Protect Kansas

Protect Kansas Visit Protectkansas.org

Protect Kansas is a non-partisan coalition in Shawnee County fighting for protections for the people over profit, including against hyperscale data centers and BESS.

A HYPERSCALE DATA CENTER AND A RARE EARTH EXTRACTION FACILITY - WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH 2 ENVIRONMENTAL & PUBLIC HEALTH...
10/19/2026

A HYPERSCALE DATA CENTER AND A RARE EARTH EXTRACTION FACILITY - WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH 2 ENVIRONMENTAL & PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARDS IN ONE LOCATION??

In a short amount of time we’ve discovered plans for: a 60-80 acre, 150+ megawatt hyperscale data center AND the Great Plains Defense Autonomy Hub which contains 4 buildings: e-waste recycling (20,000 sq. ft); rare earths processing center (35,000 sq. ft); magnet production (tbd); electric motor plant (50,000 sq. ft).

We don’t need even more negative impact in an area that is already environmentally stressed from the industry that’s there. And if this all seems far away and not in your neighborhood, keep in mind that the most dangerous particulate matter air pollution is known to travel up to 30 miles.

If you have concerns, the MTAA president will be at the Oakland Community Center tonight, Monday, October 19th at 6:30pm to answer your questions about both this and the hyperscale data center proposal. We’ll be there, so come join us.

The MTAA will also be having their monthly board meeting this Tuesday, October 20th at 2:30pm. This is the perfect opportunity to let those in power there know that the people do not want this. There is the option to provide public comment - to do so, you must email your request to [email protected] 24 hours or more prior to the meeting (so before Monday, October 19th at 2:30pm). If you’d like to attend virtually, please use that same email address to request a Teams link.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GREAT PLAINS DEFENSE AUTONOMY HUB? We don’t have much information yet, but here is what we do know b...
10/18/2026

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GREAT PLAINS DEFENSE AUTONOMY HUB? We don’t have much information yet, but here is what we do know based on reviewing the past 4 months of MTAA meetings and the recent KSNT article where the MTAA President was interviewed:

1. This Great Plains Defense Autonomy Hub is a separate project from the hyperscale data center that was proposed by the MTAA at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but both would be near Forbes Field/Topeka Regional Airport.

2. The Great Plains Defense Autonomy Hub is described as 4 buildings: e-waste recycling (20,000 sq. ft); rare earths processing center (35,000 sq. ft); magnet production (tbd); electric motor plant (50,000 sq. ft)

3. MTAA slides say the facility will be exempt from property tax and will attract state and local incentives. It’s also part of a Federal Opportunity Zone. According to the Missouri Department of Economic Development: “Opportunity Zones (OZs) are federally designated, economically distressed census tracts that attract private investment through capital-gains tax incentives.”

4. According to the MTAA’s president, this facility will “extract rare earths from coal dust produced by coal power plants.”

Those are the facts - or at least what the MTAA has said publicly so far.

Here are some more facts: Rare earth elements extraction and e-waste disposal have the capacity to cause significant environmental harms as well as negative health effects for both the workers and nearby residents.

And in case you want to bring it back to our favorite subject, rare earth elements are also necessary for the huge data center boom we’re seeing, because so many computer and server components contain these minerals.

If you have concerns, the MTAA president will be at the Oakland Community Center tomorrow, Monday October 19th at 6:30pm to answer your questions about both this and the hyperscale data center proposal. We’ll be there, so come join us.

The MTAA will also be having their monthly board meeting this Tuesday, October 20th at 2:30pm. This is the perfect opportunity to let those in power there know that the people here do not want this. There is the option to provide public comment - to do so, you must email your request to [email protected] 24 hours or more prior to the meeting.

Sources:
https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/is-a-rare-earths-extraction-facility-coming-to-topeka/
https://ded.mo.gov/programs/business-community/opportunity-zones
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12940-025-01178-3
https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/key-minerals-data-centers-infographic

HOW ABOUT A RARE EARTH EXTRACTION FACILITY RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR MTAA DATA CENTER? Because apparently a hyperscale campus w...
10/17/2026

HOW ABOUT A RARE EARTH EXTRACTION FACILITY RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR MTAA DATA CENTER? Because apparently a hyperscale campus wasn’t bad enough…

When reviewing MTAA presentations from the last few months for more information on the data center, we spotted another curious proposal: the “Great Plains Defense Autonomy Hub.” Details are scare, but there are plans for 4 buildings, one each handling: magnet production; e-waste-recycling; motor production (for drones and autonomous weapons); and rare earth extraction.

There’s even less information given than for the hyperscale facility, but here’s what we do see loud and clear: EXEMPT FROM PROPERTY TAX. LOCAL AND STATE INCENTIVE PROGRAMS. FEDERAL OPPORTUNITY ZONE. Whatever this monstrosity is, it certainly won’t be paying its fair share.

We’ll go into why this would be such an environmental disaster in another post, but you can do a quick Google search for the effects of rare earth extraction to get a preview. And we’re not the only ones on this - KSNT was asking questions too:

https://www.ksnt.com/news/local-news/is-a-rare-earths-extraction-facility-coming-to-topeka/

There are two events coming up this next week where you can voice your opinions about this Great Plains Defense Autonomy Hub AND the hyperscale data center being proposed: Monday night at 6:30pm at the Oakland Community Center and Tuesday at 2:30pm at the monthly MTAA board meeting. We’ll post full details about each of these events tomorrow along with how to make an official public comment at the Tuesday meeting. These projects would not be under discussion now if there hadn’t been significant public pressure. We might not even be finding out until ground was broken. So keep pressing…who knows what else we’ll find?

TUESDAY NIGHT, THE MTAA CONFIRMED THEY’VE SIGNED A LETTER OF INTENT WITH THE DATA CENTER DEVELOPER - during the MTAA’s C...
10/16/2026

TUESDAY NIGHT, THE MTAA CONFIRMED THEY’VE SIGNED A LETTER OF INTENT WITH THE DATA CENTER DEVELOPER - during the MTAA’s City Council presentation, we were told that a “concerned citizen” had put in a KORA (Kansas Open Records Act) request for this letter of intent. We figured you were all concerned citizens too, so it’s only fair everyone gets to take a look.

Back in August, the MTAA signed this letter and according to a slide in their presentation: “MTAA has committed to negotiate a ground lease with the Developer.”

COMMITTED. Letter of intent. How exactly do these speak to a project that isn’t far enough along to share any details? If the MTAA is committing to projects they have no concrete information about, what does that say about their judgement?

The MTAA will be having their monthly board meeting this Tuesday, October 20th at 2:30pm. This is the perfect opportunity to let those in power there know that the people here do not want this. There is the option to provide public comment - to do so, you must email your request to [email protected] 24 hours or more prior to the meeting.

If you missed Tuesday night’s City Council presentation, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhFMMEle-RQ&t=2621s

THANK YOU TO THE TOPEKA CITY COUNCIL! Once again this past Tuesday, our City Council was faced with a presentation about...
10/15/2026

THANK YOU TO THE TOPEKA CITY COUNCIL! Once again this past Tuesday, our City Council was faced with a presentation about a new data center, and they stood up for what the people want.

Despite torrential rain, a crowd gathered there Tuesday night to say NO, and our representatives served as their voice. We heard about street flooding, basements filled with water, and I, too, got delayed by the storm. My plan to drive straight to City Council after doing a data center talk that evening in Johnson County didn’t seem so wise anymore when I had to pull off the road in Lawrence because of the rain. We greatly appreciate the quick work of the city employee(s) who made it possible for multiple people who couldn’t attend to give their public comments over Zoom.

If you liked what you heard on Tuesday, please consider sending a note of support to the City Council. They hear from us all the time when we’re making requests, but it’s also important to express gratitude for a governing body that listens to its constituents and truly represents their interests. Thank you.

Write your representatives here:
[email protected]
[email protected]

10/13/2026

IS THIS THE FUTURE YOU WANT FOR OUR CITY? Come on down to City Council tonight and let your representatives know that you do NOT want this!

TONIGHT - TOPEKA CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY OCTOBER 13th at 6:00pm
214 SE 8th AVE
Presentations will be given on the MTAA data center AND Island Annexation

Sign up for public comment in advance by emailing [email protected] before 5pm today. You can also give public comment over Zoom!

Send public comment to:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

TONIGHT AT CITY COUNCIL, THE MTAA PRESENTS THEIR DATA CENTER PLAN…and your council members need to know how you feel abo...
10/13/2026

TONIGHT AT CITY COUNCIL, THE MTAA PRESENTS THEIR DATA CENTER PLAN…and your council members need to know how you feel about it.

They need to know that you don’t appreciate this getting pitched as a small 30-40 acre “tech center” when a doubling of that plan is already in the works. Doubling that brings it to the size of over 60 football fields.

They need to know that this will not be a 70 megawatt facility but rather a 140 megawatt one because of the expansion. A hyperscale data center.

They also need to know your concerns about the cumulative effect of these sites. We know about 2 in the works now that total 740 megawatts and close to 700 acres. What about the rest of the 5 data centers we were told are in the pipeline?

The other major topic on the agenda tonight is “Island Annexation.” This is the term for the chunks of land the city annexes that are not contiguous to city limits. In data centers terms: certain city officials have expressed interest in annexing the Compass Datacenters site and the MTAA site is up for discussion as well. Why do the data centers want this? The city has the water. They control the water supply, and getting water + sewer service directly from the city is much cheaper & easier than using a rural water district. Tell the city you do NOT want any land annexed into city limits for a data center, and you do NOT want city water or sewer service extended to a data center. (You can also tell them you want a ban on hyperscale data centers within city limits - we’re not going to stop you 😏 )

The more people that show up and send emails, the more our message gets across. There’s some cynical folks out there who will say that there’s nothing that can be done, but we’re slowly piling up small wins. When you’re fighting giants, that’s the way you have to begin. I think we’re ready for some bigger ones…

TONIGHT - TOPEKA CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY OCTOBER 13th at 6:00pm
214 SE 8th AVE (TPAC Building)
Presentations will be given on the MTAA data center AND Island Annexation

Sign up for public comment in advance by emailing [email protected] before 3pm today

Send public comment to:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES OF AN MTAA DATA CENTER!! In this morning’s Topeka Capital Journal, the MTAA outlined their pla...
10/12/2026

IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES OF AN MTAA DATA CENTER!! In this morning’s Topeka Capital Journal, the MTAA outlined their plans for a hyperscale data center near Forbes Field:

https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2026/10/12/see-details-of-a-proposed-data-center-at-topekas-forbes-field/92105012007/

There are two important meetings coming up this week where you should take the opportunity to make your voice heard about whether you want another one of these in our area:

TONIGHT - SHAWNEE COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION
MONDAY OCTOBER 12th at 6:00pm
1515 NW Saline St.

Sign up for public comment when you arrive
Send public comment to: [email protected]

TOMORROW - TOPEKA CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY OCTOBER 13th at 6:00pm
214 E. 8th St.
Presentations will be given on the MTAA data center AND Island Annexation

Sign up for public comment in advance by emailing [email protected] before 3pm tomorrow
Send public comment to:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

IT’S OKAY EVERYONE! IT’S ONLY AN MTAA DATE CENTER!! We were really concerned there for a while, but looks like they’ve o...
10/11/2026

IT’S OKAY EVERYONE! IT’S ONLY AN MTAA DATE CENTER!! We were really concerned there for a while, but looks like they’ve only signed a LETTER OF INTENT with a date center developer. Wait a second….why does that second sentence say DATA CENTER??

Not date center (although a date center by the airport sounds intriguing…). Not a “tech center.” A hyperscale data center.

And why are county officials meeting with data center developers when we’re in the midst of a moratorium? Have they made any efforts to meet with citizens to address their concerns beyond the constraints of public comment where we’re given a strict time limit and no level of interaction or discussion whatsoever?

This MTAA site crosses the murky city/county boundaries much like the Compass Datacenters site - and there’s talk of annexation potential for both - so rightfully, both governing bodies should be hearing from you. The City Council has been kind enough to request a presentation from the MTAA President this Tuesday along with one on annexation. What about the county? Have they told us what other data centers are in the works yet? Have they even acknowledged any details of this MTAA data center?

Topeka City Council Meeting
Tuesday October 13th at 6:00pm
214 SE 8th Ave

Presentations on the MTAA hyperscale data center and Island Annexation - please sign up to comment on one or both of these issues by emailing [email protected] before 3pm on the day of the meeting

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Shawnee County Planning Commission Meeting
Monday October 12th at 6:00pm
1515 NW Saline St.
[email protected]

Address

Topeka, KS

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Protect Kansas posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category