Wheatfield
JTNWI is supporting the community in pushing back against a proposed Amazon AI data center and gas infrastructure at the NIPSCO Schahfer Generating Station coal plant, helping residents engage at public meetings and hearings, including those on NIPSCO’s rezoning petition.
About the Wheatfield Amazon Data Center
Quick Facts
Data Center Name: Unknown, expansion of existing RM Schahfer Generating Station (a $5.7 billion project)
Developer: NIPSCO as the stand-in
End-user: Evidenced to be Amazon
Size: Ultimately totaling 9 buildings across approximately 300 acres
Generation: Estimated 2,400 megawatts of purchased power from NIPSCO
Status: Proposed (construction expected to begin in 2027 and be fully operational by 2032, with the 400 megawatt peaker gas plant due to be completed in 2027 and the 2,600 megawatt combined-cycle gas plant due to be completed between 2029 and 2031)
Permits & Agreements
NIPSCO GenCo & Amazon Contract
The November 7, 2025 contract with NIPSCO GenCo, the company’s spinoff to serve the region’s data center load, pending approval by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
Rezone Petition
Rezone petition approved on February 2, 2026, by the Jasper County Commissioners.
Community Issues Spotlight
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Resource needs from the data center threaten Jasper County’s shallow aquifer water supply. The data center will be located in Wheatfield, a rural town with a population of just over 1,000 people that relies on private wells. Agriculture is the backbone of the county, with Jasper County hosting more than 600 farms, 91 of which are family farms. Fears about the proposed data center operations are validated when understanding the insatiable water consumption required to power them. A single data center can consume up to 5 million gallons of drinking water a day, enough to supply thousands of households or farms. The toll of water consumption from the proposed data center and related infastructure is a pressing concern among residents.
Numerous cautionary tales from farm country underscore these issues, like Morrow County, Oregon. There, nitrate contamination from agricultural sources was polluting the aquifer. A series of Amazon data centers began to proliferate across the area, guzzling tens of millions of gallons from that same water table for cooling. That water, mixed with toxic waste, was sprayed onto fields, driving carcinogens deep into the aquifer for 45,000 people. A former commissioner tested the wells. Of the 70 he tested, 68 were toxic, with nitrates nearly four times the federal limit. In just 30 homes, he documented 25 miscarriages and multiple cases of organ failure in people who should have been healthy. This is a tragic example of the potential for further harm to agricultural communities, like Jasper County, from data center operations.
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The threats posed by the recent rezoning for the project are magnified by the layering of existing issues at the NIPSCO RM Schahfer Generating Station, where both the new gas plants and the AI data center will be located. Schahfer is an existing coal plant, ranked among the worst coal plants in the country for greenhouse gas and toxic emissions, that was slated to decommission its coal fleet in December 2025. Then, on December 23, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) ordered the plant to continue operating its remaining two coal units (Units 17 and 18) under the 202(c) federal emergency orders, brought on by the artificial intelligence (AI) demand, through March 2026 and was just renewed for another 90 days until June 21, 2026. According to NIPSCO, Unit 18 is broken and cannot operate without “substantial expenditures.” With this extension, these units are projected to require about $34 million in maintenance and environmental upgrade costs, which NIPSCO ratepayers will shoulder. The orders are actively being challenged, including by JTNWI.
There is also a looming danger posed by the contamination of coal ash waste at the site, the byproduct left over from burning coal, linked to severe health issues like asthma, kidney disease, heart disease, and cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering a new draft rule that includes NIPSCO's petition to keep its unlined, leaking coal ash pond, the 83-acre Waste Disposal Area, operational until 2031, pending approval. EPA data indicate arsenic at 6 times the safe limit and molybdenum at 76 times the limit in groundwater near NIPSCO’s ponds at Schahfer, posing a threat to private water wells and to hundreds of acres of farmland and livestock in the area. Crucial ecological areas that serve as a refuge for sandhill crane populations and other wildlife within the Kankakee and Iroquois Rivers watershed, along with Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area, are also at risk from these coal ash contaminants.
On top of the existing mess at the Schahfer Generating Station site, in addition to a new 400 megawatt peaker gas plant, NIPSCO’s proposed 2,600-megawatt combined-cycle gas (CCG) plant could worsen pollution concerns throughout the Wheatfield community. The CCG, which would specifically service the region’s data centers, is projected to emit more than 7 million tons of CO2 per year, more than double the pollution from NIPSCO's current coal plants combined, and would become one of the state’s top polluters. This signifies a dangerous trend of co-locating AI data centers next to existing polluting infrastructure. While co-location benefits NIPSCO due to the existing power plant and interconnection with the grid, it yet again poses a cumulative pollution burden on the surrounding community.
