St. Charles City Council’s recent decision to enact a one-year moratorium on data center development within city limits and the Elm Point well field district is a commendable step toward protecting public health and environmental integrity. But let us be clear: a temporary pause is not a solution. It is a warning bell — and one that must be answered with permanent protections and expanded safeguards for the entire 100-year floodplain.

Project Cumulus, the proposed data center development within the Confluence floodplain, exemplifies the kind of short-sighted industrial expansion that threatens our region’s ecological health, water safety, and flood resilience.

Located less than a mile from our Jay Henges Wetland Education and Conservation Center, the project could introduce hazardous s

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