Markley Group – Lowell

Confirmed events only, each with its source.

1. ~January 2015

   Became operational

   Construction of the Lowell facility, now Massachusetts' largest data center, is completed and it begins operating.

   Source

2. July 3, 2025

   Permit issued

   Massachusetts DEP approved Markley's air-quality plan to operate 27 diesel backup generators and 16 cooling towers to support an AI-driven expansion, without cumulative-impacts analysis or MEPA review.

   Source

3. March 10, 2026

   Local opposition activity

   Lowell City Council adopted a temporary one-year moratorium on new data center construction and development by a 10-0 vote, the first such moratorium in Massachusetts, in response to community opposition to the Markley expansion.

   Source

4. June 22, 2026

   Operator discloses actual water use via water bills

   Water bills obtained by WBZ-TV show Markley reporting 60,000-120,000 gallons of water use per day over the prior year -- a rare directly-disclosed usage figure rather than a modeled estimate. No facility-specific water source was stated in the report.

   Source

From nearby USGS and NOAA monitoring stations, refreshed monthly. Dashed lines mark lifecycle milestones.

Water permits and environmental compliance records from MassDEP WMA permits and decisions and EPA ECHO.

No permit or compliance record from these sources currently matches this facility.

Is the water table's behavior near this facility consistent with its estimated draw — and how strong is the evidence? A fixed rubric, recomputed monthly; every number below is stored with the inputs that produced it. Method: attribution-v1.

1. 1 · Pathway

   This facility is supplied by a public water system — its estimated draw lands on that system's sources, not this local water table.

2. 2 · Detectability

   Expected drawdown at the nearest monitored well could not be computed (no water-use estimate is available).

3. 3 · Signal

   No monitored well within 2 miles of this facility — there is no near-field record to compare against controls.