After months of vague promises from Sterilization Services of Tennessee about closing, South Memphis residents and environmental advocates believe that the Florida Street facility, known for emitting a cancer-causing gas, has finally shut down.
This spring, the community experienced mixed feelings regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regulations, which require companies like SST to cut emissions by 90%. The regulations seemed irrelevant; SST was expected to relocate long before the rules took effect.
Yet, people living near the facility were in the dark — once again — about the status of the company’s relocation plans. Their only clue came from a letter the company’s attorneys sent to elected officials last summer, stating SST would close its Memphis facility as of April 30.
Memphis Community Against Pollution, an environmental and climate justice organization pressuring the facility to shutter, gathered in front of the facility on Tuesday for a press conference. They shared that the company was on track to move out of their community, as members of that community clapped alongside them.
MCAP has not heard directly from SST about their move-out status. However, according to the Shelby County Health Department, which oversees air quality in Memphis, the company has not submitted any new permit renewal applications. On Thursday, not a single car was parked outside the seemingly vacant building. MLK50: Justice Through Journalism has been reaching out to SST for comment for the last year without receiving any response.
Had SST not closed, SCHD planned to continue with the existing regulations until the EPA’s new limits for ethylene oxide were implemented nearly two years from now. Dissatisfied with the health department’s approach to managing EtO emissions, MCAP and their attorneys from the Southern Environmental Law Center have criticized it as inadequate, prompting them to take matters into their own hands.
“While it may seem unusual to celebrate a company closing, we acknowledge the power of community advocacy,” said Mary Webb, who has lived in Mallory Heights for most of her life. “We see a lot of health problems around here … my thing is now, since you left, what are you going to do to help us?”
Community members believe they deserve repair for their exposure to the toxic gas that had been leaking from the plant for four decades. In a class action lawsuit filed against SST in August, which does not not include MCAP, people are looking for financial and medical support with comprehensive cancer screenings and preventive care measures.
For MCAP President KeShaun Pearson, however, the work is not over. SST is just one of the 17 toxic release facilities in southwest Memphis, a majority Black community.
“The fight for environmental justice is going to continue. This fight was never Sterilization Services of Tennessee. This fight was for clean air, clean water and clean soil for everybody who lives here. SST was just an apparatus and part of environmental injustice and environmental racism we experience,” said Pearson.
“We are happy that Sterilization Services of Tennessee is leaving, and what we hope for is that this place is [used] differently. The sustainable future we are looking forward to involves changing and reforming these industrial properties into something that is green.”
Ashli Blow is a freelance writer who covers environmental science and policy. Her stories range from the lives of people in urban watersheds to those who roam the wilderness. She was raised in Memphis and produced breaking news at WMC Action News 5. She has now been working in journalism and strategic communications for nearly 10 years. Ashli lives in Seattle and is a graduate student at the University of Washington, studying climate policy.
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