1. Stay informed
The first step is staying current as the situation develops.
2. Spread the word
Many Webster County residents may not yet know what is being built nor the negative effects of it. Grassroots awareness matters.
- Talk with your neighbors, especially those near Rifle Range Road.
- Share this website with people who live in or near Webster County.
- Bring up the issue in conversations at work, church, school events, and community gatherings. Awareness is crucial.
3. Contact your elected officials
Elected officials respond to constituent contact. Brief, respectful, personal messages tend to be more effective than form letters.
Webster County Commission
The Commission is the most direct point of decision-making on this issue.
Missouri State Legislators
Webster County's state representative and state senator can introduce or support legislation at the state level, including statewide data center regulation.
U.S. Senators and Representative
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley has publicly raised concerns about the impact of large-scale data center development on American communities. U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt and your U.S. Representative may also be open to constituent input.
Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC)
The Missouri PSC regulates utility power agreements. Data centers require significant power, and the PSC has a role in approving how utilities serve large new loads.
Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR)
MDNR oversees water, wastewater, and air quality permits that large facilities may require.
4. Show up
Your public presence at meetings matters.
- Attend Webster County Commission meetings. Meeting schedules and agendas are published on the Webster County website.
- Watch for additional public meetings. Commissioner Dale Fraker has stated that the Commission has not ruled out further public meetings on this issue.
For residents who have never spoken at a public meeting, the general format is: arrive early, sign up to speak if there is a sign-up sheet, keep remarks brief (typically two to three minutes), state your name, and remain calm and be respectful. Public comments become part of the official record.
5. Speak publicly
A letter to the editor or a published op-ed reaches an audience well beyond any one-meeting room.
6. Call for Action
This is the most concrete legislative ask. Webster County does not currently have Planning and Zoning, which is part of why this project has moved forward as quickly as it has. There are two specific policy paths the County could take:
- Push for a Moratorium. In the short term, a one-year moratorium on large industrial development would pause the project while the kinds of independent studies that have not yet been conducted can be completed. These include acoustic modeling and on-site sound measurement; light pollution analysis; air quality and emissions assessment; a cumulative public health impact assessment for residents living near the site; broader environmental and watershed studies; and a wildlife and habitat survey of the surrounding land, which supports native species including white-tailed deer, bald eagles, and great blue herons. A moratorium would also create time to independently verify the developer's stated claims about the facility's final size, water usage, and power consumption. Residents at the May 11 meeting called publicly for this approach.
- Push for a Data Center Ordinance. On April 24, 2026, neighboring Camden County passed Ordinance 04-24-2026, which regulates the location, construction, and operation of data centers in unincorporated areas. The ordinance addresses setbacks, cooling water restrictions (prohibiting use of surface water and on-site wells for large facilities, and requiring rainwater capture), on-site power generation requirements, noise limits, and tax incentive prohibitions. Importantly, the ordinance does not require a county to have planning and zoning to enact. A Webster County data center ordinance, altered from Camden County's, would not require the Commission to invent anything from scratch. The model exists, has been debated and adopted by a neighboring Missouri county, and is publicly available. Asking the Commission to consider adopting a similar ordinance, and one tailored for Webster County as a class 3, is one of the most concrete requests a constituent can make.
Read the Camden County ordinance]
