Project Cumulus data center, St. Charles County, Missouri

Project Cumulus was a data center proposed by the developers Clayco and CRG on 440 acres near Elm Point Road and Route 370 in St. Charles, St. Charles County, Missouri, on top of the Elm Point well field that supplies the city's drinking water. The developer withdrew the project after public pushback, and on May 19, 2026, the St. Charles City Council voted 7 to 1 to ban data centers anywhere in the city, making permanent a one-year moratorium adopted in fall 2025.

The city's seven wells can produce more than six million gallons a day, but four have been shut down, two of them in 2022 after chemicals from nearby properties leaked into the groundwater, and the Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing the cleanup. The end user was never named, described only as a Fortune 100 company, in what project officials called a $1 billion deal. Project spokesperson Korb Maxwell said: "This is the new base of the economy."

Scott Stratton-Henderson, a neighboring resident and Lindenwood University student, started an online petition in August 2025 that gathered more than 5,000 signatures inside a week, raising concerns over diesel stored on the site, flooding and runoff, generator noise, emissions, light and traffic. "Everyone is under a non-disclosure agreement. There is just so much risk as opposed to reward around this project," he said.

The county's Planning and Zoning Commission had partly recommended the project for approval on July 14, 2025, but denied the permit needed to store diesel fuel near the wells.

The St. Charles City Council was set to decide on August 19, 2025, whether to grant that conditional use permit for diesel storage and well-treatment chemicals; the developer withdrew before a vote happened. Ward 3 councilman Vince Ratchford called the May 2026 ban "a straightforward step that closes a gap in the code and provides clarity for residents, staff, and applicants." Stratton-Henderson went on to found a nonprofit on accountability, transparency and integrity in the city.