Project Bluestem

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Organized local opposition to Project Bluestem in Tonganoxie, Leavenworth County, Kansas is documented in the public record, without a lawsuit on file in the sources we track. Organized local opposition.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: opposed means documented, organized local opposition is the dominant signal on record.

Organized local opposition. More than 1,000 people attended a Leavenworth County special meeting at the Tonganoxie Fairgrounds on 2026-09-16 for neighbor input; roughly 65 residents spoke and comments were predominantly against the project. Two opposition groups are named in reporting: the Tongie Data Center Watch Dog Group and Citizens Against Bluestem. Residents previously petitioned for an 18-month moratorium on data centers, and a temporary moratorium expired in August 2026. Stated concerns include noise, energy use, water use, property values, waste heat, and the site's proximity, reported as 1 to 1.5 miles, to Tonganoxie's elementary and middle schools and a nursing home.

Source: Lawrence Journal-World

Power and water

Cloverleaf states Evergy is conducting a power study for the project and that the developer will fund any power and transmission upgrades required. The revised proposal adds an on-site gas power plant; Cloverleaf's FAQ frames on-site generation as being evaluated to supply the grid rather than the project directly, while local reporting describes the gas plant as sited near Tonganoxie's schools. On-site nuclear is explicitly not under consideration. energy.source is left unset because the grid/on-site split is unresolved in the sources.

Developer claim, not independently verified: Cloverleaf states a closed-loop cooling system requiring a one-time fill, with day-to-day water use limited to domestic purposes (sinks, toilets, kitchens, sprinklers) and comparable to a typical office building. Water use is among the concerns residents raised at the September 2026 public forum.

Notes on the record

Proposed hyperscale data center campus on the former Tailgate Ranch in unincorporated Leavenworth County, south of Tonganoxie and south of the Tonganoxie Business Park, near the Tonganoxie/Eudora interchange on I-70. Reported as roughly 1,000 acres (KSHB; the Lawrence Journal-World writes "more than 1,000 acres" and the community lead that surfaced this record claimed 1,100 acres, no source seen states 1,100, so 1,000 is recorded and the discrepancy is noted here). KSHB reports 330 acres set aside for permanent land conservation. The planned capacity recorded here is the reported ceiling: a revised proposal submitted after Leavenworth County's data center moratorium expired in August 2026 roughly doubled the project's electricity demand to "up to 1.2 gigawatts" and added an on-site gas power plant; a lower figure appears in one Journal-World reference ("600-watt data center", evidently a units error in the source) and is not used. Location precision is approximate: no source seen states coordinates, a street address or a parcel, so the pin is the Tonganoxie town centroid (OpenStreetMap/Nominatim) and the actual footprint lies some distance south of it. Cloverleaf Infrastructure, a Houston-based developer founded by former Microsoft energy executives, describes itself as a site-preparation developer that will introduce an end user later; no hyperscale tenant has been named. Cloverleaf's own site describes a "multi-billion-dollar taxable investment" but states no dollar figure, so investmentUsd is omitted. As of 2026-09-23 the project is conceptual: Cloverleaf's FAQ states no formal applications have been submitted to local jurisdictions, and the county's data center planning and zoning regulations are not finalized.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

• Crypto Colo Center McLouth Data Center (proposed), cancelled · McLouth · Crypto Colo Center Corp9 mi · Cancelled · Opposed
• Project Red Wolf · Kansas City · Red Wolf DCD Properties LLC11 mi · Proposed · 600 MW · In litigation
• Beale Project Pilot (De Soto) · De Soto · Beale Infrastructure12 mi · Under construction · Mixed reception
• TierPoint Kansas City - Lenexa · Lenexa · TierPoint21 mi · Operating
• Beale Infrastructure Gardner Campus · Gardner · Beale Infrastructure22 mi · Proposed · Opposed
• Meta Kansas City Northland · Kansas City · Meta23 mi · Operating · 750 MW · Supported
• DAMAC Digital Logistics Park Data Center · Edgerton · DAMAC Digital Solutions Kansas, LLC24 mi · Permitted · In litigation
• Project Yardbird · Kansas City · PowerTransitions24 mi · Proposed · 200 MW

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