Now Reading: Lowell residents sue over data centre’s 27 diesel generators
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Lowell residents sue over data centre’s 27 diesel generators
Ten residents in Lowell, Massachusetts, have sued the state's environmental regulator and Markley Group over a data centre expansion that would add eight diesel generators and 16 cooling towers, bringing the facility's…
The Story in Brief
Ten residents in Lowell, Massachusetts, have sued the state's environmental regulator and Markley Group over a data centre expansion that would add eight diesel generators and 16 cooling towers, bringing the facility's total to 27 industrial-scale backup generators. The lawsuit, filed in Middlesex County Superior Court on April 27, 2026, challenges the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection's approval of an air-quality plan for the project, alleging that residents were denied a proper opportunity to contest it.
The facility, located in densely populated neighbourhoods designated as Environmental Justice populations, sits near homes, a public park, and a preschool. Plaintiffs cite concerns over diesel emissions, noise, dust, and cooling-tower mist. Markley contends the generators are emergency backups, running roughly five minutes weekly for testing. The Times of India reports that residents are also challenging an administrative consent order that let construction proceed while their appeal was pending.
The Indian Opinion
The narrative that data centres are clean, silent engines of progress is wearing thin. This suit reminds us that the cloud has a very real, diesel-soaked footprint in someone's backyard. Markley's defence, 'it's only five minutes a week', ignores the cumulative impact of 27 generators and 16 cooling towers on a community already labelled an Environmental Justice zone. The real test will be whether MassDEP's permit can survive scrutiny on cumulative impacts, or if this becomes a benchmark for how AI's appetite is met.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
