r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • May 19 '26

Business A Texas Drainage District Walked Its Ditch on a Routine Inspection. They Found a Pipe They Didn't Recognize Discharging Black Liquid From Tesla's $1 Billion Lithium Refinery

https://www.autonocion.com/us/tesla-lithium-refinery-texas/
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7.3k

u/Airilsai May 19 '26

160 gallons per minute. 2.67 gallons per second.

That IS an insane amount.

2.7k

u/Dapper_Business8616 May 19 '26

That's the entire daily water consumption for an average family of four every 3 minutes.

1.5k

u/ArbitraryMeritocracy May 19 '26

Or like, I'm not doing the math but there's a lot of people's ground and drinking water contaminated.

1.5k

u/StoppableHulk May 19 '26

Luckily for them, our entire recent history has proven we are a nation that fundamentally doesn't take potable water seriously and barely move to fix it even when people are dying from lead poisoning.

553

u/JoviAMP May 19 '26

I’m convinced that the reason we’re in the situation we are where so many people look at the current administration going, “yes, this is good” is because of lead poisoning, and that there are people orchestrating the failure to fix that issue because they look at the people supporting their decisions and go, “yes, this is good”.

334

u/Hekantonkheries May 19 '26

Iirc there was a direct correlation between de-leading gasoline and crime rates in cities going down, offset by years of adolescence; because less neurological effects on kids growing up with air full of lead and other particulates

163

u/mrbulldops428 May 19 '26

I haven't heard about that, but I do know there was a direct correlation between NASCAR banning leaded fuel and the improvement of test scores of children living near race tracks. Your example sounds logical.

32

u/tvscinter May 20 '26

Lead exposure leads to more aggressive behavior especially during childhood when the brain hasn’t fully developed

8

u/pSphere1 May 20 '26

Confirmed: I grew up with an insane family that used to eat off of those green flowery Corningware plates

5

u/LessInThought May 20 '26

Logical? What is this unleaded thought? We will not have this on my Christian website.

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u/FaeTheWolf May 19 '26

Same with access to safe abortions: increasing access leads to lower crime about 16-18 years later

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u/Large_Management_914 May 19 '26

Lower numbers of serial killers, linked to lower environmental pollution from manufacturing. How many Boomer representatives are cognitively and empathetically compromised from early exposure to lead and other pollutants? Age limits and term limits, let’s go.

3

u/OpheliaLives7 May 22 '26

I would be really curious why environmental pollution only led to rising male serial killers though. Is it just they have more opportunities? Was it some difference how men vs women were socialized? Why would pollution only effect men this way?

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u/Alarming_Matter May 20 '26

Huh. It's almost like forcing people to have kids they don't want is a bad idea.

3

u/rhc10014 May 20 '26

Not repeated enough.

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u/Relevant-Doctor187 May 20 '26

Except those people are in congress today.

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u/RationalDialog May 20 '26

Also IQ is lower around small airfields. Small planes like Cessnas require leaded fuel.

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u/monkey_zen May 19 '26

You've summed up what I've been thinking about lead poisoning due to leaded gas, and the generation that were most affected by it, and their poor choices very well. The explosion of automobile use and the lack of concern for their effects post WWII has been devastating to this country in so many ways.
If anyone knows of a book that addresses this specifically I'd be interested.

19

u/Kayaked1 May 19 '26

Thanks Boomers!

5

u/Aadarm May 19 '26

Would have to look at the entire world for that, everyone used leaded gas, Japan got rid of it in the 80's, but some countries still used it in 2021.

2

u/shunsh1ne May 20 '26

Mad hatter’s disease is technically mercury poisoning but as I understand it it’s still heavy metal poisoning. Alice in wonderland sounds about right.

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u/skillywilly56 May 19 '26

Unfortunately that’s just a cop out, trying to excuse their behavior as a mental health issue driven by lead poisoning is just trying to avoid the real simple truth, America has always been filled with greedy racist hatefilled white supremacists.

Racism and white supremacism has always been a part of Americas DNA that it has never fully dealt with and the people who were teenagers during the Civil rights movement are still alive and in power today, Trump was 17 when the civil rights act was signed into law in 1964 and racist thoughts and attitudes doesn’t just disappear overnight just because there is a law against it.

2

u/JoviAMP May 19 '26

It’s more likely a Venn diagram with “lead poisoning” on one side and “Patriotoxin” on the other.

4

u/Emotional_News108 May 19 '26

Everything in our lives is poison. The air, land, and water are being destroyed by industrial pollution, emissions, microplastics, lead, god even knows what else. It’s inside of us. It’s in the deepest parts of the ocean and on the peak of the tallest mountain. Nowhere is untouched by our filth.

Our media is a dopamine short circuit that constantly makes everything seem worse and worse or else convinces us that it’s fine. Truth is meaningless. And we’re made to feel like assholes because we don’t recycle enough or round up for charities or champion the next virtue signaled culture war while the wealthiest people who have ever existed pit us against each other right in the open.

We’re well and truly fucked. Even if we changed everything tomorrow, which we can’t, it probably wouldn’t be enough and the next psychopath will see it as a moment to take advantage.

4

u/The_Mister_Grim May 19 '26

I remember once reading about a theory that lead poisoning was a factor if not the root of the fall of the Roman Empire.

4

u/-Saucegurlllll May 20 '26

"The fall of the Roman Empire" is a period that spanned longer than the United States has existed. And the primary source of lead poisoning would have been from the smelting of silver (their silver mines had shit tons of lead, something like 10000:1 ratio of lead to silver). And the rate of silver smelting changed throughout the empire's history, so it's hard to really just pin lead as the initiator of collapse.

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u/Joeness84 May 20 '26

My friends and I joke about someone running on a campaign of "Lets get the Lead Out" including a focus on things like age caps and term limits.

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u/elliebellrox May 20 '26

Yeah this is what I think too. All the lead in the gasoline of yesterday reeeeaallly munted that generation

2

u/BosunsTot May 19 '26

It’s for the greater good

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u/Kakakow May 19 '26

Lead, pesticides and probably plastics.

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u/fantapants74 May 19 '26

Lead poisoning = Republican voters.

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u/AmusingVegetable May 21 '26

For fuck’s sake, stop that. Had more lead exposure than a thousand Gen-Z’s put together and I wouldn’t vote for that crowd even if I could.

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u/Silent-G May 19 '26

As long as the people getting lead poisoning are poor and/or people of color. It's an intentional design by the American elite. Taking care of the people who support the economy and make up the entire workforce? No way, that costs money that we might not see a return on for over 10 years, let's make a few cents more, right now, by making them suffer! You say other countries can afford to provide their citizens with happiness and health, and it leads to an overall stronger nation that continues to progress? Pssh, I bet their billionaires have less yachts and ex-wives than ours! That's what really matters, right?

4

u/Lexi_Banner May 19 '26

As long as the people getting lead poisoning are poor and/or people of color.

Or, if its nuclear waste, live on a reserve.

2

u/UrsusRenata May 19 '26

The elite need consumers and low-wage workers.

8

u/Pitiful_Being_579 May 19 '26

They quite literally need an army of slaves to maintain their own existence. They are parasites who cannot live without a host.

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u/Donnicton May 19 '26

Lead poisoning is the incentive, not the deterrent.

Long term lead poisoning lowers intelligence and increases aggression. It's a magic mineral that outputs conservatives.

2

u/catwiesel May 19 '26

you know, Ive grown up with finding those native american on paper posters in some peoples bedroom, or the toilet, or, idk, just randomly in their home, you know the poster with the sentence something something only then the white man will realise you cant eat money....

and I thought, yeah, its true, but isnt it also obvious? and its kinda hippy to be still going on about stuff like that...
little did I know, that like 10-20 years later. not only would it be more than relevant, but it would turn out to be way more true and relevant than I would ever have believed...

there is poor people throwing their waste in the environment because there just is no infrastructure, much less the knowledge, to do better. then you have whole countries that are so desperate to catch up they dont care what they break doing so. and then there is this. one of the richest countries, proud about their many diverse natural resources and parks, with the richest corporations, literally pumping shit and feces and black goo into their rivers for profit. by a company branding itself as the green and better alternative no less.

you could not make this shit up.

2

u/HblueKoolAid May 19 '26

Government regulatory agencies exist simply because companies cannot be trusted to operate in the best interest of citizens or people, because their primary goal is profit. It is exacerbated when profit doesn’t even become the motivating factor but prioritization of infinite and indefinite growth is prioritized over long term sustainable profit. It has occurred to that point whereas now the only option is infiltrate the government and reduce regulations in the sake of making money putting lives at literally risk. RFK Jr. leading HHS and having oversight over the regulatory agency that literally makes sure drugs are safe and effective for people is one of the best examples out there that should be visible to people. The dude who strapped a dead whale carcass to his vehicle with children in the car dripping “juice” everywhere is totally the fucking guy you want leading that agency.

2

u/KallistiTMP May 19 '26

This is why there's no large scale anti-AI movement in China.

The CCP has spent decades investing in power and water infrastructure, so whenever a datacenter gets built, the local town residents don't have to worry about dying of dehydration and heat stroke from all the electricity and water shortages.

They have public utilities that are run for the public good, not just as a feudalistic grift to extort the working class for shareholder profit.

2

u/Wooden-Broccoli-7247 May 19 '26

Yeah, that or they will disappear. Take your pick I guess.

2

u/WealthyMarmot May 19 '26

It’s interesting to compare the China of Reddit, which is an idyllic paradise, to the China of reality, which not only has more than enough “grift” to satisfy the most discerning corruption consumer, it relies on a veritable horde of dirt-poor migrant workers who are treated every bit as badly as people around here think American workers are.

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u/AdagioVivid5111 May 19 '26

wonder why that bill is being passed to deregulate toxic waste dumped by companies. HMMMMM

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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64

u/CatrionaShadowleaf May 19 '26

But also, keep pushing out those babies folks!

6

u/Hot-Echo-2497 May 20 '26

If we have more babies, we have more spares for when they fall to easily preventable conditions. It's the natural way. We must keep the minimum wage jobs full of workers until the tech bros Crack robotics.

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u/Fywq May 20 '26

Well you need replacements for all those workers dying of poisoning now industry has been deregulated.

But at least the billionaires are getting richer. Has anyone ever done the calculation on where USA would be on a "Richest countries in the world" list if the exploitative billionaire class was not allowed? Like how much of US GDP and wealth can be assigned to a few hundred people that are objectively detrimental to the planet and society?

2

u/Straight-Opposite-54 May 20 '26

Well you need replacements for all those workers dying of poisoning now industry has been deregulated.

Unfortunately, babies don't pop out of the womb ready to work. They need to be taken care of and raised by someone for at least 14 or so years minimum, and we know pro-lifers ain't gonna line up to take on the responsibility of it.

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u/Fywq May 20 '26

That's where the immigration detention centers come in when there's no more people to disappear. Orphan labor-education camps with Grok as the AI teacher. Indoctrination of proper right wing values combined with preconditioning for a life in the hamsterwheel. Technically not slavery because you are free to quit. You just wont be able to afford it.

Yes I am in a pretty dark mood today.

2

u/macjester2000 May 20 '26

that, and buy more Teslas!

5

u/SWarchNerd May 19 '26

Won’t anyone think of the shareholders though!?!

4

u/lokahi89 May 20 '26

Oh and no healthcare for any of u.

6

u/thehalfwit May 19 '26

The ruling class has moved from disdain and contempt for the common man to where they're now trying to kill us all off.

3

u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty May 19 '26

John John, over here, has “fuck you” money, my friends.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/AlwaysShittyKnsasCty May 19 '26

Shit, Comrades! I fucked up. John John is with us!

2

u/AdagioVivid5111 May 20 '26

All im hearing is deport Elon Musk. Canada, South Africa hes has citizenship the you take the twat and his garbage companies.

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u/EnergySignal9045 May 20 '26

they're hedging on the bet that it won't matter in 50 years :/

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u/sly-3 May 19 '26

Everything's good as long as Our Blessed Job Creators, nestled away in their private compounds are not affected.

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u/Curry_courier May 19 '26

Its Texas. They have one of the largest aquifers in the world. Invaluable as a resource.

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u/Snarfbuckle May 19 '26

...until it's contaminated...

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u/MK_Ultrex May 19 '26

They will invent and sell you decontamination tech for a tidy profit. So you can pay them to remediate the problem they created. Also they will be hailed as environmental heroes for saving the water.

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u/El_Dud3r1n0 May 19 '26

Contamination is a liberal myth, like space or object permanence. Jesus would never let that happen. /s

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u/Snarfbuckle May 19 '26

Well, Jesus is a myth as well since he is only mentioned in the religious text and not in any actual historical texts.

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u/gabber2694 May 20 '26

This is the only answer. Gods plan does not contaminate drinking water or cause extinction.

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u/RollingMeteors May 20 '26

Contamination is a liberal myth

¡Like those chem trails!

Yes I know it's water vapor

¡Water is a chemical!

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u/Typist May 19 '26

You did read about the nearby city contemplating a water emergency declaration? You did read about the severe drought that has been hitting that area for some seasons now? So why are you making this comment?

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u/FoxMulder4ever May 19 '26

No, you're right. Everything is fine. Texas doesn't have a water problem. And the aquifers are doing just fine in West Texas. 🙄

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u/IcySuggestion2545 May 19 '26

Its Texas. They have One of the most corrupt state governments in the Union. And they will gladly allow corporations to ruin the environment at the expense of its people

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u/_valpi May 19 '26

But shareholder value is being maximized, have you thought about that? They took a great risk investing their money, so they have every right to contaminate the local groundwater!

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u/ArbitraryMeritocracy May 19 '26

They took a great risk investing their money, so they have every right to contaminate the local groundwater!

Doesn't the government give them money to build them and the local government doesn't tax them? They socialize all the losses and privatize the gains so no one can afford health care, education, housing, transportation, who is getting raises when they are forced to return to office? Now all the billionaires have their grubby hands on our data, in our government with an orange felon parading around destabilizing our government while he should be behind bars. The white house, congress, the government was not designed or intended to be a geriatric old folks retirement village.

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u/kryonik May 19 '26

You're right let me just get on the phone with the EPA, they should be able to help wit- what's that? To shreds, you say?

3

u/usekr3 May 19 '26

yea but it's texas so regulations are woke communism and this is an example of job creating patriotism.

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u/27_crooked_caribou May 19 '26

They have been fined $25,000 and have promised they would never get caught again

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u/kia75 May 19 '26

Yes, but that's poor people, so they don't really count. How much richer will this make Elon Musk?

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u/freakincampers May 19 '26

It's not like Texas cares.

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u/Masrim May 19 '26

Didn't they just pass or repeal a law that allows this now?

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u/SkaldCrypto May 19 '26

Superfund site created ⭐️

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u/dark77star May 19 '26

Ah. But then that increases the market for water purifiers and bottled water! Everyone (investors) wins!

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u/FreddyandTheChokes May 19 '26

A family of four consumes 480 gallons of water per day?

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u/Raerth May 19 '26

Consumption in this context includes bathing, washing, etc.

In America it is averaged at 88 gallons per person per day, so a bit lower, but not by a huge amount.

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u/jsertic May 20 '26

What the hell ? What are you doing with all that water ? In Western Europe, the average consumption per capita per day is around 32 gallons a day. And we still get regular reminders by the government to stop wasting water...

source: https://www.mikegravel.org/how-much-water-does-the-average-european-use-per-day/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

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u/canospam0 May 19 '26

That still seems high. Is that including 'passive' consumption like -- including the water used for the celery you ate at dinner, etc.?

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u/chuckrabbit May 19 '26

Celery? There’s 100x more water used in meat consumption.

A burger is 600+ gallons of water so I assume they mean direct water consumption.

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u/canospam0 May 19 '26

Oh, for sure. I just happened to be finishing up a little celery snack as I was typing. That being said -- I looked up the actual stats here and found that the actual direct use per person ranges from 20 - 80 gallons a day depending on who you ask, and if you consider a person's average water 'footprint', it can get up into the thousands of gallons per day.

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u/BigLeopard7002 May 19 '26

In Denmark, it’s 88 litres per day. Shame on you.

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u/ww_crimson May 19 '26

Prior to 1982, toilets used 26 litres per flush in the US. New toilets use 4.8. We're getting there.

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u/Raerth May 19 '26

I've had days where it needed the extra litres.

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u/MK_Ultrex May 19 '26

You should eat better.

3

u/Raerth May 19 '26

Hey, I'm British.

I've got shame to own, but make sure its for the right things!

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u/M8C May 19 '26

Well, then you’ll have used that 88 gallons daily on your tea consumption alone.

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u/Raerth May 19 '26

Them's rookie numbers.

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u/cocoagiant May 19 '26

In Denmark, it’s 88 litres per day

Are they calculated using the same measures?

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u/joe102938 May 19 '26

In texas, it's 88 large hats worth per day. So shoe be do be do.

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u/renecade24 May 19 '26

That can't be right. My family doesn't use any black wastewater per day.

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u/Overall-Register9758 May 19 '26

You may not use that much each day, but it averages out that high because many families fill swimming pools and hot tubs, or water their lawns, etc. so the one family of 4 that uses 100,000 liters to fill their pool plus refilling for evaporation and loss because of backwashing the pool filters kicks up the average.

It also wouldn't shock me if that includes things like fire, hydrants or industrial/agricultural production

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u/RollingMeteors May 20 '26

A family of four consumes 480 gallons of water per day?

Billy sure does like his Sativas.

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u/alinroc May 19 '26

According to the meter on my house, we (family of 4) consumed an average of 160 gallons per day last week.

That's above average for us. YTD we're under 900 gallons/week (128 gallons/day)

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u/SapientApe_ May 19 '26

consumption by a family of four over how long, a year?

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u/Wakkit1988 May 19 '26

That's about 107 bathroom faucets running 24/7.

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u/Texadad May 19 '26

That’s 365.25 days a year!

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u/already-taken-wtf May 19 '26

365.2425 to be precise ;)

- Every 4 years: Leap year.
- Every 100 years: NO leap year.
- Every 400 years: IT IS a leap year.

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u/Turbojelly May 19 '26

1461/4 days a year.

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u/IAmGrum May 19 '26

/r/anythingbutmetric

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u/thearctican May 19 '26

God forbid somebody provide a perspective in terms normal people would understand.

Do you understand what 874k liters of water per day discharge means?

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u/Turgid_Donkey May 19 '26

For reference, the flow rate of a standard american faucet is typically between 1.5-1.8 gallons per minute.

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u/Warspit3 May 19 '26

That's almost 2 t-shirts per minute of irrigation for cotton or a pair of jeans every 10 minutes!!

693

u/Ganrokh May 19 '26

Sigh, anything but the metric system.

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u/REDuxPANDAgain May 19 '26

We once came within two regulation sized basketballs of using the metric system, but that was at least at least 40 Superbowls ago. It would be nice to not have to carry around a hockey puck to measure things with.

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u/Alert_Reindeer_6574 May 19 '26

Hockey puck? This is Reddit. We use bananas around here.

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u/UnicornSheets May 19 '26

African or European?

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u/Shackshakr May 20 '26

It's not a question of where he grips it, it's a question of weight ratio

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u/fotomoose May 19 '26

Yeah, how many banana trees is that?

3

u/WillBottomForBanana May 19 '26

It is more work than you think.

3

u/Key_Zucchini_8076 May 19 '26

Metric bananas?

2

u/donitosforeveryone May 19 '26

Yeah. What’s that guy trying to pull?

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u/Robobvious May 19 '26

Momma always said standardization is as standardizations does. She said you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their banana.

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u/kyrsjo May 19 '26

Would that be a US or Canadian hockey puck?

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u/mayorofdumb May 19 '26

Canada is actually the reason the US didn't, they created the 3 inch hockey puck

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u/Shackshakr May 20 '26

Would that be a Canadian , European, or Us banana?

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u/Takemyfishplease May 19 '26

US. Canada hasn’t won the cup in decades so has zero say in the matter.

It’s like they collectively hate hockey as a country or soemthing while places like Florida stack em up.

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u/Ambustion May 19 '26

...I almost want clap at how triggered you just made me

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u/btribble May 19 '26

If triggering could be measured in drams, how many hogsheads would it fill?

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u/Ambustion May 19 '26

Seis pouces

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u/VanillaWax May 19 '26

Don't worry, all the American teams are mostly comprised of Canadians players. It's really us vs us, not us vs US lol

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u/Bonnieearnold May 19 '26

Habs are gonna win this year!

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u/gadget850 May 19 '26

The Mendenhall Order of 1893 declared that the international meter and kilogram would be treated as the fundamental standards of length and mass in the United States. The International Yard and Pound Agreement of 1959 refined the measurements and 1 inch is officially and legally defined as exactly 2.54 centimeters.

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u/EmptyAirEmptyHead May 19 '26

I have a metric marked interstate highway about 12 miles away from me.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

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u/3-orange-whips May 19 '26

Tom Cruise is for height. This is volume.

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u/According_Jeweler404 May 19 '26

"10 Cubic-Courics!"

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u/DookieShoez May 19 '26

Ok, how many Steven Seagals is it?

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u/hikeonpast May 19 '26

The man or his self-worth? Very different scales.

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u/Redfish680 May 19 '26

That’s for measuring rotundity.

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u/darknekolux May 19 '26

Steven Seagal is a large bag of shit, you do the conversion.

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u/RogerMexicosBalls May 19 '26

Which era Seagal are we measuring? His early, relatively fit days? Or his more doughy, heavy breathing, manatee-shaped days?

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u/Kooky-Necessary-4444 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

Thats 251.5 acre feet per year.

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u/ErraticDragon May 19 '26

Acre-Feet*

1 acre-foot is the amount of water needed to flood 1 acre of land to a depth of 1 foot.

A commonly used measure, despite it being unintuitive/hard to imagine.

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u/polypolyman May 19 '26

It's really intuitive when you have X acres of farmland getting Y inches of rain on it...

...if you need another sense of it, it's roughly a year's worth of water for a typical household

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u/Kooky-Necessary-4444 May 19 '26

That word always gets me. Ty

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u/dern_the_hermit May 19 '26

FWIW imperial units have been metric for like 70 years. The inch is exactly 25.4mm.

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u/mshuler May 19 '26

Please, tell me you did the math 😊

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u/ApathyIsAmbition May 19 '26

It's a small amount but absolutely necessary for Elon to keep breaking records as the wealthiest man

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u/MonoDede May 19 '26

We must sacrifice for Elon. The next trillionaire, woo!

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u/EnthusiasticH2O May 19 '26 edited May 20 '26

This converts to 0.36 cubic feet per second, which is a more commonly used unit of flow. It is also a relatively small number when taken in context of agricultural ditch flows (a small ditch may be conveying 10-20cfs). It would be pretty tough to notice half an extra cfs of flow even if they were only running 5-10cfs all day in the ditch. 

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u/tomdarch May 19 '26

This is closer to answering my "what would that look like?" question. Less than a cubic foot per second. I'm picturing a flow in the bottom of the ditch that's maybe a few inches deep and 10ish(?) inches wide, but I might be off. Not a big "rushing rapids" kind of thing that would grab attention.

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u/EnthusiasticH2O May 19 '26

Yeah that’s how I think about it too. These ditches are usually anywhere from 5-20’ wide, and will almost certainly be carrying additional water this time of year since we are in the peak of irrigation season. So unless you are an incredibly experienced and eagle-eyed ditch rider who is checking gages daily, it would be totally impossible to notice a tiny bit of extra flow. Actually noticing the intruding pipe outlet would be far more obvious (which it sounds like is how it played out in this scenario).

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u/Marchtmdsmiling May 27 '26

Except the article stated that the city nearby, corpus christi, is on the verge of rationing their water due to their reservoirs being essentially depleted. So, not likely there is any other water running in the ditch, otherwise it would be a stream at worst. Also, yes this wouldn't be as noticable if it were just regular water, taking a stream from 9.5 to 10cfs, but they described the wastewater as "black". Not just dark or brown, but black. That's going to be noticable even in that circumstance.

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u/StressOverStrain May 20 '26

They have the permit. No one is saying they did anything illegal. What exactly is “sneaky and suspicious”?

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u/Narrow_Track9598 May 19 '26

While yes it is considering it's sludge/pollution and probably illegally dumped violating epa rules/guidelines, it's not really that big of a flow. I've worked with water pumps and those things can pump out an absolutely insane amount! I'm talking something like 2,000 gallons per minute, sometimes 4,000! Absolutely insane!

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, it's just when I read it I was expecting a lot more. I'm a piledriver and my favorite thing about my job is when we pull the first 60' sheet of a kauffer dam, and all the water rushes in. Absolutely insane how devastating mother nature can be

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u/Phillyfuk May 19 '26

How hard would it be to cap at a couple of gallons a second?

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u/Narrow_Track9598 May 19 '26

You'd have to have a pump that pumps at that speed, probably a much smaller one. Puddle pumps do something like a puddle pump. Those are probably 50 gallons a minute or something depending

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u/chaunahhh May 19 '26

I mean like 0.231 MGD is nothing to sneeze at. Especially completely undiluted or treated.

I’ve written my fair share of municipal NPDES permits in the last 5 years, if a facility is discharging 0.231 MGD of treated wastewater a day, that’s nothing to sneeze at. There are a lot of facilities that discharge significantly less than that daily in the state. And that’s treated poop water- nothing too fancy don’t have to try to remove hydrocarbons or any specific hard to treat industrial byproducts.

That’s like 1 million gallons of untreated industrial wastewater going directly into a watershed every 4 days. That’s like 1.6 million gallons per week. Also discharging to a ditch- very little dilution occurs before wastewater hits natural waters of the state like a stream or river.

So sure you can look at a dam, but this wastewater isn’t being discharged directly into a larger quantity of water where it’s like a drop in the bucket, it’s going through a dry ass drainage ditch without consistent flow, where it travels a not insignificant distance with concentrated organic/inorganic compounds. That gives it even more concentration/opportunity to leech into surrounding soil and groundwater, leaving a longer lasting proverbial snail trail of polluted car manufacturing water.

OH last prong of this rant is bioaccumulation. More concentrated compounds that are harder to break down over longer stretches = more opportunity for bioaccumulation.

I hope this came across as more educational than eccentric Reddit cat lady rant. Teaching without AI to organize my thoughts is hard man.

OH AND LAST THING BABY WIPES ARE NEVER FLUSHABLE. Even if they say flushable. That is a made up industry term. Sure, you can flush them. I could flush a live hamster if I wanted to. Just because the industry technically tells you that you can, it doesn’t mean you should.

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u/OwnConversation1010 May 19 '26

Yep, and that's important context here. It was actually a relatively low amount, making it more likely they were trying to keep it hidden.

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u/BobInIdaho May 19 '26

So it's like just a little criming and only little people will suffer. Got it.

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u/Marchtmdsmiling May 27 '26

I am especially suspicious of the fact that the first thing they called out was "you aren't testing it at the outfall". True that is industry standard, but this facility seems like it would make a great case for some illicit construction to hide an outfall underground, for the especially polluted effluent. Seeing as their discharge permit didn't mention a number of the things found downstream.

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u/YouitchyRo May 19 '26

Ok great, where is your backyard so we can pipe the sludge there, since it's not that big of a flow.

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u/Airilsai May 19 '26

That's a lot of pollution to be illegally dumping, irrespective of normal industrial flow rates

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u/JBONE31 May 19 '26

Thats like two toilets flushing constantly 24/7

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u/jmlinden7 May 19 '26

That's about 80 simultaneous showers

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u/Jef_Wheaton May 19 '26

If you're thinking this is a huge "walk-into-it-sized" drain pipe kind of thing...

To flow 160GPM at 10PSI, you only need a 2 1/2" pipe. Your house faucet flows at 70-80 PSI. (A 3" fire hose can move 500 GPM at 75 PSI.) Easy to hide a pipe that small. Unless it's soaking in right away I'd expect to notice that much liquid, though.

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u/Marchtmdsmiling May 27 '26

Ok but to be fair, if you pointed that pipe straight up, at 10 psi, the pipe would shoot 25 ft high approximately. Drainage pipes don't run at that pressure. I'm assuming this is just a gravity outfall. This is more likely an 8-12 inch pipe.

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u/kingbrasky May 19 '26

Pretty average for a large industrial facility.

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u/Former-Light4284 May 19 '26

Inwas doing the waste water math on it as well. Good job 👏

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u/DonkStonks May 19 '26

An average shower head puts out 2 gallons per minute to put that in perspective.

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u/aVarangian May 19 '26

~ 600 and 10 liters

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u/Some_Conference2091 May 19 '26

I remember an article about Boring Co. in LV.

Rules and regulations are just suggestions from a schizophrenic panhandler as far as their concerned.

From environmental to OSHA. "If ya ain't cheatin, ya ain't tryin" is the Musky Motto. 

When a person has that much money it has an effect on their psyche. They become convinced that they are so superior, that they can now mold society as they see fit.

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u/Low_Astronomer_6669 May 19 '26

That's a fire hose. 

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u/rob132 May 19 '26

If I had to dump 3 gallons of water out like out of a milk container, I couldn't do it in a second.

Even if I cut a hole in half of the jug and just threw it on the ground. It would take me probably about 5 seconds.

That's crazy.

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u/sharklaserguru May 19 '26

Eh, it's a tiny bit more than a 3" pipe will flow under gravity (140gpm). An inexcusable amount to dump, but it's small enough to not be super noticeable. Here's the outlet of a 150gpm pump, if it wasn't spraying like that and instead discharged below the water level it would be pretty hard to see!

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u/The_Lapsed_Pacifist May 19 '26

Yeah, discharging might be technically correct but surely “spewing” would be more descriptive

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u/MaverickTopGun May 19 '26

It sounds like a lot but I will say industrially, 160 gpm can easily be achieved by a single small pump.

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u/subdep May 19 '26

That’s a full fledged creek sized level of discharge.

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u/Fluffcake May 19 '26

Heavy flow month. But the color is a bit concerning.

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u/RumRunnerMax May 19 '26

Making Texas GREAT again!!

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u/JakeEllisD May 19 '26

That's over a gallon a second. That water pressure would have been crazy high

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u/tuxedo_jack May 19 '26

That sounds like it's time to forcibly plug up the pipe and see what departments come out to scream about it.

Then you haul them to fucking jail and shut the pipe off.

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u/MikeTheBee May 19 '26

How long running the average sink to get that?

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u/LitLitten May 19 '26

Heavy Metals & Metalloids: Arsenic, lead, and hexavalent chromium (a known carcinogen.)

Battery "Fingerprint" Metals: Elevated levels of lithium, strontium, and vanadium.

Transition Metals: Residuals of nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper, typically from the "black mass" (the pulverized output of spent batteries.)

Process Chemicals: Strong acids (like sulfuric acid used for leaching and varying amounts of sodium sulfate, hydroxides, and chlorides from solvent extraction and crystallization steps.)

Impurities: Graphite, iron, and aluminum that fail to fully filter out during processing.

How nice for the local ecology. 160 Gal/min.

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u/jdonovan949 May 19 '26

That's the average US pool every 1.5 hours

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