Sugarloaf Alliance

On May 18, 2025, Sugarloaf Alliance filed a Maryland Public Interest Access (MPIA) request with Frederick County in order to learn more about the county’s oversight of data center construction at the Quantum / EastAlco site in Adamstown. The request asks for records between 3/15 and 5/16, and reads in part:

 

"Rowan Digital is building multiple data center facilities in Frederick County. These facilities have been given the names “Bauxite” I, II, and III. In April 2025 Amazon Web Services was named as the customer of the first of the Rowan facilities (Bauxite I)”….

 

“The records sought here all deal directly with the core operations of Frederick County government. The Amazon affair [learn more here], data center development, and regulation of Critical Digital Infrastructure are all parts of the ongoing activities of county government. These records shine a bright light into an otherwise unknown area of government regulatory activities.” 

 

We know that Governor Moore has taken action in support of data center development in Maryland and in Frederick County specifically. (In the recently completed legislative session, he vetoed the bill funding research into the effects of data center development in the state. Last year he asked for and signed the Critical Infrastructure Streamlining Act of 2024, overriding the Public Service Commission’s concerns about the dozens of diesel generators commonly installed in order to power data centers during power outages).  Documents responsive to the Alliance’s MPIA request include an email from the Governor's Office of Business Advancement asking that the Rowen site improvement plan be expedited or afforded some leniency, “even if it is at-risk.”

 

Sugarloaf Alliance’s full request, the full cache of responsive documents, and the several emails that relate to the above-cited email exchange are attached below.