The records · Mississippi asked xAI
Every record behind the essay on xAI's answer to Mississippi's data center questions
These are the records the essay is built on. The letter came from MDEQ, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, in answer to my records request of September 30th, 2026. The rest are MDEQ records already hosted with my essay on the upcoming hearing, and the news reports the essay cites. Read them yourself. If I got something wrong, these are the pages that will show it.
The pages that matter, marked up
Each one outlines the passage the essay relies on, in red, on the page it actually sits on. Tap to open the full image.
The questions
What Gipson asked for.
The thirty-day memo
The Agriculture Commissioner's memo, attached to the Permit Board's July 14th, 2026 minutes. At least 30 days before "any public hearing or vote" on a data center permit, it asks for water sources and estimated uses, energy sources and grid effects, the "known or estimated" heat, air quality and decibel level, audited financial statements (which may be incorporated by reference to SEC filings), who controls the company, jobs "excluding construction jobs," and, for wholesalers, customer contracts. Pages 14 and 15 of the minutes.
The answer
The only document MDEQ produced.
The two-page letter
A cover note and a two-page letter, both signed by Jordan Buss, SpaceXAI's senior director for environment, health and safety, addressed to Gipson and copied to the MDEQ Permit Board. MDEQ stamped it received September 11th, 2026, and sent it to me on October 2nd, 2026 as "the only responsive document that we have for this request, at this time." Nothing is redacted.
The air
What MDEQ wrote, and which monitors count.
MDEQ says area monitors are over the standards
MDEQ's comments on a revised version of the company's air modeling plan: "several monitors in the area are currently violating the 2015 ozone standard of 70 ppb, and the Hernando monitor in DeSoto County is exceeding the 2024 PM2.5 annual standard of 9 ug/m3." Page 3.
The final modeling plan picks Shelby Farms
Two pages of the final air modeling plan for the permit. Page 2-18: "MZX is proposing that no preconstruction monitoring be required for PM2.5," and a PM2.5 background is "not explicitly needed for any modeling." Page 2-19: the Shelby Farms monitor in Memphis "was chosen ... to satisfy the need for any pre-construction monitoring," "While not the geographically closest." The Hernando monitor stays the ozone background. Only these two pages are hosted - the cover page carries the consultants' direct phone numbers.
Where the monitors are
EPA's interactive map of air quality monitors. Hernando is about 11.7 miles south of the Stanton Road plant, Riverview in Memphis about 7.8 miles, and Shelby Farms about 15.9 miles - distances measured from the monitors' published locations.
The controls
The agreed order
The signed order with its turbine-by-turbine retirement schedule. Fourteen of the 69 temporary turbines are listed with SCR and an oxidation catalyst, the stronger pollution controls. The rest are listed as water injection.
Jobs and the water plant
What others reported.
The incentive deals' minimum jobs
Neil Strebig reports the Mississippi Development Authority's two incentive agreements, obtained by the paper through records requests: a minimum of 20 new jobs at 2400 Stateline Road and 10 at 2875 Stanton Road.
"Resume construction"
The mayor's post, shared by SpaceXAI Memphis: "xAI has committed to a specific date to resume construction of the recycled wastewater plant."
The request
What I asked for
Anything filed under the memo by or for MZX Tech, xAI, SpaceX or CTC Property; correspondence about it; whether it applies to the November hearing; and any log of submissions. MDEQ answered October 2nd with the one letter above. It did not say item by item whether records exist for the other three parts.
Back to the essay · the case board
Think I got something wrong? Check the records, then tell me. That's the whole point.