MARSHFIELD, Mo. — A public meeting with the Webster County Commissioners will be held Monday, May 11, to discuss a controversial new data center that is being planned in Marshfield.
The Commission states that due to the increase in expected attendance for this issue, the meeting will take place at 10 a.m. in the auditorium at Marshfield High School.
Around 100 people were lined up outside the High School ahead of Monday’s meeting before the doors opened.
The project, located on Rifle Range Road near the power substation north of the city, has nearby residents expressing concerns over pollution to the environment, health, and wildlife safety.
While Webster County does not have a planning and zoning commission, they hope to adopt an ordinance to slow the construction of the center and require more transparency around it and its impacts.
See this playlist for all the videos about this subject😀👍✅💧🌊
 |
| https://www.ky3.com/2026/05/06/industry-experts-consumer-advocates-inform-missouri-lawmakers-risks-rewards-data-centers/ |
This is what the news is not telling you !!!
WEBSTER COUNTY DATA CENTER PROJECT What Residents Need to Know | May 2026 WHAT HAPPENED
A five-acre tract on Rifle Range Road was sold by ARY Investments, LLC (Aaron and Rachel York) to Lumon Solutions Marshfield, LLC — a company filed with the Missouri Secretary of State in April 2026, weeks before public disclosure. Its parent entity, Lumon Solutions, LLC, was filed October 17, 2025 —approximately six months before the public learned about the project.
The facility is described by the company itself as a "Tier III, AI-ready facility designed for high-density workloads and next-generation compute" — industrial-class infrastructure, not a small tech office.
ARY Investments holds at minimum 152 acres along this corridor. One 5-acre tract has been sold. A second adjacent 5-acre tract is already surveyed and ready to transfer. Approximately 142 acres remain in ARY inventory.
Webster County has no planning and zoning. Presiding Commissioner Dale Fraker confirmed this to KY3. No
public notice was required. No hearing was held. The recorded deed is the entire public-facing process.
WHY THE LAND MATTERS
Karst geology. The soil composition of the larger ARY parcel is approximately 41.6% Goss-Wildernesscomplex — the signature of Ozark karst: shallow soil over fractured cherty limestone. In karst country, what is discharged or spilled on the surface reaches the aquifer faster, with less filtration, than almost any other soil regime in the Midwest.
Surface water. GIS data shows a creek or drainage trace running through both ARY parcels. A Tier III data center produces cooling water discharge, stormwater runoff, and carries routine risk of transformer oil, glycol, and refrigerant releases from large mechanical infrastructure.
Residential wells. The aquifer under this corridor supplies private wells for families across the area. Nobaseline well testing has been proposed. No water draw disclosure has been made.
WHAT ANOTHER COUNTY JUST DID
On April 24, 2026, Camden County, Missouri passed Ordinance No. 04-24-2026 — a county-wide ordinance regulating data centers in unincorporated areas. Six days later, on April 30, Camden County commissioners denied a Letter of Support for an Opportunity Zone designation tied to a similar data center project after residents raised concerns about NDAs, water draw, and the absence of public input.
The Camden ordinance requires data centers to submit Water Consumption Modeling Reports, prohibits drawing cooling water from wells or surface water sources, requires on-site power generation at 100–110% of peak load, and eliminates all tax incentives, abatements, and TIF eligibility for data centers entirely.
Webster County commissioners have existing authority to require industrial water-use disclosure, aquifer- impact studies before high-volume commercial draws, and notification thresholds for large land-use changes — without a full planning and zoning framework.
No comments:
Post a Comment