'Alarming:' XAI is 'prioritizing other projects'; Water plant is still planned

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - In a recent social media post xAI, business magnate Elon Musk's supercomputer company, announced they were focusing on other projects for now instead of the development of a Memphis water recycling plant.

Within the statement, xAI says that it is "prioritizing other more immediate projects" and stresses that the plans to build the water plant have not changed.

This comes news of xAI's million-dollar expansion was met with public scrutiny, partly from local environmental rights organization in the Mid-South.

Despite reports from the Daily Memphian, who confirmed the facility is 'pausing' construction through the project's engineer, the City of Memphis released the following statement:

Action News 5 spotted construction crews working at the water treatment facility location on Thursday.

Elon Musk also tweeted Thursday about the construction hold stating their focus is on finishing Colossus 2, "then build the water recycling plant".

Representatives with Protect Our Aquifer, an organization dedicated to protecting our sand aquifer, said the following:

"They do not need to be relying on a community's drinking water supply to cool super computers," said Sarah Houston, the Executive Director of Protect of Aquifer.

Houston called the announcement 'alarming' and said from the start xAI promised to use its own wastewater recycling plant to cool Colossus Data Center, instead of pulling from the aquifer like they are now.

"Memphians, we all agree on one thing, we have good water," said Houston.

Houston said the aquifer is deep below the ground, slow moving and sandy. She said it includes rain that fell almost two thousand years ago and is the Memphis community's clean drinking water supply.

"It has been slow, slow moving for decades but it's now times catching up with us where legacy pollution from old industries is starting to sink deeper and deeper," said Houston.

Issues Houston said will only worsen if xAI relies on the Aquifer to cool their super computers.

"It does not negate the other harm that has happened in the community with the air pollution, and the gas turbines, but it is something that is a real solution on the water side," said Houston.

Houston said if the super computers are completely built and operational before the water recycling plant, the aquifer will be in serious jeopardy with millions of gallons of water being sucked out.

"It can pull down legacy pollution toward our drinking water supply. This is slow moving but when you have that suction, its pulling that down closer to impacting our health. The other side is actually just resiliency of our infrastructure," said Houston.

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