Rural landowners south of Maryville continue asking questions about Evergy's new power plant and oppose a proposed data center.
Click the LISTEN button to hear comments from two rural landowners speaking with KXCV-KRNW's Micah Stolley.
Tony and Nina Wilmes own an over 20 year old farm where they rent out 60 acres of farmland to nearby farmers to rotate crops each year. Wilmes' farm also contains a recreation area with a pond that has been used for community events and also won the Outstanding Cooperator Award from the Nodaway County Soil and Water Conservation District in 1999. Their land borders the Evergy Mullin Creek Natural Gas Plant off of Highway 71 and is across the road from where the proposed data center would be. Wilmes raised concerns that this will not only affect crops, but livestock as well. Cattle farmers near data centers have claimed noise from data centers can cause stillbirths in cows, but no evidence proving these claims have been published. Wilmes is concerned heat generated by the power plant will also affect crop production. Wilmes is also concerned about the quality of water coming from the power plant that will drain into a creek on his land. And he wants to know how sewage from the power plant will be addressed.
Susie Strauch owns a cattle farm next to the land where the proposed data center will be. Strauch’s family has had farmland around Maryville since the 1940s but has continued gathering land since then. She said seeing the land utilized for data centers upsets her, and she has raised repeated concern regarding the data center being built at Nodaway County Commission meetings. She said a data center could devalue resident’s land and could lead to increased water and noise pollutants. She raised specific concern about light pollution, which could impact how cows produce milk. Strauch said many residents by the data center are unsure of what their next move should be, pointing out "You don't have any options, you just put up with it". Strauch tells those to tell landowners to "Just sell out, that's not an option for people who have lived here all their lives."