Residents urge McPherson commissioners to ban data centers over water and grid concerns

During a lengthy public‑comment period Aug. 31, multiple township representatives and county residents urged the McPherson County commissioners to adopt a ban on data centers and similar high‑demand facilities.

A township representative described a recent electric‑grid incident tied to an AI data center in the eastern U.S. and said nearby residents experienced well problems. Trish Kinkle, who said she gathered roughly 120 petition signatures, told commissioners the community felt like a "rural sacrifice zone" and asked them to "honor all those voices in all of our communities in McPherson County." Diane Fraser and other speakers raised concerns about broken promises from companies, noise, ephemeral employment and litigation risk after facilities are built.

Several speakers raised technical concerns. Vaughn Peterson cautioned about PFAS and closed‑loop cooling systems, and called for a countywide ban. The planning and zoning chair, Kathy Nicholson, told the board the planning board "did vote to ban the data centers" and emphasized the board’s intent while noting it was not yet prepared to craft detailed regulatory hearings for special uses.

Commissioners said they had received extensive written comments and that staff had collected documents for review. The board later adopted zoning changes that explicitly prohibit data centers and utility‑scale battery storage in the county model code.