HARMONY Minn. — The City Council agreed to review a plan by the dominant rural electricity utility in southeast Minnesota, MiEnergy, to build a multi-million project on the city outskirts. The MiEnergy project suddenly jumped from being an obscure City Council agenda item to scaring the bejeebees out of just about everybody. Although benignly labeled as a “data center” by MiEnergy, the project is for a plant that would draw massive quantities of ground water to cool banks and banks of large-scale computers that sort online data from all over the Globe. Alarm spread immediately as it was realized that the plant would draw water from bedrock aquifers on which farmers depend. An unanswered and troubling question: Although super-heated water would be discharged back to the aquifer, would the plant’s need become insatiable? Would the process chemically change the water? Also, these data mines require massive amounts of electricity: Long term would this mean displacing more agricultural acreage with solar farms and turbine farms? Big picture: Was a southeast Minnesota’s way of life way be at stake? Concern deepened when state-level environmental organizations revealed that global computing giants Google, Meta, Facebook and others were behind data mine projects all over Minnesota. These mega-players promised construction jobs to build the plants. But what then? Wouldn’t ongoing payrolls to operate the plants be relatively minor?
The immediate issue: Zoning
After scoping acreage outside Harmony for a data mine, the Rushford-based MiEnergy Co-op settled on a 60-acre a farm owned by Jeff and Barb Soma outside the Harmony city limits. The Somas wanted to sell, but the deal would require rezoning the farm for industrial use. The Township Board agreed on conditony that the City of Harmony would pay a $6,000 transacinon fee. Hence the issue went before the Harmony City Council. Responding to public clamor, the city’s Economic Development Authority scheduled a townhall meeting for MiEergy and its partner Dairyland Power to explain the project and take public questions. Time: October at 6 p.m. at the Harmony Community Center 225 Thirrd Avenue Southwest. The Board postes a proforma notice for the townhallbut created no link for interim open dialogue online.
Presenters: Brian Krambeer, chef executive at MiEnergy; Kenty Whitcomb, a vice president at Dairyland; and Chris Giesen, economic development manager at CDairyland. After a 30-minute presentation there will a Q&A although it will be cut off after 30 minutes.
City Council members: Steve Donney, mayor; Jesse Grabau, Keith McIntosh; Tara Morem; Kyle Scheevel.
Economic Development Authority: Kerry Kingsley, president; Kyle Scheevel; Stuart Morem; Greg Schieber; Keith McIntosh.
MiEnergy service area. Straddles Minnesota-Iowa border.
Demograhics
Fillmore County: 21,200 people.
City of Harmony: 1,020.
Harmony Township: 294.
Inexhaustible aquifers? Dark rust denotes the porous karst bedrock of the Mount Simon-Hinckley aquifer and the St. Peter-Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer system. The aquifers historically have provided significant groundwater for agriculture. Management concerns include water level declines. Image: Minnesota Natural Resources Department