NAACP is asking local officials to suspend operations at Colossus, a “supercomputer” facility run by Elon Musk’s Xai in Southern Memphis.
As reported in NBC News, civil rights leaders will send light gas and water from the Shelby County Health Department and Memphis on Thursday, criticizing “an unstable approach to operating this dirty data center” and calling for “issuing emergency orders to halt Xai’s emergency orders altogether.”
The letter raised certain concerns about the gas turbines Xai runs to power Colossus. The NAACP said the authorities “allow Xai to operate at least 35 gas turbines without allowing them” over the past year, but the company has applied for permission to continue with 15 gas turbines at the facility. City officials previously said Xai does not require a first year permit for the turbine.
These turbines reportedly release harmful air pollutants, including formaldehyde, at levels above the EPA limits. The NAACP letter pointed to the turbine’s nitrogen oxide emissions.
Noting that the Colossus facility, called “historically black communities,” is located near the Boxttown area of South Memphis, the NAACP said the location perpetuates “an industry trend that adds pollution to communities that do not cause problems.”
Instead of “” [the Shelby County Health Department] Xai has been able to work beyond the law as it works to alleviate health issues known in the region, including already four times the national average of cancer risk,” the NAACP added.
The NAACP letter is addressed to director Michelle Taylor, Shelby County Health Director, and to the Memphis Wright Gas and Water Commissioner. Taylor leaves his role in Shelby County and will become the Baltimore City Health Department commissioner.
TechCrunch contacted NAACP and Xai for comments. A Memphis Light Gas and Water spokesman told NBC News he had not yet received the NAACP letter.
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