Clinic Advocates Against Data Center Expansion in Massachusetts City
A coalition of Lowell, Massachusetts residents represented by the Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School has earned a major legislative victory in their struggle to secure protections against the impacts of commercial data centers on their community. On March 10, the Lowell City Council adopted a temporary moratorium on new construction and development of data centers in the city. The community group Honest Future for Lowell championed the measure, which was adopted into law on Tuesday by a 10-0 vote.
The moratorium, the first of its kind in Massachusetts, goes into effect immediately, halting any new data center development in Lowell for one year.
“This is a historic vote for the residents of the Sacred Heart neighborhood,” said Jacob Fortes, a member of Honest Future for Lowell who lives at the fenceline of a 352,000-square-foot data center operated by the Markey Group, LLC. “For too long the City of Lowell ignored our concerns and let this company do whatever they wanted to the detriment of the neighborhood.”
This moratorium vote comes amid mounting controversy about data center development in Lowell and throughout the country. A decade ago, the Markley Group converted a former Prince Pasta factory in Lowell’s Sacred Heart neighborhood, a state-designated Environmental Justice community, into the city’s first major data center. Unlike data centers proliferating across rural America, this one sits beside residential homes, a park and ballfield, a public preschool, and other community facilities.
Data centers require high levels of electricity — so much so that they often install industrial diesel generators to sustain operations when power needs cannot be met by the grid. In Markley’s case, the facility began with seven diesel generators after opening in 2016. Since 2022, with the explosion in artificial intelligence and related demand for computing services, the Markley Group has applied for air permits to install 20 additional diesel generators and 16 cooling towers near the backyards of local residents.
“While the temporary moratorium doesn’t fix the current issues, it prevents them from getting worse by pausing the company’s efforts to expand its footprint into other properties it has acquired quietly throughout the years,” Fortes said. His house is approximately 80 feet from the nearest diesel generator at the data center.
In July 2025, the clinic, together with Boston-based Alternatives for Communities & the Environment, filed a legal challenge on behalf of Sacred Heart residents to the most recent air permit that would authorize further expansion of the data center’s operations. The appeal challenges the air permit approval by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection — the state agency charged with oversight of air pollutant emissions — that would allow Markley to install eight new diesel generators at the site and operate a total of 27 generators along with the 16 cooling towers to support burgeoning computing services at the facility. The appeal is being heard by the department’s Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution.
“Sacred Heart residents have been organizing for years to defend their community from Markley’s encroachment,” said Maya Nitschke Alonso ‘28, a member of the clinic team representing Honest Future for Lowell. “The city moratorium was a crucial first win. Now, as the appeal progresses, we are building momentum from our clients’ successful local advocacy to ensure that state-level decisionmakers do their part to protect Lowell residents from pollution.”
The appeal alleges that Sacred Heart residents will be injured by the proposed facility expansion because the plan “will increase diesel particulate matter emissions, degrading localized air quality in the vicinity of their homes; increase noise and dust pollution already experienced by Residents from Facility operations; and compound existing environmental burdens in the State-designated Environmental Justice (EJ) community in which members of Honest Future for Lowell reside.” Among other issues, the appeal asserts that MassDEP failed to properly consult local communities in approving the new generators, did not conduct the required impact analysis for the generators and cooling towers, and evaded requirements to consider alternative, less-polluting sources of energy.
In November, the clinic filed a brief in opposition to motions by the department and Markley to dispose of the appeal. The brief points to dangerous air contaminants — like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter — emitted by the diesel generators, the “near-constant sound” from facility equipment severe enough that it disrupts residents’ sleep, and mist emitted by the cooling towers that coats residents’ homes and cars. A recommended final decision on the appeal is pending before the department commissioner.
The clinic, on behalf of Honest Future for Lowell and with co-counsel Conservation Law Foundation, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Markley and the department on Feb. 13, 2025, directing them to immediately suspend what appeared to be construction of new diesel generators halted by the pending appeal. According to the letter, after residents raised concerns in January with unpermitted construction by Markley, the company provided residents with a copy of an Administrative Consent Order dated September 2025 between Markley and the department that purports to authorize operation of all 27 diesel generators while the appeal is pending.
The cease-and-desist letter asserts that the Administrative Consent Order “exceeds [the department’s] authority and subverts regulatory protections intended to ensure that construction of the challenged project is not undertaken while [the clinic’s] clients’ challenge is being heard.” According to the letter, Honest Future for Lowell and its members were never notified of nor asked to consent to the order despite its direct implications for the pending appeal.
The cease-and-desist letter has not stopped construction at Markley’s data center in the Sacred Heart neighborhood. “Markley continues to add equipment emitting noise and pollution into the neighborhood, even though we have told regulators this construction is outside the scope of Markley’s plan approvals,” said Fortes. “In 2025 when the company was approved for another air permit to bring the facility to 19 diesel engines, the company installed 21 and then went back for another air quality permit when the total count on-site was noticed. Nothing stops this company from doing what it wants to the detriment of the neighborhood.”
It is against this backdrop that the moratorium vote occurred. Mary Wambui, a vocal supporter of the measure and member of Honest Future for Lowell, noted that while the city provided a $77 million, 20-year tax break to the Markley Group, the company is only employing 30 full-time local workers. “This pause is an act of restorative justice in municipal decision-making,” Wambui said. “When a community has given $77 million in incentives and received such a low return — while facing a 1.6% tax increase — the responsible step is to pause, acknowledge the imbalance, and repair it before moving forward.”
Commenting on the recent City Council vote and the ongoing appeal, clinic student Ava McKallip ’28 remarked, “Our clients inspire us every day. They’re fighting hard for the safety of their community, and leaders are taking notice.”
The Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School provides an opportunity for students to participate in full-service legal support of community-based organizations, Tribal Nations, and nonprofit coalitions seeking to advance environmental justice and related concerns such as tribal sovereignty, environmental protection, public health, civil rights, and participatory environmental governance.
Honest Future for Lowell is jointly represented in the ongoing appeal by the clinic and the Conservation Law Foundation. Honest Future for Lowell is also supported by Slingshot, which provides training, resources, and organizing support for communities most impacted by environmental pollution.
