a shock hazard. "We don't know what is in these particles," she said. Ms. Strauch said she feared that the lights of the data center would drown out the night sky, leading to the decline of her land's values. "I was born there and have lived there 80 years," Ms. Straugh said. "I was told that if there is a fish kill or a wildlife kill to report it. Well, that's too late." She said that the area was grounds for boy scouts, the local 4-H, and trail rides. "And now, we found out the Pope has come out against all the AI stuff," said Ms. Strauch. She was referring to the recently released encyclical by Pope Leo XIV expressing deep skepticism about the current pace of AI development and calling for a renewed focus on human dignity.
Donna Tompkins, who is building a house one mile away from the site, talked about how people were blindsided by the April announcement of the data center. "I would have waited on buying that land if we had known about this," she said. "We stand to lose everything." Ms. Tompkins said that it was not a partisan issue, that she votes for the best person for the job, but that something of that magnitude had to be regulated. "What price do we put on everything that we lose," she asked.
Tim Schafer, who runs a livestock operation near the proposed site, said that his biggest concerns were the water supply and the noise, which he feared would have negative effects on his cattle. Mr. Schafer said that no matter how they tried to do it, there would still be PFAS (forever chemicals) produced that can't be gotten rid of easily. He noted that the EPA is rolling back enforcement of environmental laws. "They picked us because they thought we were backwards and wouldn't put up resistance," Mr. Schafer said.
An article from Chips Communities United, which opposes data centers, says that there are over 1,000 PFAS applications in the semiconductor supply chain.
Mr. Schafer has started 102 Rivershed LLC, which has retained a lawyer to try to stop the project, and which has raised $7,000 as of Tuesday, May 26th. He encouraged people to call their Senators and Representatives.
"We are here today because of the long-term consequences," said Kim Swyers. "Many people here are on fixed incomes. The costs are often shifted to the ratepayers." Ms. Swyers said that in Virginia, where there are hundreds of data centers, it meant building more coal and gas plants. And she said that these facilities would affect the climate, citing heat domes of between three and 16 degrees.
De Zeen, a website which reports on technology, reported on April 9th that a group of scientists presented findings based on 20 years of remote land-surface sensor temperature data. It found that temperatures in areas immediately surrounding the locations of AI centers are rising an average of 3.6 degrees while the most extreme cases saw a 16.4-degree increase. In the worst case, a 95-degree day in the summer could turn into 110 degrees, which would be a record high for the area.
Ms. Swyers also cited the effects of low-frequency noise from data centers on humans over the long term. A 2020 peer-reviewed study from Applied Sciences reviewed 142 articles published between 2016 and 2019 regarding low-frequency noise and its effects on human health. Effects discussed include sleep disorders, discomfort, sensitivity to and irritability from noise, annoyance, hearing loss, and cardiovascular diseases.
Sadie Tingleson, a health researcher, said that political leaders will tell you they have not seen enough research until the project is built. But in fact, she said, a lot of research has already been done. A recent study done by EmPower Analytics Group published on February 27th that included Michael Cork of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health took a look at the Vantage Data Center facility, a specific facility within Loudon County. It was commissioned by the Piedmont Environmental Council, a conservation group based in Virginia that is opposed to data centers, seeing them as harmful to the lands and waters of the Virginia Piedmont, which it is trying to protect.
The EmPower study found that the facility's permitted emissions alone result in between $53 million and $99 million per year in health-related damages, driven primarily by an estimated 3.4 to 6.5 additional premature deaths per year across the region, along with hospital admissions, asthma-related outcomes, and lost productivity. Over five years, the damages would mount to $265-495 million and $1.59 to $2.97 billion over 30 years. It would mean 17-33 premature deaths over five years and 102-195 deaths over 30 years.
Ms. Tingleson also cited the fact that data centers emit nitrous oxide. A 2026 Virginia Commonwealth study that mapped emissions from 138 data centers in Northern Virginia found that nitrous oxide emissions increased by 111% from 2015 to 2023. The proposed facility near Maryville would use its own natural gas-powered facility. Nitrous oxide emissions happen when diesel generators run, either during outages or during required testing cycles. Nitrous oxide can cause breathing issues, lung damage, and premature deaths. It is produced from diesel combustion from backup generators.
On February 25th, The Hill reported on a study from Community and Environmental Defense Services founder and president Richard Klein, who found that a single data center could pose negative health risks for people living at least 0.6 miles away from data centers, and sometimes further. Some people at Tuesday's meeting expressed the fear that if the current proposed data center were built, more would follow. Mr. Klein's study found that risks increase when a home is near multiple data centers.
A 2024 study from Caltech and UC Riverside found that air pollution from data centers is expected to result in 1,300 premature deaths per year by 2030 in the US. Total public health costs from cancers, asthma, and other diseases as well as from missed work and school days is estimated to be $20 billion per year.
Kim Swyers said she didn't buy the argument that such data centers would create jobs. She talked to someone who had worked for both Google and Amazon and that they had told her that there are normally eight people on site and that many can be operated remotely. And she noted, as reported by multiple news outlets, that Meta, for instance, eliminated 8,000 positions, or 10% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring tied to its shift towards AI. In addition, they canceled over 6,000 open positions, as reported by CNBC on May 18th.
J.R. Calkin, who lives one mile from where the project would be built, is a direct descendant of the Calkin family who lived in Sheridan in the late 1800's and who ran the Calkin Livery. He moved to the area from Alaska after living there for 40 years. "I didn't come back here to fight this," Mr. Calkin said.
"There are so many false promises," said Laura Klass. "Once one comes, more will show up." And in the meantime, she said that people can't count on the government to protect them, noting that the federal government was rolling back EPA enforcement, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the Clean Water Act.
Bill Mires presented a list of demands. He called for a moratorium on data centers until there were further protections in place, no tax abatements, a surety bond in case of a disaster, utility rate protections, and for finding ways to treat PFAS chemicals. Mr. Mires talked about his time in the military, when they handled lithium. He said they had very strict rules about handling it, because of the difficulty in fighting it. More and more data centers are using lithium batteries for backup power, according to Design News, a website about technology. It is driven by what data center operators see as higher energy density, longer lifespan, faster discharge rates, and better performance. However, the National Fire Protection Association reports that lithium-ion batteries are now involved in nearly every major data center fire incident in recent years.
Putting out lithium fires depends on the type of lithium. It is possible to put out lithium-ion battery fires with water, but it can take thousands of gallons. They can reignite hours or days later. Water makes metallic lithium fires worse; however, data centers do not use metallic lithium batteries.
Mr. Mires then cited the prevailing wind factors as a reason that pollution was a concern. He noted that the wind normally blows from the south in the area in question, meaning that a data center would pollute Maryville.
"Why do we have to work under more rules than data centers," asked Mr. Mires. He said that as a rancher, there were all sorts of rules that he has to follow, and that there were even stricter rules regarding CAFO's. "Why is it so hard to regulate AI centers," he asked.
There were several calls to use the moratorium period, if the County Commission passes one, to work for zoning either in the county or in White Cloud Township, where the proposed data center is planned. Joe Drake, who sold an option to buy to Scale for the project, said he did so reluctantly because he was told that if they bought all the other land necessary for the project, they could force him to sell. But Mr. Drake said that at a recent meeting with the company, he said they were not looking to exercise their option to buy for a year, which meant that people had time to stop it. "Zoning should have been done a long time ago," he said. Such a measure would require a petition and a vote of the people, following by an appointment of the board. Then, there would be meetings held to draw up the zoning regulations as well as enforcement.
In a tearful speech, Jennifer Gillespie said that it was so upsetting that neighbors were willing to sell to these companies. She grew up new Gentry, lived in Kansas City, and built a small acreage near where the project is proposed. "You don't have a soul if you aren't bothered by all the destruction," she said. She noted that a lot of the proposed ground is wooded and that it was the largest area of timber in Nodaway County. "You would have to have no heart to bulldoze it," she said. "You're destroying God's creation forever. And they're not going to stop." She said that when people sold their souls to the devil for money, "It's not going to end well. They don't care if we all get sick or it kills all our wildlife."
Scott Wilson, who serves as the backup water operator for Bolckow, said that he feared that the data center would drain the water out of his town's water system, noting they have already drilled 40 feet deep.
