Hundreds demand answers from county leaders on data centers

Numerous area residents packed into a town hall meeting at Montgomery City Elementary School on Dec. 8 to voice their concerns and seek answers to a variety of questions about two proposed data centers looking to locate within the county.

At times the meeting became heated as residents challenged a seven-person panel on a whole host of issues that have arisen regarding the proposed center.

The panel responding to questions during Monday’s event included Montgomery County R-II School District Superintendent Brian White, Greater Montgomery County Economic Development Council consultant Steve Etcher, Ameren Missouri Senior Director of Economic, Community and Business Development Rob Dixon, Cochran Engineering Water and Wastewater Engineering Manager David Van Leer, Montgomery County Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston, Montgomery County Water District board member Karl Finke and Montgomery County Water District Manager Rich Moore. The event was moderated by Scott Faughn.

Moratorium

One of the issues brought up by several residents was the possibility of imposing a moratorium on any proposed data center projects. Resident Brenda Buechle said she lives less than two miles from one of the proposed data center projects and challenged the commissioners for not following the county’s master plan to protect the county’s natural resources and make decisions to protect all residents.

“Why can’t we get an immediate moratorium placed to address the protection?” Buechle said.

Poston responded that the county can “pump the brakes” on the projects to make sure all questions are answered. He said however that putting a moratorium on any project would result in lawsuits flying, presumably against the county.

County Attorney Travis Elliott said moratoriums are not something that is just put into place. He noted that the county has previously modified its zoning code to better define data centers, but that a moratorium isn’t something that has ever been discussed.

Another resident, Jane Alexander, later asked when a moratorium would be put into place and Poston responded that it was a little late to do a moratorium now, which resulted in several members of the audience shouting that the county commissioners “sold us out.”

Poston again responded, “I didn’t say we have to live with them yet. We have got to pump the brakes and get the right information.”

Poston then explained that the county’s planning and zoning department had reviewed two site plans, but that there were still steps in the process including building plans, water usage information and a cost-benefit analysis, which was recently received.

Another man from Montgomery City discussed the fact that the county changed its definitions of data centers 14 months ago and has done nothing since. He reiterated that residents were demanding a moratorium be placed on such projects for at least a year.

Water usage

One of the other main issues addressed by residents was water, not only the amount of water to be used by the facility, but also the effects on the quality of drinking water. Poston said he felt that one of the main issues was water.

In response to a question relating to the effect on local wells, Van Leer told the audience that the typical residential wells are 400 feet deep, while data center wells are drilled to a depth of 1,500 feet. He explained that the upper zone where residential wells are located is cased out and the water in the two zones is kept separate. Van Leer said test wells have been drilled at the proposed Amazon property and the aquifer has “great production” and will have very little impact on ground water when the rails are running.

Moore said the estimated average usage for the Amazon data center will be about 100,000 gallons of water a day on average.

At least one resident took issue with this analysis. Montgomery County resident Bill Dreyer said he had spoken to a bedrock geologist who had looked at the cuttings from the wells.

“You are not right about some of the answers,” Dreyer said.

Dreyer explained that the geologist he spoke to told him the bedrock formations are difficult to understand. Some aquifers will recharge gradually while others may take millennia. He explained that there isn’t a remedy for those who lose water as a result of a data center coming in as Missouri is not a water-loss state, meaning there aren’t laws in place to protect people in such circumstances.

Still other residents, such as Virginia Percy, voiced concerns regarding the drinkability of water, especially after it is used for cooling by the data centers.

Van Leer said any water discharged from the center would have to be done via a permitting process through Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the costs would be borne by the developer of the project.

Still other questions revolved around who would be supplying the water to the facility. Specifically, one resident asked why the data centers would need wells if the water district would be handling the water for the facilities.

Moore said two new sites will be built at the centers and those systems, including any wells, would be turned over to the water district. The water district would then take those wells over and supervise them at that point.

Electricity

Many residents also voiced concerns about the effect of data centers on electric rates as well as the overall effectiveness of the grid. Resident Jim Bratcher said he was particularly concerned about utility rates. He noted that other communities in states like Virginia have put in data centers with large-load tariffs and rates went up in those communities. Another individual from Missouri Grassroots specifically asked whether Ameren had any rate increase requests currently, or planned to be filed with the Missouri Public Service Commission in the next few years.

Dixon explained that the PSC recently approved Ameren’s proposed rate plan for data centers. He said the plan ensures that data centers will provide all of the funding for their own infrastructure to connect to the grid. He said the plan also requires those companies to pay for a minimum amount of electricity. Dixon also said Ameren has not requested a rate increase request before the PSC.

Another resident asked about the effect of the data center’s energy use and whether such usage could result in brownouts. Dixon said the number one priority for Ameren is reliability of the grid. He explained that Ameren looks at its power generation resources to determine what the company can serve reliably.

Other issues

Several other residents addressed issues other than those mentioned above. One question from a Warren County resident was why the commissioners had signed non-disclosure agreements. Poston replied that the commissioners had signed one NDA for one of the projects to protect the landowner, which resulted in several people shouting from the audience that the commissioners should not have signed any NDAs.

Other questions revolved around proposed tax incentives. Montgomery County Collector Anita Sullivan argued against the data centers saying that when she first became collector in 2003, the county’s tax receipts were approximately $3 million and that now they are around $18 million, showing that the county is growing. She specifically asked why there would be the need for a tax rate hearing on Dec. 18 and urged the commissioners to reject any tax abatements for the data center.

“Even if they pay full taxes, they cannot make up for the potential danger to our community,” she said.

This eventually led to a discussion of potential tax abatements under Chapter 100. Etcher explained that the businesses would be paying all of their real property taxes, but that there were reductions proposed for personal property taxes.

One resident, Stephanie Garcia, offered a personal take, noting that her parents property that they have lived at for 30 years is directly affected by one of the proposed data centers as it effectively is blocking her parents property in. She chastised the commissioners, asking them how her parents could recoup the money from their property?

“How can you guys do this?” she asked. “What you did to us was wrong.”