The records · the Riverview monitor essay
Every record behind the essay on the air around xAI's Colossus 1
These are the records the essay "An update on the air around xAI's Colossus 1" is built on. The Health Department's statement is hosted as it was received. EPA's grant file is hosted exactly as EPA produced it under records request 2026-EPA-06631, with the full production as a zip. AirNow's own hourly data files are quoted line for line. The city's road project records are hosted as the city posted them. News stories are linked to the outlet that owns them. Every number in the essay is in one of these documents, or is a public figure linked below.
The pages that matter, marked up
Each one outlines the passage the essay relies on. Tap to open the full page.
The full records
The Department's statement on the Riverview monitor
Sent by Public Information Officer Joan Carr at 11:50 AM Central on September 9, 2026, after Michael Goldstein forwarded my questions of September 5. Three paragraphs: no formal announcement and no federal rule requiring one; EPA approved July 1, 2026 as the operational date with ozone uploads to AirNow from August 16; the carbon monoxide monitor not operational; the delay blamed primarily on a January 2025 federal funding freeze. I rendered it from the email as I received it and left my own address off. Nothing in the statement is changed.
The first Riverview reading, and the hours around it
AirNow publishes one file per hour, stamped in GMT. Every Shelby County Health Department line from the files I checked is quoted here, unedited. The 22:00 GMT file for August 16, 2026, which is 5 PM Central, is the first with a line for site 840471570010 RIVERVIEW. The files for the hours checked before it carry no Shelby County lines at all, for any of the county's sites. A file for August 10 is included to show the county's normal feed.
The lines, as textThe same, as PDFAirNow's file serverAirNow's hourly data fact sheet (GMT)
The grant file for the South Memphis monitor, as EPA produced it
Thirty-seven documents, 339 pages, released in full with no exemptions. The ones my essay uses are linked one by one, and the whole production is the zip. EPA's final response letter says the search covered August 1, 2024 to July 22, 2026.
EPA Assistance Amendment No. 1, executed September 5, 2025The approved work plan, revised May 28, 2025Budget sheet, May 2025Budget sheet, revision of December 2, 2025May 29, 2025: the county's extension requestJuly 25, 2025: EPA on the reassignmentJuly 28, 2025: the grant signed over to a new officerJuly 30, 2025: the day before the grant expiredAugust 15, 2025: the county plans to close the grantJuly 31, 2026: the six-month extension requestShelby County 2026 Ambient Air Monitoring Network PlanSELC and partners, comment of April 16, 2026, asking for a PM2.5 monitorThe Health Department's response, June 30, 2026EPA's final response letter, September 3, 2026The full production (zip, 48 MB)
Award ASST_NON_03D17324_068
The federal government's own record of the $411,000 grant: two transactions, the original award and Amendment No. 1, and the amount drawn to date.
The freeze the Department names, and EPA's own account of unfreezing the money
The Department's statement blames a federal funding freeze in January 2025. That freeze was real and widely reported. These are the public records of it. Whether it touched this grant is the question I put to the Department on September 9.
Arkansas Advocate, February 27, 2025: EPA says it has unfrozen the fundsEPA press release, July 18, 2025: the reduction in force (16,155 employees in January 2025 to 12,448)Government Executive, March 12, 2026: EPA's inspector general on 113 grant specialists and project officers lost since May 2025
The Southwest Memphis GO Project's own records, as the city posted them
The meeting notes and presentation from 2022 and 2023, the comment card the city posted in September 2026, and the public involvement page as it read on August 27, 2026, with the cancelled meeting and the city's sentence on the federal environmental review process. The January 19, 2023 notes carry the air quality promise the essay quotes.
January 19, 2023 advisory meeting notesNovember 1, 2022 community meeting notesMarch 24, 2022 community meeting notesMarch 24, 2022 presentationFebruary 24, 2022 advisory meeting notesThe comment card, updated September 2026The public involvement page, August 27, 2026The project's own site
The results table the city released on June 24, 2025
The two-page table of the June 13 and 16, 2025 samples at three sites, with the vendor's field notes on where the samplers were placed. Hosted as the city released it, with the city's release linked.
What the reporters added
Daily Memphian, September 8, 2026: the city calls off the road extension, for now
The two July pieces this one continues
The air in South Memphis - and the receiptsSouth Memphis had four air monitors. Every one went dark.
The EPA request that produced the grant file, and what is still open
Request 2026-EPA-06631 was filed July 22, 2026 and closed September 3 as a full grant. My letter of September 5 asks EPA about the categories the production does not contain, including every quarterly progress report the work plan schedules. Dates and status for every request are on the board.
Think I got something wrong? Check the records, then tell me. That's the whole point.