Southaven Data Center Roundtable Airs Noise, Buyout Concerns
Neighbors of the SpaceXAI operations in Southaven brought their complaints about noise, buyout offers and secrecy to a Southaven data center roundtable on Tuesday, Oct. 20. State and federal elected officials attended, along with U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom, according to a report by Action News 5 (WMC).
The meeting comes as data centers spread across the Memphis metro. Memphis leaders are considering a moratorium on new facilities, and in September Southaven approved another SpaceXAI data center, the company’s fifth in the Memphis area.
Residents describe constant noise near the facilities
Southaven resident Benita Davis said the sound from the nearby data center work is now part of daily life. She told WMC it is loud enough that visitors and people on the phone have mistaken it for a plane hovering overhead.
Noise complaints have continued as xAI has grown its footprint in Southaven. Another resident, Mark Vines, said party labels matter less to him than whether elected officials actually represent the people who live near these projects.
Buyout offers and transparency at the Southaven data center roundtable
State Sen. Theresa Gillespie Isom said some homeowners living near the facilities have been approached about selling their property. According to the senator, many don’t want to sell and consider the offers too low to buy another home.
Transparency was another major theme. Gillespie Isom questioned why the public can’t always see the agreements behind major data center projects. “If it’s right, why are you hiding?” she said, according to WMC.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who attended the event, also criticized keeping those agreements out of public view. He said that, apart from true national security matters, government secrecy is usually “a really bad idea.”
Senate candidates stake out positions
District Attorney Scott Colom, the Democrat challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Nov. 3 election, used the roundtable to lay out his data center plan. Colom wants a temporary pause on new data center construction until companies meet five requirements:
- Companies pay their own utility costs
- Project agreements and resource demands are made public
- Companies hire Mississippi workers
- People remain accountable when AI is used in personal decisions
- State and local authority over development is preserved
Colom argued that residents should not pay for infrastructure built for private companies that keep the profits.
Hyde-Smith’s campaign said the senator shares residents’ concerns and supports safeguards so data centers cover their own energy costs and grid upgrades. Campaign manager Jake Monssen pointed to her vote to advance the Ratepayer Protection Act. The campaign said the bill passed the U.S. House 417-3 but was blocked in the Senate. Monssen also said Colom is the only candidate in the race who has used AI and data centers to make campaign ads.
Lawsuit over Southaven turbines continues
The roundtable came one day after a federal judge allowed the NAACP’s Clean Air Act lawsuit over SpaceXAI’s Southaven turbines to move forward, rejecting the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to dismiss it. That ruling does not decide whether the company broke the law. It only lets the case proceed.
Data center growth has also drawn pushback elsewhere in DeSoto County. In Walls, residents raised concerns about a proposed data center at the town’s recent listening sessions.
Related: Judge Lets NAACP Lawsuit Over Southaven xAI Turbines Proceed | Walls Residents Push Back on Data Center at Listening Session
Source: Action News 5 (WMC)
