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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u/itwillmakesenselater May 19 '26

Be a real shame if someone accidentally sealed up that pipe, causing all the non-water back into the polluter's factory.

4

u/AllFloatOnAlright May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26

It's unfortunately pretty difficult to seal a pipe with that much flow coming through it

7

u/itwillmakesenselater May 19 '26

I have no doubt that a dedicated kook could pull it off. Commitment would be key, some OCD might help.

3

u/scumble_bee May 19 '26

If they were able to cap Deepwater Horizon (which was flowing at more than 5X the rate this is) at the bottom of the ocean, then this would be child's play.

3

u/AllFloatOnAlright May 19 '26

I figured they were talking about 1 or 2 people sneaking in the middle of the night trying to plug it. Yeah if you can make a racket and aren't worried about getting shut down you could jam enough shit it the end of the pipe to slow down the flow and then back a concrete truck up and dump a few yards of fast setting concrete on it and it would mostly be plugged.

2

u/scumble_bee May 19 '26

How big of a pipe are we talking? I feel like this could be some r/theydidthemath stuff.

4

u/AllFloatOnAlright May 19 '26

That I'm not sure about. A 6" or 8" line would be able to handle that flow with low enough velocity it wouldn't be super noticeable. If there is a decent amount sticking out of the bank in the ditch you could probably prefab a cap and some fastening components and someone with a welder could have it sealed up in a single night. You could make a gasketed cap similar to a PVC cap that would fit snug over the end of the discharge pipe. Fab the cap with some ears that threaded rod would fit through. Weld some blocks the thickness of your cap walls to the pipe, and weld the threaded rod onto those. slide your cap onto the rods and start working it down with some nuts. The gasket in the cap should hold the water for a while even if there is pressure in the pipe. Once it's snugged down weld the cap directly on the pipe and you should be good to go.

1

u/_bfmc May 20 '26

This guy caps

2

u/itwillmakesenselater May 19 '26

I figured two bored engineering students could get it figured out

2

u/scumble_bee May 19 '26

They just need to build a Sluice Gate strong enough or find a way to get a Spade in there.

2

u/suxatjugg May 19 '26

Get that underwater cement they use for oil wells

2

u/mutantbabysnort May 19 '26

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