The Anti-Resistant Group is petitioning the EPA to formally declare Memphis from compliance with national health standards for ozone emissions. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Fock for Tennessee Checkout)

Data published by the Environmental Protection Agency shows that communities in and around Memphis have ozone emission levels that are too high to comply with national health standards.

The coalition of environmental groups says it has long been a time when federal agencies and local regulators have tightened restrictions and require better emission controls due to air pollution sources.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency on June 5th, asking the EPA to formally recognize that Memphis metropolitan areas do not meet federal requirements.

Ozone – also known as smog – is created when contaminants from automobiles, industrial plants, power plants and other sources react when exposed to sunlight. According to the EPA. Ozone exposure can damage the airways and lead to difficulty breathing. People who spend asthma, emphysema or spend a lot of time outdoors are especially at risk. EPA Website situation. American Lung Association This year, we gave Shelby County a “F” grade of ozone contamination.

The average ozone emissions have exceeded federal restrictions for the past two years, indicating 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 the requirements of the federal Atmospheric Aviation Act for the Memphis Region. SELC, along with its partner Memphis community and the community against pollution, is criticizing the efforts of local regulators to reduce ozone emissions as insufficient.

“We’ve been working with local governments to try and persuade them to get faster, but they haven’t taken it seriously enough, so this was really a last resort for us,” said Caroline Cress, senior SELC lawyer. “You know, the data isn’t lying. We know that breathing that air is unhealthy now. We can’t just sit and keep making it worse.”

The Shelby County Health Department could not immediately contact the request for comment.

Air quality monitors in five Memphis areas exceed ozone health standards

EPA sets air quality standards for ozone 70 copies per billion copies 2015. The agency must check the standards every five years, but in 2020 we have decided not to change the ozone standard.

The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, which serves as an independent advisor to the EPA, published a report in 2023 recommending that the standard be reduced to 55-60 copies “to protect public health.” The EPA has not changed the standard yet.

The agency uses data from the Aviation Monitor to calculate benchmark numbers over the course of three years to measure standard compliance. The Memphis Metro area has five aviation monitors that collect data continuously. Three are in Shelby County, one in Arkansas and the other in Mississippi.

Between 2021 and 2023, two Memphis-region monitors exceeded the norm. From 2022 to 2024, four of the five monitors exceeded the standard, and the fifth one wasn’t that behind.

Southern Memphis does not have monitors that have seen industrial development increase in recent years. It is also home to the majority of black communities that say they are surrounded by industrial pollution.

The Southern Memphis community has been battling pollution for years and organized in 2021 to stop the development of the Baiharia pipeline, which transported crude oil through its historically black Southwest Memphis neighborhood. The EPA investigated potential cancer clustering in nearby areas surrounding the sterilization services at Tennessee facilities in 2022, but found no evidence of high concentrations of cancer diagnosis that could be connected to the facility.

Sterilization companies use ethylene oxide, a colourless gas associated with several types of cancer. The company operates in compliance with EPA regulations, but the federal agency has updated its regulations after showing that gas is “more harmful to human health than we previously knew.” Report Published in 2023 by the Tennessee Department of Health.

Shelby County Health Department Determine where to place monitors in Shelby County. Department of 2025 Air Surveillance Network Plan It shows that it received funds from the EPA to add a monitoring site to Southern Memphis, which has not been there for more than a decade. The plan does not include proposed sites and monitors may be placed by late 2025 or 2026.

The department could not be contacted immediately due to comments about the proposed Southern Memphis site.

The EPA has the authority to review data and declare territory from compliance at any time.

“We believe we really have an obligation at this point,” Cress said of the EPA. “We present our own data on our website that clearly shows that this sector is violating federal standards.”

If the EPA changes its Memphis region designation, stricter air quality permit requirements will affect Elon Musk’s Xai (also known as the Colossus Data Center in Southern Memphis).

The petition argues that Xai could become the “largest stationary source” of ozone emissions in Shelby County, but the facility’s emissions are not generally known as the methane gas burning turbines used to power the facility.

Representatives for Xai could not be immediately contacted for comment.

Tennessee Rep. John Gillespie, Republican, Memphis; A statement has been issued Monday supported Xai’s Memphis facility and praised “hundreds of well-paid jobs” created by The Endeavor.

“Even though some people believe in you, Xai is not in the middle of a residential area,” Gillespie writes. “Instead it’s well located at the 3,500-acre Frank Pigeon Industrial Park, a nearly 60-year industrial development that many Indigenous Memphians call the president’s island.”

“Over 1,000 acres of industrial parks are specially distinguished from residential areas, making this technology the perfect place to run,” Gillespie wrote.