Montgomery County, located in east-central Missouri, could soon become home to two massive data centers and add about 150 new jobs to the area.
They include Amazon’s “Project Green” and another called “Project Spade.”
County Commissioner Doug Lensing told Missourinet that the Missouri Department of Economic Development first approached the county a couple of years ago and even provided a grant to study the proposal.
“We have Norfolk Southern Railroad running through this site,” said Lensing. “We’ve got I-70 running through the site. Highway 19 runs through the site. Two high pressure gas lines run through the site and a major transfer station for electrical power is on the site. So, it was just a perfect fit.”
Some residents worry about water use.
Lensing said that this does seem to be a hot button topic.
“Overtime the plan is to utilize retention ponds for rainwater capture to also supplement the water usage,” said Lensing. “So, the load on the aquifer appears to be within a large margin of safety.”
Other residents have raised concerns that their utility bills might increase because of the enormous energy these data centers will use.
Lensing told Missourinet that there are safeguards put in place from the Missouri Public Service Commission for large energy load users.
“They require them to give a maximum amount of power necessary, and they start charging them for that, whether they’re using it or not,” said Lensing. “They also require the large load users to build out all the infrastructure necessary to service their facility. I think they put some guardrails in to try to hold the line on how much it would affect rates.”
If approved, the data centers would span more than 1,700 acres near the I‑70/Highway 19 interchange in Montgomery County.
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