Overview
- A Massachusetts Superior Court judge issued a limited stay on Aug. 10 that bars Markley Group from installing four additional diesel backup generators while a resident lawsuit against MassDEP’s permitting moves forward.
- The ruling does not rescind Markley’s air permit and allows the data center to run the four generators already installed under the permit’s conditions.
- Judge C. William Barrett said the record suggests neighbors lacked a meaningful opportunity to contest the permit, which is the core legal question the court will now review.
- Markley called the order preliminary and said it expects to prevail when the full record is before the court, and MassDEP is reviewing the decision and has not yet commented.
- The dispute highlights local health and nuisance concerns in a densely populated, environmental justice neighborhood next to the 352,000-square-foot former Prince pasta plant that now houses Massachusetts’s largest data center and has drawn city-level pushback including a 360-day moratorium and a separate noise class-action.