Lowell residents are taking the fight to court to stop the unchecked expansion of a data center that has grown between their homes, parks, and community spaces. Photo: Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic.
Since 2015, residents of Lowell’s Sacred Heart and Back Central neighborhoods have lived alongside a rapidly expanding data center owned by the Markley Group. What began as a repurposed pasta factory has grown into a sprawling 352,000-square-foot industrial facility wedged between homes, parks, and community spaces.
Residents raised concerns from the beginning. Again and again, those concerns were dismissed.
Now, as Markley pushes to expand even further, residents are taking the fight to court. In late April, Conservation Law Foundation, Yale’s Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic, and Fitch Law Partners filed suit on behalf of Lowell residents – Massachusetts’ first lawsuit challenging a data center expansion.
The lawsuit challenges an air permit the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) unlawfully granted to Markley – a permit that would allow more diesel pollution in neighborhoods already enduring poor air quality.
This is an important step forward in getting the respect our neighborhood has not had for the past 11 years. Residents have been living with the noise, fumes, dust, and traffic from this facility for too long, and we deserve a real say in what happens next.
A Data Center Looms Over the Neighborhood
Data centers store and process the digital information behind websites, apps, cloud services, and artificial intelligence tools. By design, these facilities are resource-hungry: rows of computer servers run 24 hours a day, consuming enormous amounts of power, as well as water for cooling systems. To guarantee uninterrupted data services for their customers, many data centers install behind-the-meter diesel backup generators to protect against disruptions in grid-supplied power.
In Lowell, as the facility has grown, industrial power and cooling equipment has crept up against homes, a public park, and the Cardinal O’Connell Early Learning Center – in some cases less than 100 feet from people’s front doors.
What’s at Stake for Lowell?
Residents describe the toll of living that close – diesel fumes, cooling tower mist settling on homes and cars, and noise loud enough to wake people from sleep – and worry it will only get worse.
The disputed expansion would allow Markley to operate 27 industrial diesel backup generators and 16 cooling towers. The permit authorizes up to 3,276 tons of climate-damaging pollution each year – roughly equal to the annual emissions from powering 749 U.S. homes.
Residents fear the expansion will only pile onto burdens they have already fought for too long. Sacred Heart and Back Central already shoulder disproportionate pollution and public health problems – so much so that Massachusetts has designated both as environmental justice communities. The area ranks among the most polluted in the country for nitrogen oxide – a pollutant released by burning diesel. More than one in 10 adults here have asthma.
“This community has shown remarkable persistence in the face of consistent pollution, noise, dust, odors, and traffic right outside their homes,” said Alex St. Pierre, CLF vice president for environmental justice. “They deserve to be heard and respected, and CLF is proud to work alongside them.”
That persistence has taken shape through Honest Future for Lowell, a grassroots group organized by residents. The group receives training, resources, and organizing support from Slingshot, which works with communities most affected by environmental pollution.
Residents Demand a Fair Say in the Process
Residents challenged the air permit from the start. But while their administrative appeal was still pending and the permit was on hold, they noticed construction underway. After pressing the company for answers, residents discovered that state regulators had quietly entered into a separate agreement with Markley without notice to residents or the public.
That side agreement, signed in September 2025 between environmental regulators and Markley, allowed Markley to install and operate the disputed equipment before the permit was final. After residents demanded that Markley cease and desist the unpermitted installations, the department dismissed the community’s appeal without giving residents a chance to present their evidence. The department’s dismissal asserted that residents – despite living at the data center’s fenceline – lack legal standing to challenge the air permit, and that the side agreement could not be appealed.
In the lawsuit, the residents argue that MassDEP unlawfully approved the permit, failed to address their concerns, and unlawfully dismissed their appeal without the required evidentiary hearing. The lawsuit also challenges the side agreement that let Markley build before it had a final permit.
“Sacred Heart residents have had their lives upended by the expansion of Markley’s data center while being repeatedly denied their right to meaningfully engage with decision-makers and to be heard on their claims,” said Patrick Flynn, a summer legal fellow with the Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic. “This lawsuit is about vindicating those rights.”
On July 29, the Yale Clinic and counsel team appeared before a superior court judge to argue for a pause of construction and operation of the disputed equipment while the lawsuit moves forward. The judge is considering the request.
We didn’t choose this fight – it was forced on us. The noise shaking my house day and night, the dust and soot covering everything I own, and the trees dying in my yard left me no choice but to stand up. We may not have chosen this fight, but we did choose this neighborhood – and we’re not willing to give it up.
Data Centers Can’t Be Allowed to Grow Unchecked
Residents aren’t just fighting a data center. They are fighting a process that let Markley’s expansion move forward before their concerns were ever heard – and that matters for communities everywhere that want a say in what gets built where they live. This case is about holding data centers to real standards.
How will their energy demands affect our electric grid and energy bills? What impacts could they have on air quality, public health, and property values – especially in neighborhoods that already face higher health burdens? And, if allowed to move forward, how should a data center offset those impacts?
These questions cannot be answered behind closed doors. They must be answered with residents at the table.
“I’ve been struck by how far the department strayed from what the state itself promised environmental justice communities,” said Augusto Colin, a summer legal fellow with the Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic. “Massachusetts became a national leader in 2024 when it adopted rules requiring regulators to weigh cumulative pollution burdens before approving new sources. That analysis was never done here, even as Markley kept adding new pollution sources year after year. It’s hard to square that gap with the Commonwealth’s own commitments.”
Lowell residents have already pushed this issue into the public spotlight. In March 2026, the Lowell City Council adopted a one-year moratorium on new data center construction and expansion while the city studies the industry’s impacts. The first of its kind in the nation, the moratorium has already been subject to legal challenge by Markley.
Across New England, Communities Are Paying Close Attention
Lowell is an early test for Massachusetts. As data centers expand, other communities may face similar questions about energy use, pollution, pressure on the electric grid, and whether residents will have a voice before projects move forward.
Those questions are already moving to the State House. After Massachusetts approved a 20-year break on sales taxes for data centers, CLF pushed regulators to require what the rules left out: disclosure of how much energy and water these facilities use, and clear monitoring of their impact on the grid and nearby neighborhoods. In June, Gov. Maura Healey paused new applications for that tax incentive until stronger protections are in place, underscoring the need for guardrails that protect ratepayers, public health, and the environment.
That precedent could matter well beyond Massachusetts. Across New England, communities and lawmakers are already grappling with how to keep data centers from growing without basic guardrails. In Vermont, lawmakers passed H.727, which would have been one of the nation’s strongest data center laws. Despite support from residents and lawmakers across party lines, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill, and the legislature fell short of an override. But the fight there is far from over.
Data centers may be part of our digital future. But they should not grow behind residents’ backs or at the expense of people’s health, wallets, or quality of life. As this industry continues to grow, CLF will keep working to protect community voices and hold developers and regulators accountable.
