State crews testing for groundwater have fed talk of a data center in Adair County, where fiber lines are also going in and dirt work for Ameren equipment storage at the NEMO Fairgrounds in Kirksville has drawn questions of its own.
"Well, the dirt is moving, and apparently, so is the rumor mill," the fair posted on Facebook Sept. 23.
Despite repeated swirling rumors North of Macon County, Macon County and state authorities said they have not been approached to consider a data center in Macon County.
"Macon County has not been approached by anything regarding battery storage or data centers," said County Clerk Tammy Perkins.
Adair County residents have taken their worries to their county commission. Minutes of a July 22 meeting with residents list electric use, water use, environmental discharge, zoning, nondisclosure agreements, and moratoriums among the topics. Those at the meeting decided to form a citizen-led group to follow up on "ways to stop or slow Data Centers from entering Adair County," according to the minutes.
No permit, filing, or official statement reviewed for this story shows a data center project in Adair County or near Macon County. Nondisclosure agreements, one of the July topics, can keep parties to early development talks from discussing them. No record reviewed shows that any such agreement exists.
Fiber lines
Socket Telecom, Northeast Missouri Rural Telephone, and Chariton Valley were awarded about $4.09 million in federal broadband grants for four fiber projects reaching about 1,033 locations, almost all in Adair County, according to the state's federally approved project list. One Chariton Valley project also reaches into Macon County.
Federal broadband law counts "transport connectivity to data centers" as middle-mile infrastructure, the layer of the network that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration describes as carrying "large amounts of data at high speeds over long distances."
All four Adair County projects are coded as last-mile builds, lines to homes, farms, and businesses. No record reviewed shows new middle-mile or backbone fiber into Adair or Macon County, though the public list does not break out routes and federal award terms provide for middle-mile work needed to reach the locations served.
Ameren equipment
The fair's Sept. 23 post said its dirt work had prompted "theories floating around town." Contractor Brewster Companies posted on LinkedIn in September that it was building "another laydown yard in Kirksville" for "an upcoming transmission line improvement project," naming no client or site.
The fair gave its own explanation: "Ameren UE needs a place to store vehicles and equipment while they complete a project at another location, so they'll be utilizing some of our back acreage." It added, "No mystery development. No top-secret construction project."
Ameren's documented work in the area includes its Zachary-Thomas Hill transmission segment, about 44 miles of existing line through Adair, Macon, and Randolph counties, to be rebuilt as a double circuit carrying 345 and 161 kilovolts. The project grew out of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator's long-range regional transmission plan, and the Missouri Public Service Commission approved the route July 16, 2025. Ameren expects construction to begin in 2027; Adair County commission minutes from February put the segment's Adair County work in 2028.
Water testing
Helicopter surveys and test drilling for a Missouri Department of Natural Resources aquifer study have stirred curiosity among some residents and concern among others, groundwater section chief Scott Kaden said in a July 28 department release. "Data centers have been in the news, and there have been some rumors spread online our work for this aquifer study is part of a data center development," Kaden said.
In Knox County, northeast of Macon County, residents worried the data could be used to evaluate data center sites after the department drilled a test well a quarter mile from a substation without first notifying county commissioners, NEMOnews reported Aug. 6.
The department says the study aims to find groundwater to carry Northeast Missouri through drought, including for livestock, and continues work begun in the 1950s.
The study is coming to Macon County. The Missouri Geological Survey drilled five test holes in Macon and Shelby counties in July and August, the department's Water Resources Center said Thursday. Helicopter surveys for the final phase, in Macon, Shelby, and Marion counties, are expected in fall 2028 if money is available, with Macon-area maps expected in fall 2029. Commissioners in those counties will be contacted personally before work begins, the center said.
Local rules
The Adair County Commission passed Resolution 2026-1 on Sept. 1, declaring its intent to review rules for "large-scale facility developments." The resolution cites increased national interest in data centers and renewable energy projects, says the county "currently has no zoning regulations" for such facilities, and names no project.
Residents at the July 22 meeting brought examples of moratoriums and zoning from other counties, and the commission asked the city water department whether resources would even be available for a data center, Adair County Presiding Commissioner Mark Shahan told KTVO for a July 23 report.
"If somebody sold their land to do that right now, we wouldn't be able to do anything about it," Shahan said. He said the county would put zoning on the ballot, and pay for the election, if enough residents wanted it.
Kirksville's draft rules would confine data centers inside the city to a 4-acre M-2 industrial zone and ban local tax incentives, KTVO reported Tuesday. The city council plans a study session Oct. 19; action is not expected before its Oct. 26 meeting.
Possible Macon County effects
Macon County has no planning or zoning and has not put zoning on the ballot, County Clerk Tammy Perkins wrote Wednesday.
A 2025 state law requires electric utilities regulated by the Public Service Commission to set large-load rates so other customers do not pay a big user's costs. The commission lists three such utilities: Ameren Missouri, Evergy, and Liberty. Macon Municipal Utilities, which gets its power through the Missouri Public Energy Pool, and rural cooperatives such as Macon Electric Cooperative, which serves parts of Adair and Macon counties, are not among them.
Under Montgomery County's incentive deal for a Google data center, payments in lieu of taxes go to taxing jurisdictions in that county, KOMU reported in June.
Missouri law does not restrict water use as long as the use is reasonable, the Department of Natural Resources says, though facilities able to withdraw 100,000 gallons a day must register and report. The department does not regulate noise, which is usually left to local governments.
The Ameren rebuild will cross Macon County whether or not a data center comes.
On the record
Kaden said in the July 28 release that the aquifer study "is not the result of a data center request."
Andrew Sheeley, a division information officer for the department, sent the Water Resources Center's answers Thursday: "Currently, we have not had any data centers register as a Major Water User." The center, which does not issue air, water, or waste permits, said major water users report the previous year's use each January through March.
In Kirksville, "no data centers have tried to move to town yet," KTVO reported Tuesday.
Macon County Presiding Commissioner Dean Still and Associate Commissioners Matt Shoemaker and Jeff McLin were asked by email Thursday whether the county had ever been approached about a data center site, what a project in Adair County could mean for Macon County, and whether the commission had discussed the Ameren rebuild.
Chariton Media Group did not receive a response in time for publication.