The pipe belonged to Tesla. The dark liquid was wastewater from the company's nearly $1 billion lithium refinery, which began operations in December 2024 and
It was an independent lab that tested it because the ditch owners thought something was wrong. Tesla claims they also measured it incorrectly, but you can’t really dispute the color coming out, so something is in it.
Even if they did measure it incorrectly though, it’s going to be hard to dispute the lithium fingerprint they found, it would only be the other chemicals that become questionable. Seems like such a simple answer is to re-test it and re-test it immediately, and put them under extended re-testing scrutiny if the re-test comes back clean (maybe they changed something to fake the new test). Also re-test where the “incorrect” test was done to see if it gets similar results there as well. It’s not even pocket change to Tesla, it’s like a piece of lint in the pocket that a penny has touched change.
It was a public drainage district - specifically, Nueces County Drainage District No. 2 - that requested the lab be performed. These are municipal offices within the structure of the County that stumbled on a pipe authorized by the state and misused by Tesla’s facilities.
This is effectively a dispute between the county and the state, wherein the state has authorized dumping it should not have the legal authority to provide.
It was an independent lab that tested it because the ditch owners thought something was wrong. Tesla claims they also measured it incorrectly, but you can’t really dispute the color coming out, so something is in it.
Even if they did measure it incorrectly though, it’s going to be hard to dispute the lithium fingerprint they found, it would only be the other chemicals that become questionable. Seems like such a simple answer is to re-test it and re-test it immediately, and put them under extended re-testing scrutiny if the re-test comes back clean (maybe they changed something to fake the new test). Also re-test where the “incorrect” test was done to see if it gets similar results there as well. It’s not even pocket change to Tesla, it’s like a piece of lint in the pocket that a penny has touched change.
It was a public drainage district - specifically, Nueces County Drainage District No. 2 - that requested the lab be performed. These are municipal offices within the structure of the County that stumbled on a pipe authorized by the state and misused by Tesla’s facilities.
This is effectively a dispute between the county and the state, wherein the state has authorized dumping it should not have the legal authority to provide.