Aerial image of xAI plant in South Memphis. (Photo Credit: Southern Environmental Law Center)
Environmental and community advocacy groups have filed an appeal to challenge xAI’s air permit.
Today, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) filed the appeal with the Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Young, Gifted, and Green.
The appeal also challenges xAI’s gas turbine operations.
Earlier this month, xAI was granted a permit by the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) to run 15 gas turbines at its data center in South Memphis.
“SCHD decisions around unpermitted turbines create a dangerous precedent that opens the door for xAI or other companies to disregard federal and local law and operate large polluting turbines without any permits or penalties,” SELC said in a statement.
SELC’s appeal claims SCHD’s decision violates the Clean Air Act and ignores “hundreds of comments opposing the draft permit.”
Prior to the approval of the air permit, SELC sent a letter to Dr. Michelle Taylor, director and health officer for SCHD, that said they obtained aerial images showing 35 gas turbines on site.
SCHD responded to the SELC’s concerns stating that the temporary ones were not pertinent to their application process for the 15 permanent turbines.
“While responding to those comments, SCHD wrongly claimed that the federal Clean Air Act didn’t apply to xAI’s unpermitted gas turbines, citing an exemption for ‘nonroad engines’ — typically defined as things like construction equipment, smaller backup generators or lawn mowers,” SELC said. “However, the Clean Air Act specifically says that turbines as large as the ones at the xAI site do not qualify for this exemption.”
The appeal specifically asks the Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board to exclude large gas turbines from the nonroad exemption.
During the public comment response period, SCHD responded to SELC’s concerns in the name of environmental justice and impact on Southwest Memphis, with the following:
“No legal basis exists for denying or altering an otherwise lawful air construction permit on the basis of cumulative impacts on environmental justice concerns. Additionally, the permit application included an extensive evaluation of environmental justice.”
SELC has called these responses a “flawed narrative” and fears their decision would invite other companies to “operate large polluting turbines without any permits or penalties.”
President and CEO of Young, Gifted, and Green, LaTricea Adams condemned the agency for “not protecting” South Memphis — a community she said is “burdened with a history of environmental racism, legacy pollution, and redlining.”
“As a Black woman born and raised in Memphis, I know firsthand how industry harms Black communities while those in power cower away from justice,” Adams said.
The NAACP, who previously sent a letter to SCHD and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) urging them to stop xAI operations, said this appeal is a “second chance to prioritize” community health.
xAI’s methane turbines have been linked to smog-forming pollutants and formaldehyde, which have neen linked to asthma, respiratory illnesses, and heart problems.
“We will persist until the health department and every other agency follows the law, and we will ensure that the safety and well-being og Black people are not treated secondary to the profits of Elon Musk’s xAI,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said.
The Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) has granted xAI permission to install 15 permanent natural gas turbines. The turbines will provide backup power for xAI’s data center in Memphis.
In April, public health officials opened the public comment period as they prepared to review the facility’s gas turbines. Shortly after the public comment period closed, the Greater Memphis Chamber said the project had reached “full operational capacity,” and that some of the temporary gas turbines would be removed.
In response to the permit approval, xAI said they look forward to partnering with Memphis for years to come.
“xAI welcomes today’s decision by the Shelby County Health Department,” the company said in a statement. “Our onsite power generation will be equipped with state-of-the-art emissions control technology, making this facility the lowest emitting of its kind in the country.”
The Greater Memphis Chamber, long a supporter of the data center, commended the health department and said it represents an advancement in the “Digital Delta.”
“This approval demonstrates Shelby County’s commitment to evidence-based decision making that balances economic growth with environmental stewardship,” Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber said.
Townsend alluded to people spreading misinformation about the data center, and commended the health department for evaluating the project’s environmental impact.
“It’s unfortunate that some have chosen to spread misinformation about this project rather than engaging with the actual environmental data,” Townsend said. “The facts speak for themselves — these turbines utilize technology that exceeds federal environmental standards by a substantial margin, making them among the cleanest backup power solutions available.”
Environmental advocates and citizens have long voiced their concern about the projected impact of the turbines.
The permit is for 15 permanent turbines, and not 35 that the Southern Environmental Law Center brought attention to in a letter to Michelle Taylor, director and health officer for the Shelby County Health Department.
SCHD responded to the SELC’s concerns stating that the temporary ones were not pertinent to their application process for the 15 permanent turbines.
The turbines have drawn criticism from environmental groups and citizens alike due to concern over their emissions. In its statement, xAI said the health department found that the project “does not contribute to an exceedance of National Ambient Air Quality Standards.”
In response to SELC’s concerns in the name of environmental justice and impact on Southwest Memphis, SCHD said the following:
“No legal basis exists for denying or altering an otherwise lawful air construction permit on the basis of cumulative impacts on environmental justice concerns. Additionally, the permit application included an extensive evaluation of environmental justice.”
SELC noted that Southwest Memphis residents are disproportionately affected by smog and industrial pollution. SELC senior attorney Amanda Garcia says the health department’s decision seemingly ignores public concern.
“Instead of confronting long-standing air pollution problems in South Memphis, the Shelby County Health Department is turning a blind eye to obvious Clean Air Act violations in order to allow another polluter to set up shop in this already-overburdened community without appropriate protections,” Garcia said. “We are evaluating our options moving forward.”
LaTricea Adams, CEO and president of Young, Gifted & Green also promised to take action on the matter.
“We will not stand by while our air quality deteriorates and the voices of Black, marginalized communities are silenced,” Adams said. “Environmental justice is a human right, and with the power of the people, we will remain steadfast in the fight for clean air.”
Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Shelby County Health Department’s (SCHD) decision as to whether or not they will grant air permits for xAI’s gas turbines could take weeks, officials said.
During Wednesday’s Shelby County Board of Commissioners meeting, Kasia Smith-Alexander, deputy director of SCHD, said that as the public comment period closes, the agency’s next step is to respond to the comment.
“To give you a timeline on when or if a decision will be made on that permit — probably weeks out, I don’t want to put a date on it,” Smith-Alexander said.
She noted that on Friday the health department held a public hearing regarding the permits, and since then they had received about 300 additional comments.
Officials said the permit is only for 15 permanent turbines, and not 35, which the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) brought attention to in a letter to Michelle Taylor, director and health officer for the Shelby County Health Department.
At the commission’s hospitals and health committee meeting, Commissioner Erika Sugarmon sponsored a resolution that asks for an update from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) regarding the “remaining steps and time necessary to connect xAI to the local utility grid.”
The resolution requests that this update be given by June 1
Smith-Alexander said the permanent turbines are supposed to go on the grid “at some point in time.”
The commissioner said her original intent was to have a six-month moratorium for the operation of the turbines, but was informed this would be a request and not a requirement of the health department.
Megan Smith, a staff member of the county attorney’s office, said there is no legal definition of moratorium “in this process as defined by law.”
“This body only has authority that is granted to it by law,” Smith said. “There is no authority to issue a moratorium on this process.”
Sugarmon went on record and requested that the public comment period be extended as TVA, MLGW, and the Chamber of Commerce have not come before the commission to provide updates on the grid. She also asked for a list of people who signed NDAs
While elected officials are working to stop the turbines, this has not stopped the public from asking the health department to deny the permits.
“We call on Shelby County Health Director Dr. Michelle Taylor and Mayor Lee Harris to deny the permit and shut the xAI plant down,” Rep. Justin J. Pearson said before a “Deny the Permit Rally” held Wednesday. “xAI is poisoning our air, and we are organizing to stop it. We want less pollution, not more. Our health is not for sale.”
Orion Overstreet, a University of Memphis student organizer, said they are watching and researching and promised to keep showing up on the issue.
“The young folks in the city are coming together around this issue,” Overstreet said. “We have all eyes on this right now.”
Residents in Southwest Memphis have reportedly received “fact sheets” from an anonymous organization regarding the xAI turbines operating in their community.
This information comes from Representative Justin J. Pearson’s newsletter “People Power Times”. According to Pearson, a group called “Facts Over Fear” has placed “propaganda” in residents’ mailboxes that claim that the company’s gas turbines are “minor polluters.”
The mail said the turbines are designed to protect the air with “air quality levels similar to those from a neighborhood gas station. It cited that the Environmental Protection Agency refers to facilities like the xAI plant as “minor contributors” to air quality.
While the group said there are only 15 turbines operating, Pearson said this is false.
“Thanks to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), we know the truth – there are actually 35 gas turbines on site,” Pearson said. “The misinformation being sent to our neighbors conveniently leaves out the 20 additional gas turbines xAI failed to report.”
Pearson referenced an April 9 letter from SELC to Dr. Michelle Taylor, director and health officer for the Shelby County Health Department. The organization said they obtained aerial images in March that showed that xAI has 35 gas turbines.
Photo Credit: Southern Environmental Law Center
“Our analysis shows these turbines together have a power generating capacity of 421 megawatts – comparable to an entire TVA power plant – all constructed and operating unlawfully without any air permit in Southwest Memphis, a community that is profoundly overburdened with industrial pollution.”
The turbines have been linked to emitting an “estimated” 16.7 tons of formaldehyde.
“I am both disgusted and furious that anyone would downplay the harmful impact this plant is having on our air, our health, and our future,” Pearson said.
Southwest Memphis residents have been vocal at town halls, meetings of elected bodies, and on social media about the lack of transparency regarding the project, as well as the impact on their community. Pearson said many officials have “signed non-disclosure agreements promising to keep xAI’s plans a secret.”
These comments come as the Shelby County Health Department collects public comments from ahead of the Air Pollution Control Permit Application Public Hearing on April 25.
Pearson said he and other residents will continue to hold community leaders accountable for this “shameful legacy of environmental injustice.”
Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
A resolution for the Shelby County Health Department to host a public hearing regarding xAI’s air permits has been passed by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.
The resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Britney Thornton, urged the Shelby County Health Department to host a public meeting “prior to the approval or denial of the permit submitted by CTC Property LLC, an affiliate of xAI for the long-term operations of 15 methane gas turbines in South Memphis.”
Keshaun Pearson, executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution, said this resolution would suspend the air-permitting process as the permit is not for the “current pollution” but “more pollution,” as xAI intends to bring more turbines in.
Groups such as Young, Gifted, and Green, MCAP, and Black Voters Matter along with several community members have openly condemned the project — with the news of the turbines operating for almost a year further amplifying outrage.
“Elon Musk holds nothing but malice for the people of Memphis [and] Shelby County,” Brandy Price said during the public comment section of the meeting. “To vote in favor of anything that aids Elon Musk will be a stain on yourself.”
Several people have spoken about the environmental risks that the project poses. Jonathan Reid, a resident of South Memphis, urged the commission to not only vote in favor of public hearings, but to “bring science to the table” when evaluating the project.
“I would like to know down the road when Elon Musk do[es] all this gas stuff what’s going to happen to the health of South Memphians?” Barbara Denton, a 72-year resident of South Memphis said. “Health is not being considered. All y’all want is money. It’s all about politics and money when it comes to South Memphis. Why does South Memphis have to get the neglect of being Black – mostly 90 percent? If y’all want to move something, move it Downtown. Let’s move it Downtown and see how it works for you.”
Dr. Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Department of Health, acknowledged the community’s comments and said the public comment period is open now through April 30th. Residents can review xAI’s permit application and leave comments through the department’s website.
“We only can do as much as current legislation allows us to do,” Taylor said. “We did request an EPA community assessment. We requested, twice, in two letters to the EPA in August. We received a response on November 1 of 2024 saying they could not do the report.”
Taylor assured that the Health Department is committed to being held accountable by both the commission and the community.
The resolution passed 8-3 with one abstaining from voting.
Some readers might wonder: Whatever happened to Alisa Haushalter? The former director of the Shelby County Health Department, Haushalter was, not so long ago, one of the most visible people in the public eye as department head at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By one measure — the fact that she was publicly accountable and on call on a daily, even hourly basis — she may have been for a time the single most visible of all local officials. Not only was she at the helm of the health department and having to cope directly with the scourge of Covid, managing local responses to it as best as she could; she had the responsibility of communicating every aspect of the disease’s progress and every important piece of data relating to its impact on the community. It was 24/7 and then some.
It is certainly arguable that Haushalter herself was one of the chief victims in Shelby County of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her work as the director was hailed as exemplary then and later by her associates in the department and in county government at large.
But, simply because of the prominence of her position, she was caught up in various controversies that owed more to the inherent disruptiveness wrought by the pandemic than to any actions she was responsible for.
Consider this a tease for a forthcoming lengthier, and possibly eye-opening, treatment of Haushalter’s pivotal and arguably heroic service on behalf of Shelby County in a time of crisis. Suffice it to say for the moment that political pressures relating to state vs. local issues played a large role in her decision, in February 2021, to step down as health department director.
But her service to Shelby County has continued. When she came here in 2016, after years of health service, first in Nashville and later at the renowned Nemours health complex in Delaware, she had a request of then-County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who hired her.
For three years, while working in Nashville, she had gone back and forth between the state’s two largest cities working on her doctorate, which she got from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
“When I was in Nashville,” she recalls, “I had dual appointments. I taught at Vanderbilt, and I was at the health department there. So when I came here, part of my discussion with Mayor Luttrell was, ‘Can I have a dual appointment so that I’m still teaching?’” The answer was yes, and, while serving as health department director she taught health policy at UT.
Her thinking was eminently commonsensible. “That really was sort of how I came back to Tennessee. You learn along with the students, and the students get to learn from someone who has experience, not just what they’re getting from reading the book. And so it has always been a good match.”
Upon leaving the department, Haushalter would expand her teaching load to include, currently, healthcare economics and population health.
She has never departed from the idea of service. She’s still very much here and on the case, keeping her hand in — learning, doing, and teaching. Aside from her regular students, she says, she’s still on call at the department. “There are team members over there that still reach out to me that I coach or mentor.”
Her bottom line: “I’m committed to public health, I’m committed to nursing and have spent decades doing that. And I’m committed to Shelby County.”
The late Rep. Barbara Cooper of Memphis gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in February 2021. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
The former leader of Shelby County’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout has lost a legal bid to declare she was wrongly blamed for allowing hundreds of doses to expire during the pandemic.
Judy Martin, Shelby County’s former chief of nursing and immunizations, lost her job amid public fallout over the lost doses in early 2022.
Martin had reported 1,000 expired doses she discovered during an inventory. With even more doses set to go bad, she loaded hundreds of vaccines into her car to take to a local prison. But a snowstorm in Memphis scuttled those plans. She left 700 doses in the car and told nobody, legal filings said.
When news broke that Shelby County had allowed even more doses to expire than initially reported, Martin retired in order to avoid being fired.
“I learned that the information regarding the level of vaccine that expired in Shelby County was not accurate,” Mayor Lee Harris soon tweeted. “We have terminated the site manager who managed the relationship with the pharmacy and allegedly provided the initial false information.”
Martin sued the county alleging the tweet was defamatory and asserted her right to a “name-clearing hearing.” A federal court in Memphis dismissed those claims, siding with the county.
On Tuesday the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals again sided with the county in a ruling that concluded Martin had not suffered any harm from the mayor’s tweet. The ruling noted Martin had received community support amid the controversy, the nursing board took no disciplinary action against her and that she was able to land quickly in another job.
“Getting fired is unpleasant,” the ruling said. “And having that termination broadcast is even more so. But the Constitution of the United States says little about lost jobs and nothing about this one.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
Kits to help prevent and stop opioid overdoses are free in Shelby County until supplies run out.
The Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) is distributing the kits at select sites (see below) on a first-come, first-served basis. The kits contain two doses of nasal-spray naloxone (known as Narcan by its brand name), 10 fentanyl test strips, and instructions for each.
SCHD Health Officer Dr. Michelle Taylor said the kits are being distributed “to save lives.”
“From 2018 to 2020, overdoses killed more people in Shelby County than automobile accidents,” Taylor said in a statement.
The program is a partnership with the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), which says naloxone is “a proven tool in the battle against drug abuse and overdose death.”
“When too much of an opioid medication is taken, [the opioid] can slow breathing to a dangerously low rate,” reads the TDH web page on naloxone training. “When breathing slows too much, overdose death can occur. Naloxone can reverse this potentially fatal situation by allowing the person to breathe normally again.”
The state says naloxone is not “dangerous medicine.” But state law does require proper training to give the drug and be covered against civil lawsuits. In 2014, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a Good Samaritan Law that give civil immunity to those administering the drug to someone they “reasonably believe” to be overdosing on an opioid.
To get the required training, the state offers an interactive online course here and a read-through version of the class here.
After the review, trainees must pass an online quiz available here. Once complete, trainees can then add their name to a printable certificate found here.
Regional Overdose Prevention Specialists (ROPS) offices are located throughout the state of Tennessee. They are the point of contact for most opioid overdose training and the distribution of naloxone.
The state says more than 450,000 units of naloxone have been distributed through ROPS from October 2017 to March 2023. In that time, state officials have documented at least 60,000 lives saved with naloxone, a number that’s likely higher “because of stigma and other factors.”
State Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) wanted to make naloxone even more widely available in this year’s legislative session. Her bill would have mandated that some bars (selling more than $500,000 worth of alcoholic beverages per year) keep naloxone on premises as a condition of keeping their liquor-by-the-drink license.
The legislation was similar to New York City’s “Narcan Behind Every Bar” campaign. But Lamar’s bill was never fully reviewed and stalled in the committee system.
Fentanyl test strips were illegal in Tennessee until last year. Possession of such strips were a Class A misdemeanor and distribution was a Class E felony. But lawmakers made them legal to fight opioid overdoses when Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law in March 2022.
To use the strips, small amounts of drugs are mixed with water. The strips are dipped into the solution for 15 seconds. Then, the strips produce colored bars to signal whether or not the sample contains fentanyl or if the test is inconclusive.
In 2018, researchers found that some community groups across the country began to distribute fentanyl test strips. At the time, they found that most (81 percent) drug users who got the strips, used them. Some (43 percent) changed their drug-use behavior because of the strips and most (77 percent) said they were more aware of overdose safety by having the strips.
Those kits with naloxone and the fentanyl test strips are available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at
The government agencies that should be protecting a South Memphis neighborhood from cancer-causing air pollution have fallen down on the job, environmental justice advocates say, so they’re stepping up.
At Shady Grove Missionary Baptist Church church in Mallory Heights on Saturday, June 3rd community organizers with Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) and the Mallory Heights CDC alerted South Memphis residents to the colorless, odorless gas that’s poisoned the area for decades, letting them know what they could do to change that.
The gas comes from a facility two miles away. Sterilization Services of Tennessee (SST) at 2396 Florida Street uses ethylene oxide, also known as EtO, to remove bacteria from medical and dental equipment, which decreases the risks of infections in hospitals and clinics.
But breathing in the chemical over many years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now says, can cause illnesses such as leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and stomach and breast cancers.
And the SST facility operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
MCAP’s president, Keshaun Pearson, calls the inaction from local leadership inhumane and reflective of racist policies that have plagued his family and community for generations — dating back to the Reconstruction era.
“They continue to slow lynch this community.”
Keshaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution
“They continue to slow lynch this community,” Pearson said. “This is intentional. This is directed at a specific demographic.”
While the EPA has known EtO is a hazardous air pollutant for at least 30 years, scientists and analysts only recently started taking steps to address the carcinogen. The action comes after the agency discovered that EtO has a cancer-causing risk 60 times higher than previously known.
In response, the EPA proposed new regulations requiring facilities such as SST to reduce emissions by 80 percent. Before the regulations become the new standard, the public can submit comments by June 27th. But the standards are in a dense, jargon-laden 68-page packet with 380 supporting documents.
So, MCAP and Mallory Heights CDC — with some of the same players who stopped the Byhalia Pipeline in 2021 — are organizing in-person and virtual meetings to help people in South Memphis understand the proposed new rules.
“We deserve clean air just like everybody else,” said Pearson.
A chance to submit concerns and questions
Eighty-six commercial sterilization facilities operate across the United States, many of which are in communities that were once redlined and now experience environmental injustice. The EPA determined that 23 of those facilities pose elevated lifetime cancer risks, including SST in South Memphis, an area riddled with various industrial facilities and their pollutants.
At the direction of the EPA, the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) notified an undisclosed number of residents and held one informational meeting, but MCAP is doubling down on the health department’s work. In addition to holding multiple community meetings, the organization sent 11,000 mailers recently to people in the area, encouraging them to submit their concerns and questions.
MCAP is urging people to tell the EPA that it needs a shorter compliance period when new regulations go into place. It’s something the regional EPA air and radiation division director, Caroline Freeman, has emphasized herself because that kind of feedback from people in Memphis can directly influence the agency.
As the EPA’s timeline stands, once this round of public comment closes and the rules are finalized, it could take up to three years for facilities like SST to comply with the new standards. Those standards would update the Clean Air Act to require commercial sterilizers to use technologies and procedures proven to reduce EtO emissions. Concerns raised through public comment could require SST to act sooner to reduce their emissions under such rules.
Concerns raised through public comment could require Sterilization Services of Tennessee to act sooner to reduce their emissions under such rules.
“I need you to hear me on this,” Freeman said in October during the EPA’s first public meeting in Memphis. “EPA does plan to solicit comments on a shorter compliance time period. So, that is why it’s critical you are aware that these rules are coming forward.”
So far, more than 25,000 comments have been submitted.
The EPA is especially concerned about SST’s emissions because a high concentration of the chemical has been released for a long duration. SST has been operating since 1976.
EtO contributes to nearly 82 percent of overall cancer risk in the census tract where the SST facility is located, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. That level of EtO exposure could mean an increase of 20 cancer cases per 10,000 people exposed for 70 years.
Wind carries EtO, which can stay in the air for up to three months. In Memphis, it can loft over hundreds of homes in a ring of emissions that emanates from the facility. The chemical especially poses risks for children and babies. Their growing bodies make them more susceptible because EtO can mutate and damage DNA.
But because air filtration systems and N-95 masks do not prevent EtO inhalation, people can’t protect themselves or their families from this chemical.
But because air filtration systems and N-95 masks do not prevent EtO inhalation, people can’t protect themselves or their families from this chemical.
Can the health department “do better?”
While zoned industrial in the corner of an I-55 interchange, SST is not an isolated facility. It sits within five miles of more than 130,000 people and about 180 schools and childcare centers, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists report. The community in that same area, it says, is 87 percent people of color and 57 percent low income, both percentages that are 20 percent greater than the county average.
About 86 percent of the EtO emissions coming from SST do not go through a device that breaks down the chemical before it is released into the environment, according to the EPA. In an SST sterilization chamber and aeration room, EtO is dispersed over the medical supplies where the control captures and cleans EtO from the air.
But rather than getting sucked into this cleansing technology, EtO escapes through what the EPA calls fugitive emissions. That means the emissions are possibly emanating through leaks, ventilation, gaps in windows and through open doors. As Freeman said, fugitive emissions are “unfortunately” not covered under current regulations.
But the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), which represents MCAP, claims the facility isn’t in compliance with current EtO federal regulations. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) delegated authority to Shelby County Health Department to administer an air pollution control program.
SELC filed a petition with the SCHD, asking it to issue an enforcement provision that allows the health department director to issue emergency air pollution orders, which would address EtO emissions faster than the EPA. In a written statement, the department denied the petition, citing that SST is meeting local standards.
However, under municipal code, an air pollution emergency episode can be declared “during adverse air dispersion conditions that may result in harm to public health or welfare.” Since the Memphis facility is among the most high-risk, and with an improved understanding on the chemical’s harmful impact, SELC and MCAP believe it is within reason for the director to exercise this power. They filed an appeal, asserting that leaders are refusing to act. A hearing is scheduled in August.
“When you know better, you do better, and we’re not seeing that from the facility. We’re not seeing that from the health department.”
Amanda Garcia, Tennessee office director for the Southern Environment Law Center
“This facility has known for many years that its pollution is harming people in the community,” said Amanda Garcia, Tennessee office director for SELC. “When you know better, you do better, and we’re not seeing that from the facility. We’re not seeing that from the health department.”
Sterilization Services has voluntarily reduced EtO at its facilities in other states, but not at its Memphis plant, according to Garcia’s office. SST did not respond to emails requesting comment.
The SCHD was noticeably absent at MCAP’s community meeting earlier this month. U.S Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) and staff from the office of city council member Edmund Ford, Sr. — both of whom represent the district — attended.
“I’m here because you’re here, and you’re in danger.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis)
“I’m here because you’re here, and you’re in danger,” said Cohen. “This is just unacceptable that our health department has failed us and that this company hasn’t jumped into action.”
Absent data, but some lived experiences
Over the weekend of the Saturday the 3rd, community organizers convened residents who live near SST in preparation for two EPA meetings on last week. Pearson took issue with a March SCHD meeting, in which he and others felt SCHD leaders failed to hold SST accountable for polluting the neighborhood.
“They offered us cards for our comments, and to have our questions listened to, and if you were at that meeting, it didn’t quite go that way,” Pearson said. “They answered the questions that supported the talking points they already had, and that’s just not fair.”
At that meeting, the SCHD presented a study that did not find evidence of increased cancer rates near SST.
But because of other variables such as genetics and socioeconomics, proving environmental causes of cancer is challenging and establishing a link through statistical analysis is unlikely — facts that the health department stressed in its presentation. In fact, when SCHD director Michelle Taylor shared the results, she reminded audience members that the lack of evidence does not diminish the EPA’s EtO warning.
Researchers unaffiliated with government agencies or community organizations have been critical of methodologies used for other local EtO studies — such as an air pollution analysis commissioned by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland in July 2022. Since there are no government-sanctioned air monitors in South Memphis, the researchers hired by the city set up a temporary sampling site.
The researchers said that over four days of monitoring, EtO was not detected — a finding that comes with many shortcomings, according to researcher Richard Peltier at Institute for Global Health, an interdisciplinary program out of the University of Massachusetts. At the SELC’s request, he reviewed the measurement techniques and argued that it is difficult to draw conclusions through just 62 hours of sampling with variable wind directions.
“The city of Memphis study does not provide useful information about ambient concentrations of ethylene oxide in the community.”
Richard Peltier, University of Massachusett
“The city of Memphis study,” he wrote, “does not provide useful information about ambient concentrations of ethylene oxide in the community.”
Over the last 10 years, study after study has shown that South Memphis disproportionally experiences air pollution with alarming health risks. But community members don’t need the data because they say they are watching it happen to their loved ones.
By combining their lived experiences with new science from the EPA, Pearson believes his communities can push government agencies to reduce EtO and cancer risks quicker than what is currently being proposed.
“…I am so glad my home is in South Memphis, where people continue to fight, and we’ve been fighting a long time,” said Pearson.
No clusters of major cancers were found in a government investigation of the area around Sterilization Services in South Memphis after health alerts were raised on emissions from the company last year.
The company uses ethylene oxide (EtO) in its Florida Street facility to sterilize medical equipment. The gas is odorless and colorless and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wasn’t aware emissions could raise cancer rates until 2016.
Now, the EPA says EtO emissions from the facility could pose a risk to those living in the neighborhood around it. The agency held public meetings in Memphis last year to warn the residents but said there was little they could do.
Since that meeting, officials with the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) and the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) reviewed areas around the company’s facility. Specifically, they were looking for heightened cases of leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, stomach cancer, and breast cancer.
”This cancer cluster investigation did not provide evidence of increased amounts of leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, stomach, or breast cancers clustered near the Sterilization Services of Tennessee facility compared to a group of residents away from the facility,” reads the report. “Just because we cannot find evidence of increased rates of cancer that are associated with EtO does not mean there may not be increased risk.”
For the study, health officials compared the area around Sterilization Services to another area far from the facility, basically from Cordova to Eads in eastern Shelby County. To get a better context of any population shifts that may have happened, they also compared data from 2000-2009 and from 2010-2019.
SCHD officials announced the findings of the study this week in a public meeting. SCHD director Dr. Michelle Taylor fielded questions from the a audience and from those watching a live-stream of the meeting. Taylor said the company has been “very cooperative” during the investigation process.
“We’ve never had a problem with them, with our inspectors going in, asking questions, getting information for from them, none of that,” Taylor said. “So, really it is about finding out what the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] is expecting in the way of additional controls and then figuring out and negotiating how quickly that can happen.”
The company has used EtO here since the 1970s. The SCHD has permitted the facility since 1985. The EPA did not begin regulating emissions of EtO until 1994.
The company is now in compliance with all local, state, and federal regulations on emissions. The EPA is working on some rule changes to limit EtO emissions at places like Sterilization Services.
Until then, the company can only be asked to make changes voluntarily, which is what the Memphis City Council asked them to do in a resolution in January. At the time, council member Dr. Jeff Warren said Sterilization Services has facilities across the U.S. and has already enacted emission interventions at some of them.
Citizens asked Taylor this week if the health department could intervene and demand the company to act, even to get them to move.
“If we learned anything from Covid, we know that our authority is limited at the health department,” Taylor said. “Industry is not just regulated by us, it’s regulated by code enforcement, it’s regulated by zoning, it’s regulated by many other divisions that are not the health department. So, when you’re talking about asking an industry to move somewhere else, the short answer is, we as a health department, as a single entity — we just cannot do that alone.”
