4 days ago
Groups petition EPA to act as ozone levels in Memphis exceed national health standards
Anti-pollution groups are petitioning the EPA to formally declare Memphis out of compliance with national health standards for ozone emissions. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout)
Memphis and surrounding communities have ozone emissions levels that are too high to comply with national health standards, according to data published by the Environmental Protection Agency.
A coalition of environmental groups is saying it's long past time for the federal agency and local regulators to tighten restrictions and require better emission controls for sources of air pollution.
The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency on June 5, asking the EPA to formally recognize that the Memphis metro area is failing to meet federal requirements — a move that would trigger stricter requirements for future air permits.
Ozone — also known as smog — is created when pollutants from cars, industrial plants, power plants and other sources react when exposed to sunlight, according to the EPA. Ozone exposure can damage airways and lead to difficulty breathing. People with asthma, emphysema, or those who spend a lot of time outdoors are particularly at risk, the EPA website states. The American Lung Association gave Shelby County an 'F' grade for ozone pollution this year.
Ozone emissions averages have exceeded federal limits for the last two years, marking an increase in emissions since 2020.
The Shelby County Health Department, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment are responsible for enforcing federal Clean Air Act requirements for the greater Memphis area. The SELC, along with partners Memphis Community Against Pollution, Young Gifted and Green and the Sierra Club criticizes the local regulators' efforts to reduce ozone emissions as inadequate.
'We've been trying to work with the local governments to persuade them to do more, and quicker, but they just aren't taking it seriously enough, so this was really a last resort to us,' SELC Senior Attorney Caroline Cress said. 'You know, the data doesn't lie. We know that it is unhealthy to breathe that air now, and we can't just sit by and let that continue to get worse.'
The Shelby County Health Department could not be immediately reached for comment.
The EPA set the air quality standard for ozone at 70 parts per billion in 2015. The agency is required to review its standards every five years, but decided not to change the ozone standard in 2020.
The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee — which acts as an independent advisor to the EPA — issued a report in 2023 recommending that the standard be reduced to 55 to 60 parts per billion 'to be protective of public health.' The EPA has not yet changed the standard.
The agency calculates a three-year benchmark figure using data from air monitors to measure compliance with the standard. The Memphis metro area has five air monitors that continuously collect data: three in Shelby County, one in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.
Between 2021 and 2023, two of the Memphis-area monitors exceeded the standard. From 2022 to 2024, four of the five monitors exceeded the standard, with the fifth not far behind.
There is no monitor located in South Memphis, where industrial development has ballooned in recent years. It's also home to majority Black communities who say they're being surrounded by industrial pollution.
South Memphis communities have battled pollution for years, organizing in 2021 to stop the development of the Byhalia Pipeline, which would have transported crude oil through historically Black Southwest Memphis neighborhoods. The EPA investigated potential cancer clustering in neighborhoods surrounding the Sterilization Services of Tennessee facility in 2022, but found no evidence of higher concentrations of cancer diagnoses that could be connected to the facility.
The sterilization company uses ethylene oxide, a colorless gas that has been linked to several types of cancer. The company has operated in compliance with EPA regulations, but the federal agency updated its regulations after studies showed the gas is 'more harmful to human health than we previously knew,' according to a report published by the Tennessee Department of Health in 2023.
The Shelby County Health Department determines where to place monitors within Shelby County. The department's 2025 air monitoring network plan indicates that it received funding from the EPA to add a monitoring site in South Memphis, which has been without one for more than a decade. The plan does not include a proposed site, and states a monitor may be placed by late 2025 or 2026.
The department could not be immediately reached for comment on the proposed South Memphis site.
The EPA has authority to review data and declare an area as out of compliance at any time.
'We believe that it really does have an obligation at this point,' Cress said of the EPA. 'We are presenting it with its own data that is on its website that shows unequivocally that this area is violating federal standards.'
Should the EPA change the Memphis area's designation, more stringent air quality permit requirements would impact Elon Musk's xAI (also known as the Colossus data center in South Memphis), 'among many other facilities that are emitting ozone-forming pollution,' Cress said.
The petition alleges that xAI could be the 'largest stationary source' of ozone emissions in Shelby County, but because the methane gas-fired turbines being used to power the facility are unpermitted, the facility's emissions are unknown to the public.
A representative from xAI could not be immediately reached for comment.
Tennessee Rep. John Gillespie, a Memphis Republican, issued a statement Monday in support of xAI's Memphis facility, lauding the 'hundreds of high-paying jobs' created by the endeavor.
'Despite what some people would have you believe, xAI is not in the middle of a residential neighborhood,' Gillespie wrote. 'Instead, it's suitably located in the 3,500-acre Frank Pidgeon Industrial Park, a nearly 60-year-old industrial development that many native Memphians refer to as President's Island.'
'The industrial park has over one thousand acres specifically set apart from any residential areas, making it the perfect location for this technology to operate,' Gillespie wrote.
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