MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The xAI fight continues this weekend as another community meeting is on tap to address the environmental concerns that have been raised since Elon Musk brought his company to Memphis.

The Boxtown community is one of those fighting the hardest. In the Boxtown community, you will find generations of families proud of where they live.

“Most of us have grown up in this area,” Senethua Gage said. “Family has handed down property. So you know, we’re vested, we’re stakeholders. So we’re not going anyplace.”

But now they worry what Elon Musk’s computer company operating near their homes will bring.

“More pollution, more cancer? More asthma,” Gage said.

Tennessee State Representative Justin J. Pearson is also from the community and has been fighting for environmental justice for years. Saturday, he is leading a Town Hall meeting on what he says are new revelations around xAI.

“The reason that I’m calling this emergency town hall, in partnership with Boxtown Neighborhood Association, is because they’re killing us,” Pearson said. “There’s no other way to say this. They’re increasing the amount of smog that is in our community by 30 to 60%. They’re also putting 16.7 tons of formaldehyde into the air with these 35 turbines that they don’t have a single permit to use.”

Those turbines are now a source of contention after an environmental group said it found that xAI was running double the number of gas turbines it had applied for.

Pearson wants County and City leaders as well as the Health Department to take action and get the project stopped.

“We’re being told by Mayor Lee Harris, by Director Taylor, and everybody else who’s just greenlighting this project like it’s the best thing in the world, that this is okay for us to be mistreated,” Pearson said. “It’s okay for us to continue to be polluted. It’s okay for us to continue to be hurt while they make billions and profits off of our backs.”

Mayor Harris’ office did not comment on Pearson’s claims, but the Health Department is planning a community meeting later this month.

Folks in Boxtown will be there. Residents say they have fought before, and they don’t plan to give up protecting their community.

“You’re trying to come in and take what’s ours. So, you know, we’re not going to stand for. We’re in for the fight,” Gage said.

WREG has continuously reached out to xAI about the environmental impact of their facility. We have yet to have someone agree to grant us an interview.

Saturday’s town hall meeting will be at 10 AM at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church on Weaver Road.