This is an entire nothing burger. Levels are within limits and they have a permit, it was just not communicated between departments. It's a failure of the Texan democracy, not a failure of Musk.
* Hexavalent chromium at 0.0104 milligrams per liter, just above the lab’s reporting limit of 0.01 mg/L. Hexavalent chromium is classified as a known human carcinogen by the US National Toxicology Program. It is the substance the Erin Brockovich case was built around.
* Arsenic at 0.0025 mg/L. That is below the federal drinking water standard of 0.01 mg/L, but present.
The hexavalent chromium is also just barely above the California drinking water standard [1]
[1] https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/drinking_water/certlic/drinki...
Along the same lines then as other emissions equipment that reduced fuel economy but achieved the ppm criteria in the exhaust. Yes, let's address pollution by burning more fuel.
How about when it enters the food chain and starts to accumulate? Will the elements say that "we're under legal limits, and accumulate slowly, so we will act nice and don't poison the organism we're in?"
Love that way of thinking.
> Love that way of thinking.
I mean.. yeah, kinda'? We live in a society made up of laws, that's kind of the premise. So if we don't think something is fine, we can make it illegal (and we often do).
It's a pretty good way of thinking methinks, what's your alternative?
or unsustainably: e.g.: PFAS. For bonus points you can do internal research and hide the reports detailing the effects accurately.
I guess as a contrived example your breath releases 40k PPM Co2. Have you tried aiming for no pollution?
The reality is we make things which involve pollutants, which we create laws to govern the safe disposal of. Engineers optimise for these constraints the same way you do. You wouldn’t have one k8s pod per request to ‘strive to keep the response times as low as possible’.
There is lead in dirt!
That's the definition of law. As long as it is legal it won't be charged.
The US regulatory standards are terrible. https://www.loudounwater.org/information-hexavalent-chromium...
The actual limits are orders of magnitude lower. Educate yourself.
what's more, i'm not finding a reason that tesla would need hexavalent chromium in battery production, which leads me to speculate that this is waste from one of their other car factories where they presumably have a hexavalent chrome line (it's a cheaper and more robust process than trivalent chrome) and they are mixing/discharging on purpose at the limit at this plant.
> just above the lab’s reporting limit of 0.01 mg/L.
> just barely above the California drinking water standard
I ... just can't even say anything to this.
more about PG&E contamination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_groundwater_contaminat...
Strontium at 1.17 mg/L
That seems like a misprint? Strontium is a fission byproduct. And that seems like a high amount if that's milligrams per liter.
privatize the profits
socialize the costs
He does this with EVERY business, the tunnel stuff, the space launches, everything
How do you think he is almost the first TRILLIONAIRE which should not even be a thing
If you spent a dollar PER SECOND it would take 12 days to reach a MILLION
Dollar per second takes 32 YEARS to reach a BILLION
Dollar per second takes 32 THOUSAND YEARS to reach a TRILLION
Exxon Valdez anyone?
Or how about clean air... who needs that?
The alternative is burning and refining fossil fuels.
Louisiana has a large section of land referred to as "cancer alley". It's called that due to the released toxins from oil refining (most likely benzene).
The lithium extracted today will end up circulating in the supply chain for decades. Unlike the fossil fuels refined today which are burned tomorrow, fully releasing all their toxins.
Now, it could be cleaner. There's really no reason they couldn't distill the waste water and then reuse it.
The best world would be significantly lessening the need for cars but electric is a clear win over gas.
>Notably, no party has alleged that Tesla is in violation of any law. TCEQ [(Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)] has not found one. Tesla is operating under a permit the state agency issued. The dispute, instead, is about what the permit was supposed to cover, and what got left out of it.
i made no comment on whether the laws, as written, are appropriate or not. i just went into the article thinking that this wastewater drainage was completely off the books and was surprised to find no alleged law breaking.
Are permits issued loudly usually?
"None of those facts are in dipsute. [However,] what [the facts] mean is [under dispute]."
The article then proceeds to explain how they did all kinds of non-standard tests and still found nothing above the federal drinking water standard nor in violation of the permit. Yes Tesla is still evil and responsible because supposedly some nearby town is having a drought and people are "running out of water."
Shit like this and we wonder why the US is dependent on China for all rare earths.
:facepalm:
If you're fear-mongering, then at least take care to fear-monger correctly. From the numbers they report, it seems like Tesla is doing a good job with wastewater treatment.
We win political points for globalism, we win political points for lower cost goods, then we win political points by virtue signaling about the environment! So convenient.
This is what all those pennies earned them: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150402-the-worst-place-...
This could be bad or it could not, but I simply can't take anything seriously that uses ambiguous terms so linked to woo.
That doesn't matter under a communist dictatorship, but in more civilized countries people don't want it in their backyard.
What an awful character. I am thankful I don't have to deceive or tell half-truths for a paycheck. The dispute is that they are discharging things not listed in the permit, and their response is that they don't exceed the limits of the things that are listed in the permit.
I also fault the government employee who submits a sample for testing from a lithium plant and doesn't check a box "test for lithium".
I find it kinda worrying that so much of the legal weight of this case doesn't seem to be about the untreated wastewater discharge at all but only about the detail that they used a county-owned ditch to do so.
So if Tesla had dug their own ditch or built the pipe all the way to Petronila Creek, the discharge would have been no problem?
malfist•32m ago
> Hexavalent chromium at 0.0104 milligrams per liter, just above the lab’s reporting limit of 0.01 mg/L. Hexavalent chromium is classified as a known human carcinogen by the US National Toxicology Program. It is the substance the Erin Brockovich case was built around.
> Arsenic at 0.0025 mg/L. That is below the federal drinking water standard of 0.01 mg/L, but present.
> Strontium at 1.17 mg/L. Mazloum’s technical report on the findings noted that long-term exposure can affect bone density and kidney function in humans and wildlife.
> Lithium and vanadium at concentrations Lazarte’s letter described as abnormally high relative to rainwater or normal groundwater.
> Elevated levels of manganese, iron, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and potassium consistent with industrial discharge. Manganese, a battery process tracer, can have neurological effects at chronic doses. Excess phosphorus can cause algae blooms that strip oxygen from waterways.
> Ammonia in the form of nitrogen at 1.68 mg/L, amplifying the algae bloom risk.
Strip away the sensationalism, and it just doesn't seem like much? None of these levels seem to be high enough to impair health. The 1.68ppm of ammonia would likely contribute to algae growth, but not majorly, especially if properly diluted. Home aquariums regularly run between 0 and 0.25ppm of NH3 without major issues, so as long as this is diluted 6x it shouldn't impact things.
I hate elon as much as the next guy, and they should have disposed of the water properly, but it doesn't seem to be anything like them running their unpermitted power plants in Memphis.
delichon•9m ago
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