Residents urge pause on proposed Cloverleaf 'mega' data center, citing water, noise and tax concerns

At a Tonganoxie City Council meeting, residents urged the council to support a pause on approval of a proposed Cloverleaf mega data center, citing worries about water use, noise and state tax incentives that they say drew the project to the area.

"Our group, the Tonganoxie data center watchdog group, is concerned clearly about the mega data center," a resident who identified the group told the council, noting that the county—rather than the city—initially brought the project to the community and that Kansas Senate Bill 98 provides long tax abatements the speakers said attract large data-center developers.

Ed Irvine, who said he does not live inside the city, urged officials to consider the Tonganoxie Sands aquifer as a shared resource and cautioned that available public data on the aquifer’s volume are limited. "The Tonganoxie Sands is a very good source of water," Irvine said, and asked the council to ensure county decisionmakers hear the community's concerns.

Another commenter, D. Carlos, described concerns about tonal noise and infrasound from backup generators, HVAC and electrical infrastructure, saying such sound can be felt even when it is not heard and citing potential effects on sleep, cardiovascular health and livestock. "Tonal noise is less than 50 hertz ... humans do not hear tonal noise, they feel it," Carlos said, and urged the council to take the petition seriously.

Speakers presented an approximately 400-signature petition collected in four days and asked the council to request an 18-month moratorium to allow independent studies of water, noise, energy and infrastructure impacts. One petitioner said the Leavenworth County Board of Commissioners had placed a 90-day moratorium on the project.

Leavenworth County Commissioner Mr. Steven addressed the meeting and encouraged the council to respond to local opposition. He said project representatives have told local officials the state incentives were central to their decision to consider Kansas. "Without Senate Bill 98... they would not even consider coming to Kansas," he quoted Aaron Belaloo, the Cloverleaf project manager, as saying.

City Manager Mr. Brackovich answered resident questions about water, saying the city operates two wells (both more than 100 years old) but buys the majority of its water via transmission from a Kansas City utility. He said the city’s total capacity is being used at just under 30 percent and that, by the specifications the city has seen for a project like this, "if it came on tomorrow it'd move us to just over 30%," which he characterized as not a significant impact.

The public comments and petition request did not produce a city vote at the meeting. Several speakers and the commissioner encouraged residents to bring technical concerns to the county commission and to await further study and proposed ordinances from staff.

The council continued other business and did not take formal action on the data-center petition at this meeting.