Highridge Data (NorthPoint Development) Project Nebius In review
Environmental permits under review at PA DEP (1 pending, 2 issued).
Key facts
- Location
- Butler Township (Schuylkill County), Pennsylvania
- Application filed
- 2026-05-08
- Stage today
- In review
Source
read 2026-10-08
What to do next
Next step: Application filed. Ask the planning office for the hearing date and request formal notice.
What has happened so far (4 events)
- 2026-05-08permit
Water Obstruction & Encroachment Pmt application submitted to PA DEP under WRM Water Obstructions & Encroachments (E5402222-003 / eFACTS auth 1569076) — DEP status: Issued. · source - 2026-05-18permit
Chapter 102 Individual NPDES Permit application submitted to PA DEP under WPC Erosion & Sediment Control (PAD540030 / eFACTS auth 1570051) — DEP status: Issued. · source - 2026-08-07permit
Chapter 102 Individual NPDES Permit application submitted to PA DEP under WPC Erosion & Sediment Control (PAD540030-A1) — DEP status: Pending. · source - 2026-08-07permit
Chapter 102 Individual NPDES Permit application submitted to PA DEP under WPC Erosion & Sediment Control (PAD540030 A-1) — DEP status: Pending. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (4 filed · 11 places to look)
Permits already on file (4)
Filings we have a source for — the record, not a place to look for one.
- 2026-08-07
Chapter 102 Individual NPDES Permit application submitted to PA DEP under WPC Erosion & Sediment Control (PAD540030-A1) — DEP status: Pending. · source - 2026-08-07
Chapter 102 Individual NPDES Permit application submitted to PA DEP under WPC Erosion & Sediment Control (PAD540030 A-1) — DEP status: Pending. · source - 2026-05-18
Chapter 102 Individual NPDES Permit application submitted to PA DEP under WPC Erosion & Sediment Control (PAD540030 / eFACTS auth 1570051) — DEP status: Issued. · source - 2026-05-08
Water Obstruction & Encroachment Pmt application submitted to PA DEP under WRM Water Obstructions & Encroachments (E5402222-003 / eFACTS auth 1569076) — DEP status: Issued. · source
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Pennsylvania DEPThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- DEP Data Center Permit Tracker (the only state register built for data centers — it already feeds this tracker)Searchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Butler Township (Schuylkill County) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Butler Township (Schuylkill County) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 40.739, -76.310 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Recent news
- Butler Township Approves Data Center Ordinances, Expands Highridge Overlay for Nebius Proposal
- Butler Twp. schedules special hearing for proposed 600-acre data center
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 2 headlines archived.
Around here
- Butler Township community briefing — Enactedexpires soon — 2026-11-08
- Pennsylvania briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Pennsylvania
- Frackville Data — New Caste Township (Schuylkill County), 4 mi Rumored
- Mount Carmel Township Data Center — Mount Carmel Township (Northumberland County), 9 mi Rumored
- Kline Township Data Center Development — Kline Township (Schuylkill County), 18 mi In review
- Outrigger Data Center — Mifflin Township (Columbia County), 19 mi Rumored
- Unnamed Data Center — Sugarloaf Township (Luzerne County), 20 mi Rumored
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Highridge Data (NorthPoint Development) Project Nebius”, aigridwatch.com/projects/highridge-data-center-butler-township-pa, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).