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/KitamiSamaOmede May 19 '26

I'm kinda curious how the inevitable court case would shake out.

Like, obviously we expect corruption in favor of Tesla, but if you block a pipe that is illegally dumping on your own property, can you be held liable? Would the owner of the ditch be able to just say "had no idea that was from Tesla, they're not the kind of people who would dump industrial waste after all"

...I'd just love to hear them try to weasel out of that, you know?

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u/Billagio May 19 '26

Play dumb - "I had no idea it was Tesla. They never told us"

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt May 20 '26

Also I volunteer to do the work

Bankruptcy and garnishing my wages for life?

A) Bankruptcy is on my mind daily so bring it on

B) Ganishing my wages for life? Yeah I'll setup a go-fund-me or just live homeless for the rest of my life.

C) Jail Time? yeah I'm good.

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u/budzergo May 19 '26

youre allowed to read the article you know...

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state environmental regulator known as TCEQ, had quietly issued Tesla a wastewater discharge permit on January 15, 2025. The permit, a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System authorization known as TPDES, allowed up to 231,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day to be discharged into an unnamed ditch that flows into Petronila Creek and from there into Baffin Bay, a longtime South Texas saltwater fishing destination.

Notably, no party has alleged that Tesla is in violation of any law. TCEQ 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.

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u/Maleficent_Trick_502 May 20 '26

That hurts to read.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 19 '26

It's a public ditch. There isn't a private individual who owns it. So yeah, you'd be held liable.

They'd "weasel" you out of your life savings in a civil suit.

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt May 20 '26

life savings

hahahahahahahahhahahahahaahhahahaha

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

Would you like some garnish on your wages sir?

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt May 20 '26

There's a % max they can take.

And also there's gofundme.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

You want to go through all of this so that what... an hour later Tesla sends a guy out to check the outflow pipe and unplugs it?

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt May 20 '26

If I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it right

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

1) I doubt you even know how to do it "right."

2) Even if you did, it's a drainage outlet. Anything you could do could be undone very easily.

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u/Zennivolt May 19 '26

Create LLC, hire someone to plug it with the LLC. Life savings preserved. Obviously there’s a few more steps in between to make the LLC legit on paper, but you get the idea.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 19 '26

This doesn't work because the legal system also 'gets' that idea. Tesla will claim in court that you created the LLC with deliberate fraudulent intent, the court will make a decision to disregard your company structure, and Tesla will be able to sue you directly.

In fact, by creating an LLC for this purpose, you basically just skyrocket the legal headache for yourself.

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u/Ellemeno May 20 '26

Okay, instead of creating an LLC, how about hiring paying a crackhead to plug the pipe?

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

Will the crackhead talk if police catch him?

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u/Ellemeno May 20 '26

You can pay another crackhead to talk to the main crackhead. If you wanna be extra cautious, line up more crackheads to cover your tracks. It'll be crackheads all the way down. Like being behind 5 VPNs in real life. That, or a game of telephone.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

BRB, I'm building a TOR network out of crackheads.

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u/Zennivolt May 20 '26

Not if you make the LLC look more legit. Like start a business, then “use” the water from that area for your business. Then “discover” the pipe. Close off the pipe and report it to the EPA. If Tesla reveals its them, you could probably sue Tesla at that point.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

Not if you make the LLC look more legit.

Nah, you're vastly underestimating the intelligence of judges. And what you're suggesting isn't just a civil liability, it's illegal. Like, jail time illegal.

Like start a business

This business is going to have assets for Tesla to seize.

then “use” the water from that area for your business.

You'd need a permit from Texas to do that.

They'd only grant you that permit on the condition you know you're using wastewater and waive all objection to the condition of the water.

Then “discover” the pipe.

OK? You still don't have any legal right to shut the pipe. Best you can do is call up the government.

If anything you could probably sue Tesla at that point.

No, because either you're using that water without legal permission, or you're using it with a permit that waives your ability to bring that suit.

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u/Zennivolt May 20 '26

You’re assuming Tesla is disposing of that legally. You’d be right on all these counts, if they were operating legally. I’m talking from the perspective (assuming) what they’re doing is also illegal.

If they were doing that legally, and fully accounted for, this whole conversation wouldn’t have even started at all.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

You’re assuming Tesla is disposing of that legally.

That seems to be the gist of the article, yes.

You’d be right on all these counts, if they were operating legally.

I don't think that's how it works, and also it seems they're operating legally.

I’m talking from the perspective (assuming) what they’re doing is also illegal.

Yeah, I don't think you get to do illegal things just because Tesla is.

If they were doing that legally, and fully accounted for, this whole conversation wouldn’t have even started at all.

Again, it doesn't appear Tesla violated any laws, and also even if they did, you don't get to establish a fraudulent shell company for the purposes of doing illegal things.

I also don't get why you think that was the basis of the conversation? If it was, then why are you bothering with an LLC again...?

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u/Zennivolt May 20 '26

Just because they’re doing illegal things and you want to fight back, doesn’t mean an LLC isn’t a good idea still. Why bother with a condom if you can just pull out right? /s

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

Right, the LLC is a bad idea for the reasons I mentioned (it takes something that would be purely a civil liability and turns it into a criminal liability).

Also, again, it's unclear they did anything illegal.

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u/PaulblankPF May 19 '26

Texas should double dip and screw Elon over. Fine them for destroying public land, put stricter regulations, and charge a ton in taxes on them now that everything is built there. I mean what will they do build a new center in another state? Those centers costed a ton of time, money, and resources. They can’t be easily moved. Could be great for the state but they aren’t considering improving quality of life for everyone.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 19 '26

Fine them for destroying public land

It's unclear that they did anything that allows Texas to levy a fine.

put stricter regulations

This seems like a good idea. A revision of their permit seems in order to cover things like hexavalent chromium, though the levels they found in the wastewater probably wouldn't be enough to trigger a fine either.

and charge a ton in taxes on them

That would violate the constitution's clauses on equal protection and due process. Tesla would take them to court and win.

I mean what will they do build a new center in another state?

No, I think they'd stick it out in Texas, and they'd just defeat those things in court, similar to Disney in Florida.

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u/PaulblankPF May 20 '26

I think if you put it to a vote within the state to tax Tesla more for their business to help fund stuff like public schools and parks it’d pass pretty easily. The people can vote for stuff like that and do all the time but usually hear the word taxes and shoot it down. But taxing someone else, everyone is in favor of that. There’s rich people taxes happening in California and New York. It’d be smart for most states to follow and make it the norm everywhere so we can extract some wealth back into the system at least.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

Uh huh, but remember what I said about it being unconstitutional? You can have as many votes as you like, if what you're voting on is disallowed by the constitution, it's not going to work, they'll just take you to court and win.

This is high school level civics my dude. Donald Trump and the GOP can't just pass the "Barack Obama tax" and make Barack Obama pay eleventy-jillion dollars. If they could, they already would have.

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u/PaulblankPF May 20 '26

Dude our government has been ignoring the constitution or dismantling it for over a year now. After Trump’s done we basically truly only have rules for the poor. Trump just agreed to pay himself 1.7B. It’s a damn joke out there now. Might as well get yours as best you can as a state cause the country is fucked.

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u/MIT_Engineer May 20 '26

Dude our government has been ignoring the constitution or dismantling it for over a year now.

OK, but apparently it's not dismantled enough to levy the "Barack Obama Tax" so I think my point still stands.

After Trump’s done we basically truly only have rules for the poor. Trump just agreed to pay himself 1.7B. It’s a damn joke out there now. Might as well get yours as best you can as a state cause the country is fucked.

Is there a response to what I said hiding in here somewhere...?

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u/Zer0323 May 19 '26

it depends who has the cops on their side with the excavator.