Has Meta had environmental violations?

As of the latest EPA ECHO sync, no enforcement actions are on record for Meta.

Mapped (unverified)

Meta

Q: Who owns Meta?

Meta is operated by Facebook USA, Inc. and ultimately owned by Meta Platforms, Inc..

DeKalb County, IL

Meta is a mapped data center in DeKalb County, IL, operated by Facebook USA, Inc. and ultimately owned by Meta Platforms, Inc.. DataCentersExposed has documented a 568,454 sq ft footprint at this site.

Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated Jun 14, 2026

Report a concern at this facility Watch this facility (email alerts)

Est. capacity

~110-230 MW

Footprint

568,454 sq ft

Interconnection

~37 MW

Utility

Commonwealth Edison Co

Grid

PJM

Attribution & capacity confidence:mediumprimary source

Status · click to filter

Most sites are mapped — located but awaiting a second source. How we verify

Dot size = disclosed capacity (MW). Smallest = undisclosed, not small.

Overview

source: link

A mapped Meta data center in DeKalb County, Illinois, the site is operated by Facebook USA, Inc., which is ultimately owned by Meta Platforms, Inc. The facility covers 568,454 square feet and draws power from Commonwealth Edison Co within the PJM grid.

Operator chain

Ultimate parent
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Files as
Facebook USA, Inc.
This facility
Meta

In the news

source: Google News

Data-center discussions in DeKalb County

source: LocalView (CC0)

Local-government meetings in this county that discussed data centers, each cued to the moment. From the public LocalView corpus of government meetings on YouTube — a county-level signal, not necessarily about this specific site.

DeKalb City Council

Sep 11, 2023 · 2 data-center mentions

Tax breaks & subsidies

source: Good Jobs First / GASB 77

These tax breaks are recorded to Meta Platforms, Inc. (the operator/parent) and may cover this or other sites — no state names the recipient at the facility level.

Dollar value not disclosed for this record.

Texas Qualifying Large Data Center Project Exemption$0
State of Texas · granted 2022 · term — yr · source

Statewide cost of this incentive

Illinois reported $983.2M in Data Center Investment Program — state & local sales/use tax exemption (20 ILCS 605/605-1025; administered by DCEO) (2019-2024 (27 certified data centers; cumulative estimated exemption value)) (Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO)). Program-wide, not attributable to this site.

source · All Illinois subsidies →

Water use

Modeled estimate~693K gpd

Direct (onsite cooling)

~337.8K gpd

Indirect (its electricity)

~355.2K gpd

No measured record exists, so this is a low-confidence model from 37 MW (interconnection capacity): 1.8 L/kWh cooling (temperate climate) + 0.5 gal/kWh embedded in PJM grid mix. How we estimate. Have a utility document? Send it and we'll replace this with the real figure.

EPA permits & violations

source: EPA ECHO

No reported violations as of last sync.

What this site costs the grid

source: PJM RPM auction reports

ComEd (Illinois) · 2027/28 auction

$333 /MW-day

Peaked at $188/MW-day in 2020/21 — 2.46× the rest of PJM

PJM's capacity auction sets a $/MW-day price that utilities pass on to every household and business in the zone. This site sits in PJM's COMED pricing zone, where soaring data-center demand is a documented driver. See the full zone-by-zone breakdown →

This site's capacity-market cost (estimated)

$13.4M to $28M/yr

An estimated ~110 to 230 MW of load at the zone's $333/MW-day, annualized — the capacity charge a load this size carries at the current auction price. Estimated from the building footprint at 200 to 400 W/ft² (the typical range for modern data centers). A rough order-of-magnitude figure, not a metered or permitted capacity.

Separately, a typical home in this zone pays an estimated $4 to $10/mo more on the capacity portion of its bill that PJM's market monitor attributes to data-center demand. See your address's full impact →

Air quality near this site

source: AirNow

PM2.5

Moderate

Air Quality Index from the nearest AirNow reporting area (Aurora and Elgin), as of 2026-06-10. Regional context — not this facility's own emissions.

Who lives nearby

source: Census ACS 2023

Median household income

$59.4K

People of color

35%

Below poverty

18%

Tract population

3,844

Demographics of the census tract this facility sits in (American Community Survey 5-year estimates). Environmental-justice context for who bears the local impacts.

Nearest school

source: HIFLD / NCES

The nearest public school, Dekalb Early Lrng And Dev Ctr in Dekalb, is 2.3 mi from this site (231 students).

Schools are sensitive receptors for the noise, backup-generator exhaust, and traffic a large data center brings. Straight-line distance to the nearest public school (HIFLD/NCES, US public schools only).

Hearings timeline

No public-hearing records linked to this site yet. We surface planning-commission and board-of-supervisors dates when a record names a facility. If you know of a hearing on this site, tell us.