A draft of the feasibility study that was commissioned by the Nodaway County Rural Water District has been given to the board, the District announced at its regular meeting Monday. The board members will review the study and then it will be released to the public following approval.
The study looked at four options regarding data center development for the proposed facility south of Maryville. The first was drawing water out of the 102 River. Scale Microgrids, the developer of the project, requested 12,000 to 15,000 gallons of water per day for domestic use by the employees and 70,000 galloons a day for production and industrial usage. The center would be responsible for complying with DNR, EPA, and District standards.
The study in question looked at the following options:
--Expansion of District infrastructure to allow the volume to come from Maryville;
--Increasing the scope and costs to allow the center to piggyback onto the nearby Evergy project, which is drawing water from Andrew County;
--Using wastewater presently discharged from the City of Maryville, then piping it back to Maryville for discharge into the 102;
--Drawing directly from the 102. This could bypass Water District input, but would then make it subject to Army Corp of Engineers regulations.
Some options have already been ruled out. One is digging for groundwater. The other option ruled out was drawing water from the Missouri River.
The study is paid for by Scale Microgrids and conducted by an outside agency with oversight from Brock Pfost.
Around 50 people were present, several of whom spoke at the meeting Monday. Board President Dean Adwell had participants limit their speeches to five minutes. “We’re all adults here,” he said.
Jennifer Gillespie said that her family had lived near where the proposed project would be built and that they own 40 acres right next to where it would be built. She said that the reps at the public meeting at Mozingo were not there to ask for approval, but to make a sales pitch. She said that there were two data centers in Smithville, one in Platte County, and one planned for St. Joseph and that part of the goal was to train AI so that they could eventually take everyone’s jobs. “That’s pretty scary for our kids,” Ms. Gillespie said. She cited recurring concerns about light, water, and air pollution. “The elites can’t make water,” she said. She said that the proliferation of data centers was “like a disease spreading all over the US. Are you for profit, or are you for providing rural water,” she asked. “If this project is built, what happens to our rural water?”
Holly Caviness asked, “What guarantees will be have that we will have equal priority? What oversight and monitoring will you do if they draw from the 102? Will you commit to commissioning an independent study?”
Nancy Zeliff talked about what she saw as the lack of transparency and the secrecy. She said that Iowa, which has a lot of CAFO’s, has one of the top two or three cancer rates in the nation. “And we found this out 30 years after the fact,” she said. She said that Palo Alto County (IA), where she was originally from, had the highest cancer rate in the state and that Northern Iowa stinks because of the CAFO odor. She said that since she had gotten involved in the struggle against the data center, she had received notes of encouragement from people in Fairfax and Rock Port. She noted that Rock Port’s citizens had banded together to successfully stop a toxic waste incinerator from being built there in 1986. “70% of Americans don’t want data centers,” she asked.
Scott Wilson of Bolckow said he was not convinced that the wastewater method would be safe. Regarding the option to draw water from the City of Maryville, Mr. Wilson said, “It would not be popular to turn Mozingo Lake into a mud puddle.”
One of the arguments made against the proposed data center was that of Riparian rights, or the principle that people downstream have just as much right to water usage as people upstream. Speaking of the Bolckow water system, Mike Wilson, who is the father of Scott Wilson, said, “We pump millions of gallons of water to people. We don’t want it contaminated.” He noted that the study said nothing about the rights of downstream water users like the City of Bolckow.
Julie Nielson, who lives three miles from the proposed project, said that since noise affects cattle even more than humans and affects fertility by as much as 40%, it would harm their cattle operation. “This is cattle country, and future generations want to live here too,” she said. “We want to know what was said between you and the developer and why we weren’t included.”
Wayne Beatty is a sixth generation cattle producer who lives near the project. “You’re trying to turn this into crap,” he said. He feared the rise in heat near the data center, which he said could be between five and 25 degrees. “What if it’s 100 degrees out? If we fight this, we will still have our air, cattle, and water.”
“You haven’t said one thing; do you even care,” asked Jennifer Gillespie. “Either you are for it or against it. Would you want to live next to one? I know you guys enjoy the outdoors and conservation.”
At that point, people began answering questions about the project. Brock Pfost said that the focus of the district was on water and that the topic should stay on water. “I’ve lived here for over 60 years,” he said. Board President Dean Adwell said that they will take into account everyone’s comments and that they were not for the data center or against it; they were gathering information.
One topic that came up was that of droughts. While this has been one of the wettest years in recent memory, there has been a lot of drought in the area in recent years. If there were an extreme drought, under the district’s policy approved by the board, the water district would give service to residential households and the hospital first; they would be the last customers to be shut off in the event of such an emergency.
If the data center were to draw water directly from the 102, there would be the problem of what to do in the event of a major drought. “I can walk across the 102 during a drought,” Mr. Beatty said.
Mr. Pfost said that the district has a lot of contingency plans for droughts. They have alternative connections, including with Clarinda and Red Oak if the need ever arises. They are working on one in Atchison County where, if it goes through, would allow the district to use some underutilized water from Rock Port. They also own the pond south of Gentry that serves Grant City, Stanberry, and Parnell. The Rural Water District gets 90% of its water from Maryville, and the ongoing goal is to diversify its water sources in the event of an emergency.
The topic turned to the Evergy plant that is being built next to the proposed data center. It will use 90,000 gallons of water per day, and the water will be piped from Savannah through Andrew County Rural Water District #3 to the Nodaway County Rural Water District. Evergy will fund a tentative 95% of the costs to build the infrastructure. But Mr. Pfost said that the District has not signed an agreement with either the data center or Evergy regarding water service.
Nothing was on the agenda or voted on regarding the data center at Monday’s meeting. Nick Robb, who serves as the attorney for the Water District, said that before any action was taken, it would be put on the agenda and people would have an opportunity to weigh in. “All the board is doing is their due diligence regarding the project,” Mr. Robb said.
The Water District hooked up one new Nodaway County customer last month. They received 302 locate requests. Parnell had two pump stations taken down by lightning by the recent storm; they were replaced. The storm also had seven washouts. The Water District finished their 3” line to the Sheridan area and is in the process of hooking up 13 new customers.
While the Water District is on a sound financial footing, one area of concern is water rates. Maryville is raising its rate to the Water District by 50% effective January 1st, 2027 and by another 50% effective January 1st, 2028 to help pay for its new treatment plant. The water loss rate was 13% for May and is around 16% for the year.
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