Legal & Public Costs
NAACP serves notice of intent to sue xAI over air pollution from unpermitted turbines at Memphis data center
Partially confirmed
- Date
- 2025-06-17
- Location
- Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, United States
- Category
- Legal & Public Costs
- POLLUTION
Evidence
- Did the harm happen?
- Alleged — not established
- Did the data center cause it?
- Probable
- AI connection
- Confirmed AI use
- What was affected
- Air, Human health
- Why
- Turbine operation documented by aerial imagery; health and legal claims are allegations.
- Denials and outcomes
- Shelby County later issued a permit for some turbines; the groups appealed it. No court ruling yet in these sources.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the NAACP, notified xAI of its intent to sue under the Clean Air Act over pollution from gas turbines it says were run without permits at the Colossus data center in South Memphis, near largely Black neighborhoods. The groups later appealed the county permit. Aerial images obtained by SELC showed 35 turbines at the site in March 2025. The health and legal claims are allegations. This is one of three separately documented events at xAI's Memphis-area campuses: Boxtown residents reported breathing problems to WREG in August 2025, a Reuters investigation reported in July 2026 that the turbine field serving Colossus 2 in Southaven, Mississippi is far larger than acknowledged, and the resulting Clean Air Act lawsuit was allowed to continue in October 2026.