A GROUP OF LOWELL RESIDENTS is suing state environmental regulators and the owner of a data center located in the city, a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in Massachusetts that comes amid a local backlash against the facility.

The lawsuit alleges that the state Department of Environmental Protection improperly approved the data center’s air quality permits over the objections of the Lowell residents — and that the state and data center owner struck an “undisclosed agreement” to “circumvent” the residents’ opposition.

“My right to equal participation was violated,” Mary Wambui, a Lowell resident and plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in an interview. “I just want to be treated as an equal partner in this whole issue. There should not have been a side deal that allowed a private company that has not been a good neighbor to Lowell residents to proceed.”

Neither MassDEP nor Markley, the data center owner, replied to a request for comment.

The legal challenge, filed in Middlesex County Superior Court, comes at a time of heightened scrutiny over data centers and their role in powering artificial intelligence both around the country and within the Bay State.

While opposition to the facilities spreads nationally, as polls show Americans are souring on them and entire states look to ban them, the politics around data centers are starting to shift even in Massachusetts, home to relatively few such sites. Data centers, which are large warehouses that store companies’ digital infrastructure, servers, and networks, guzzle water to cool the computers and could double their power consumption across the US by 2030, according to Pew Research Center, prompting concerns about the strain on communities despite their economic potential.

Gov. Maura Healey, who launched an AI Hub and has struck deals with Google and OpenAI in recent months, signed into law in 2024 a data center tax credit that has still not yet been finalized as environmental officials raise concerns over energy and water consumption. And earlier this year, Lowell enacted the first moratorium in the state on new data center construction or expansion after Markley submitted plans to expand its facility, which has operated in the city since 2015.

In the lawsuit, the group of 10 residents describes living in the shadow of the 14-acre data center situated in an already overburdened state-designated environmental justice community. They cite air pollution and odor issues from the diesel generators, increased traffic, and constant surveillance that disrupts neighbors’ sleep, privacy, and quality of life.

“With one decision after another, Markley has chosen to subject its neighbors to intrusion, disruption, and serious health dangers — all without transparency and meaningful community engagement, and with little oversight by State regulators charged with enforcing state air pollution control laws,” reads the lawsuit, which is backed by the Conservation Law Foundation, Yale Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic, and Boston-based Fitch Law Partners.

While Markley has slowly expanded its operations over the past decade, buying up neighboring properties in recent years, the litigation focuses on a 2025 Markley air permit application that sought to install eight new diesel generators — bringing its operations to a total of 27 such generators and 16 cooling towers. Despite objections from the plaintiffs, MassDEP approved the plan.

Those generators are intended to serve as a backup power source and are authorized to emit as much annual pollution as 749 US households from all electricity use, the lawsuit states.

But the residents argue in the legal challenge that state regulators rejected their right to pursue an appeal, invented “novel limitations” on what is subject to appeal, and improperly excluded evidence — all of which “thwarted” the residents’ concerns.

While the appeal played out, unbeknownst to them, state regulators had quietly given Markley permission to begin installing the eight new generators under dispute before the residents’ appeal was formally rejected this past March by Commissioner Bonnie Heiple, according to the lawsuit.

In January, residents began noticing construction on the property and requested more information from Markley. That’s when Markley responded with a copy of an administrative consent order from DEP dated September 29, 2025 — which is included in the lawsuit — authorizing the company to “proceed promptly” and install the generators without informing the plaintiffs despite their ongoing appeal of the air permits.

Now, the residents want the court to vacate DEP’s approval and find that the agency’s use of such consent orders exceeds its authority.

“I don’t want this to happen in any other community in the Commonwealth,” Wambui said.