On a 2 hectare property and Mississippi52-year-old Krystal Polk’s family has lived off the land for generations, raising dogs and pigs, growing onions and herbs and trading their peaches for pears.
The land, on the Tennessee border in the town of Southaven, was her family’s survival, Polk said. “We lived a very simplistic life,” she told CBS News.
While life there may have been easy in Polk’s opinion, the circumstances surrounding her home were rare. Her family bought the property “Before people of color were allowed to own land,” she said, it was passed down for four generations. When Polk’s parents first moved in, they discovered “KKK” scrawled at the bottom of the hill on their property, she said.
Holding the land was made more difficult a year ago when a noisy neighbor appeared across the street – a powerhouse so loud, it drove the family away. Since then, the land has been mostly empty, occupied only by a relentless hum.
The plant, which powers Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI data centers in the Memphis area, has sparked reactions from Southaven residents concerned about noise and air pollution. A petition by the Resident-Coalition Safe and Sound Coalition calling for the power plant to be shut down has over 1,400 signatures.
Polk said she remembers hearing the birds at her family’s home. Now, she said the plant “constantly roars” in her ears even after it’s gone.
“It’s like being in the middle of the airport where the planes take off but they never take off,” she said.
SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI, recently said in a press release in July that it is investing millions of dollars in sound walls and silencers with “advanced routing technologies” around the plant. Southaven residents told CBS News that a sound wall installed so far has provided little relief from the noise.
“We gathered there”
Over the course of two years, Musk expanded his footprint in the Memphis area with the construction of his Colossus 1 data center just north of Southaven in 2024. By January 2026, two more data centers were announced. This July, Musk quietly confirmed the construction of another local data center, “Minihard”, in a response to a post on his Platform X.
Musk’s SpaceXAI projects will total more than $20 billion in investments in Southaven, which Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said in a press release will “bring amazing opportunities to its residents for generations.”
But for Polk, the development meant a new kind of burden for her family.
“We don’t know the future,” she said. “So we’re not sure what to invest in it.”
Polk moved out of the family home after he married, and for years it bounced between family members. It was where Polk scooped her own ice cream as a child, held her rehearsal dinner when she got married and hosted the holiday every year.
“We gathered there and we thanked God for what we had,” she said. “There was always a celebration.”
Crystal Polk 
She planned to retire and eventually pass the property on to her children. But now those plans are on hold. In addition to the “24/7” noise, Polk said she and her family have asthma and were concerned about fumes from the gas turbines at the plant.
“I’m afraid we’re going to be the ones that everybody looks back on and says, ‘Hey, remember they tried to tell us these things were dangerous to our health and causing harm,” Polk said. “I’m afraid we’re the victims.”
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other groups sued xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech in April, alleging that the plant “emits significant amounts of harmful pollutants.”
In June, SpaceXAI filed a motion to dismiss the case, and the Justice Department also moved to intervene and dismiss the case. The Justice Department said in a statement that the issue “implicates national security and Mississippi’s legal action regarding authorization” and that the NAACP lawsuit “could hinder the War Department’s use of AI for national defense.”
CBS News has reached out to SpaceXAI several times for comment and has not heard back.
The company has entered into an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality that includes removing the 69 temporary turbines at the plant and replacing them with 41 permanent turbines over the course of a year.
But a study by the EmPower Analytics Group found that the plan to install dozens of gas turbines would increase air pollution in the area and be concentrated in communities that are disproportionately black. The study was commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the NAACP’s lawsuit against xAI and MZX Tech.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality said in a statement that it does not comment on “third-party reports or matters involved in pending litigation” and that it “remains committed to carrying out its responsibility to protect public health and the environment through implementation and enforcement of applicable state and federal environmental laws and regulations.”
MDEQ said that as part of the permitting process, MZX Tech is required to demonstrate that the proposed facility does not violate air quality standards.
Lauren Spruce 
Nevertheless, the residents are not convinced. Shannon Samsa, a 27-year-old physician assistant who lives in Southaven, is concerned about the plant’s impact on her community’s health. She has become an outspoken advocate against the plant, speaking at town meetings and leading the Safe and Sound Coalition as its director.
“It’s not just my neighbors, it’s not just my family and friends, it’s my future patients,” she said. “It’s also a big health issue.”
Priceless property
As SpaceXAI extends its reach in the region, the future of Polk’s property hangs in the balance. Several companies have expressed interest in buying it.
Polk said she was approached by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Advisors with an offer. After multiple “no’s” over the course of weeks, she said she eventually filed a Better Business Bureau complaint, accusing the company of harassment and manipulation.
In the complaint, reviewed by CBS News, Polk alleged that the company tried to force her to agree to the services.
Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Advisors, in response to the complaint, said it was exploring the potential acquisition of Polk Land on behalf of a client who was not identified. The company confirmed that it made several attempts to contact Polk “by phone, text and written correspondence,” but denied engaging in “harassment, pressure tactics or inappropriate behavior.”
Polk said the company has not reached out since she filed the complaint. She declined to disclose the company’s offer, but said that “it wasn’t worth anything.”
Selling the land is complicated — keeping it was her father’s dying wish, Polk said.
“He asked me to please keep it as much as I could within reason,” she said. “I’m not sure if you could provide any value.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the name of the real estate company. It has also been updated with additional background on the study commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center.