To the Editor:

Like many of you, I’m concerned about the risk of data centers driving up the price of rural land and utility rates. According to the Washington Post, 60% of hyperscale data centers are built on farmland, forested land, shrubland, or other types of land. A third of data centers were built on farmland. This concerns me because Howard County has no planning and zoning laws, meaning a data center can be proposed with no public hearing, no zoning review, and no county oversight. The website Missouridatacenters.org ranks Howard County as moderate risk for development of data centers because of the proximity of the Missouri River for cooling water and significant open farmland.

Large data centers require a lot of energy to power them and water to cool them. For example, the planned Google Data Center Campus in New Florence will use 1.2 GW of electricity, the equivalent of powering up to 720,000 to 1.2 million homes continuously. A mid-sized data center could consume as much water as a small city annually. The state does not regulate the amount of water that can be used by a data center.

We have seen multiple examples of data centers relying on backup diesel generators for their operations which may result in further air emissions. Facilities may need to apply for a permit to pollute our air, depending on the facility’s potential to emit. A permit does not prevent a facility from emitting harmful pollutants, it allows for it.

Data centers are noisy and loud, producing up to 96 decibels of internal noise. The state does not regulate noise, light or sound; these are usually regulated at the local level.

In addition to hyperscale data centers, Missouri is seeing an influx of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) facilities claiming to promote renewable energy. These facilities store energy in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries when use is low to be use later when demand is high. Many of the developers are LLCs (limited liability companies, sometimes foreign-owned) and targeting development near our substations. One of the primary risks of lithium-ion batteries is thermal runaway, a phenomenon in which the lithium-ion cell enters an uncontrollable, self-heating state. This is why you must carry-on your lithium-ion batteries when you fly - you need to be able to detect if it catches on fire! Thermal runaway can result in ejection of hazardous gases, shrapnel and/or particulates (violent cell venting), smoke, and fire that often cannot be extinguished. This technology risks contaminating the air and soil with hydro-fluoric acid and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals because they do not break down with exposure to water or sunlight. Thermal runaway poses a risk of airborne and watershed contaminants that could affect humans, livestock and wildlife in a 5-mile radius.

Currently there are no known proposals for data centers in Howard County but that can change quickly with a single developer announcement. Developers often approach landowners with lucrative lease agreements, non-disclosure agreements, call secret meetings with local authorities, and zoning votes move faster than residents can organize. We need to hit pause on development so we can consider practical ordinances such as closed-loop water cooling and other sustainable practices that protect water, land and livelihoods. Our county commissioners should immediately pass a moratorium on data center and BESS development and we should all encourage a state moratorium, otherwise, every community will be preyed upon by this wholly unregulated industry.

Sincerely,

Dana Morris