The XAI Colossus Data Center outside Memphis is facing a lawsuit to operate a fleet of natural gas turbines without permissions.
“Over the past year, XAI has installed and operated at least 35 burning turbines and other sources of air pollution at the Colossus site without ever obtaining the necessary pre -construction or operating air,” The Southern Media Law Center (SELC) wrote in a letter to Xai.
The legal group Submitted the letter on behalf of the NAACP. It serves as a notice for intent to prosecute XAI for violations of the pure air law. The law requires organizations to submit such a letter 60 days before submitting a lawsuit.
The gasoline turbines have the option to emit more than 2,000 tons of nox a year, a group of chemicals that contribute to SMOG.
Memphis already “had some of the worst air qualities in the area,” SELC notices. “In 2024, Memphis was considered to be the asthma capital of the nation by the asthma and allergic foundation of America due to high rates of emergency rooms and deaths of asthma.”
SELC claims that Xai Failed to obtain permissions required by both the federal and local regulators before installing the generators. It also claims that the company did not operate them with appropriate air pollution controls. At one point, Xai had enough turbines to generate 421 megawatts of electricity.
Last summer, the Shelby District Department of Health, which controls local air pollution, “told reporters that Xai’s turbines were exempted from allowing, although SchD had not yet revealed publicly what Xai worked on its website nor the legal basis for such excess,” SELC said.
To determine what happened at the colossal location, SELC paid an air photographer to Catch pictures of the facility in March. The photos revealed that Xai installed 35 turbines around the perimeter of the data center at the time. Thermal images taken about a month later showed that at least 33 of them worked, Selc said.
After these images were taken, the large Memphis Chamber, a local economic development agency, said Xai removed some of the turbines.
“The temporary natural gas turbines that have been used to operate the phase I GPUs prior to the grid connection, are now demobilized and will be removed from the site for the next two months,” the Memphis Chamber said. “About half of the operating turbines will remain” until the second substation completes the connection of data centers to the grid, the organization added, and that after the substation will be complete, the turbines will serve as backups.
But a flight on June 15 showed that at least 26 turbines remained, including three new ones that have been installed since the April flight. The total generation capacity was about 407 megawatts, only 14 megawatts fear the previous sum.
“With very few exceptions – none of them apply here – new sources of criteria and other air pollutants in Tennessee must obtain pre -construction approval in the form of air permission as well as permission to operate and broadcast contaminants,” SELC said.
