The xAI supercomputer is up and running in Memphis, though local environmental advocacy groups are none too pleased about the project — nor how it was handled.
On Wednesday, members of the Memphis Community Against Pollution, Protect Our Aquifer, Young, Gifted & Green, and others met at Fourth Bluff Park in Downtown Memphis to call out the Greater Memphis Chamber and its handling of the xAI deal.
"We deserve better, we all deserve clean air," Memphis Community Against Pollution President KeShaun Pearson said during the event.
The news conference was in response to a letter the aforementioned organizations (16 in total) wrote to the Chamber requesting the Chamber "directly engage with the Southwest Memphis community to address questions related to xAI." The groups are also asking the Chamber to prioritize community input moving forward.
The Greater Memphis Chamber could not be reached for comment regarding the letter or the advocacy groups' claims.
On Sept. 2, xAI founder Elon Musk posted on X, a social platform he also owns (formerly known as Twitter), that the xAI team brought its data processing chip cluster online. The cluster, called Colossus, is powered by 100,000 H1 Nvidia chips. In June, University of Memphis professor and computer science researcher Santosh Kuma said the energy used in one of those chips is comparable to the energy output of a single household, or essentially 100,000 households .
The xAI project is located at the former Electrolux facility at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road. The project was first announced on June 5 and has been touted by the Chamber as one of the largest investments in the region's history .
The xAI facility is expected to use more than 1.3 million gallons of water daily for cooling purposes, which at the moment is directly pulling from the aquifer, Protect Our Aquifer Executive Director Sarah Houston said.
xAI IN MEMPHIS: MLGW talks power reliability, greywater facility & more during community Q&A
Houston said previous studies on the aquifer in that area highlighted increased toxins within the soil due to heavy industrial use. Those toxins are above the aquifer and residential drinking water, however, the more the water is pulled, the more the soil is disturbed and increases the likelihood toxins fall deeper into the ground and closer to the drinking water.
Houston said the last study concluded that the area had about eight to 10 years, at its current rate of usage, before the aquifer's drinking water became potentially hazardous or contaminated. She estimated that with the increased use and strain on the aquifer from xAI, that process is sped up by about 10%. In other words, the eight- to 10-year window is reduced, to maybe five or six years, she said.
Houston did support the proposal of a new greywater facility at the site and xAI looking to partner with local utility companies to create a new wastewater treatment plant to reduce the strain on the aquifer. In August, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) President and CEO Doug McGowen confirmed that the utility company was partnering with xAI, the City of Memphis and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on plans for a new wastewater treatment plant .
Additionally, xAI is currently using 18 temporary gas turbines to help power the facility, Pearson said. Those turbines and the potential contaminants to air quality are not being monitored, he said. The turbines and oversight are mentioned in the letter as followed:
"Within weeks, temporary gas turbines were up and running on the site with no oversight from local agencies, further polluting the air in Southwest Memphis, which already experiences some of the worst air pollution in the United States. Now we are hearing that xAI’s energy needs may double by the end of the year."
MORE ON xAI: Memphis leaders celebrate xAI, but will its ‘burden’ go unchecked?
Shelby County Department of Health is the local regulatory body for those turbines. Shelby County Health Department public information officer Joan Carr said the department regulates stationary gas-burning turbines if they operate in the same location for more than 364 days, Mobile gas-burning turbines are monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA has cited stationary gas and combustion turbines as a major source of hazardous air pollutants .
In August, during a community meeting hosted by MLGW on the xAI project, McGowen said those generators will be used until a new substation is built . That substation is required for xAI to hit its peak of 150 megawatts.
As of Sept. 25, the TVA and xAI have no contract or agreement regarding the project.
LaTricea Adams of Young, Gifted & Green stressed the need for inclusion and transparency from both xAI and the Memphis Chamber regarding the project and its impacts on a predominately Black population in South Memphis.
"They don't dictate what is good for this Black community," she said.
Adams and other speakers at the news conference including Paul Klein stressed concerns about repeat environmental infractions Musk has committed with some of his other companies including SpaceX and Tesla.
In 2022, the EPA fined Tesla $275,00 for violations in the Clear Air Act at its Fermont facility in California. In February, Reuters reported, the company settled a $1.5 million lawsuit for environmental infractions in 25 Californian counties. On Tuesday, Cards Against Humanity sued SpaceX for $15 million in damages from illegal dumping on private property owned by the novelty game manufacturer.
When asked why the advocacy groups haven't called for the complete shutdown of the xAI facility, Pearson said the groups are not against economic development in the city and the region. They are seeking a voice in the development and for the Chamber to help provide an outlet for community input in both the xAI project and future ones.
"What we're encouraging is ethical economic growth and development," he said.
Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at neil.strebig@commercialappeal.com , 901-426-0679 or via X/Twitter: @neilStrebig
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis groups call for better environmental watch on xAI, Chamber: 'We deserve better'
Local News
