Following passage of the data center moratorium by the Nodaway County Commission, discussion focused on the recent Scale Microgrids application of a permit to generate and sell energy to the grid with the Missouri DNR. “Evergy is not getting any tax abatements for their project, so why should White Cloud Generating,” asked Scott Wilson. “We were told these generators would run three hours; now, they are set to run 24 hours a day.”
The data center project south of Maryville is being split into two projects. One is under White Cloud Acres, which would run the data center, and White Cloud Generating, which would run the generator system, which it says would sell electricity to the grid for the purpose of developing enough capacity for the grid to support a data center.
Mike Wilson expressed the concern expressed by many that the recently-passed moratorium would not affect the generator portion of the project, since it is being run by a completely different entity, although they are both under the same developer. The moratorium specifically mentions data centers and not any other entity.
“They know exactly what their plans are,” said Susie Strauch. “We don’t.”
Presiding Commissioner Bill Walker said the next step was to look at the proposed development agreement being drawn up by the county attorney, Travis Elliott. As for an extension of the six-month moratorium, “We’ll see where we’re at,” he said.
The topic of sound came up as well. Commissioner Scott Walk said that the data center company is establishing a baseline of sound so they can measure the sound of the data center. Any sound above the baseline would be sound emitted by the facility. They are doing this during the daytime, when there is a lot of truck traffic, and during the night. The company pledged at its June meeting in one of its flyers to keep the sound of the proposed facility to under 50 decibels.
Other discussion focused on the J-turns that the DOT is putting in all over the state. They are putting one in near where the proposed data center would be. In a recent news release on its periodic newsletter, “Express Lane,” the DOT included a piece explaining why it believes J-turns are safer. Commissioner Chris Burns said they have been putting them in all over the state, not just on 71. The participants at Thursday’s meeting were not convinced. “I don’t care if they’re saying it’s safer; it’s not,” said Susie Strauch, citing what she said would be increased truck, tractor, and combine traffic on roads like 71.
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