That of Tesla (TSLA) pollution concerns reportedly went unaddressed at the Texas headquarters, adding another link to Elon Musk’s long chain of environmental problems caused by his companies’ factories.

The Wall Street Journalciting emails between Tesla officials and Texas regulators, documents and interviews with former employees, reports that environmental problems have plagued the Austin gigafactory since its inception. started working in 2022.

Hazardous wastewater from production flowed – untreated – into Austin’s sewer system, while the factory’s casting furnace designed to melt metal for Model Y parts did not could not be properly closed. This allowed toxins to be released unimpeded into the air and raised temperatures up to 100 degrees for workshop workers.

While Tesla was accommodation a party – with thousands of drunk Tesla fans, cowboys spinning in cagesand an appearance by Harrison Ford – in April 2022 to show off its new factory, workers were concerned about a pond Tesla had built to retain wastewater from chemical spills, its paint shop and the construction, reports the Journal. Not only was the pond filled with toxins and smelling like rotten eggs, but a dead deer had been found there.

For a time, water from this pond had been dumped into Austin’s sewer system without permission from local regulators. Some of Tesla’s attempts to eliminate waste have turned nearly a mile of the Colorado River into a “brown, muddy slick,” the Journal reports.

According to the Journal, Tesla executives were aware of the problems at the sprawling factory but opted for short-term solutions. Former employees said managers ignored workers’ concerns about environmental issues and that they feared losing their jobs due to a slowdown in production.

“Tesla repeatedly asked me to lie to the government so they could operate without paying for proper environmental controls,” an Austin environmental compliance official said in a 2024 memo to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), reports the Journal. The agency’s Criminal Enforcement Division and a Texas state commission have opened a preliminary investigation into the allegations.

In addition to Tesla’s recently reported problems in Austin, the company’s factory in Fremont, California, has been cited for more than 180 air quality violations since 2019. Seventy-five infringement notices from local authorities have been received since May, reports the Journal.

In August, local Texas authorities said in a statement notice of violation that Musk’s SpaceX had repeatedly released pollutants into bodies of water near its Starbase factory in Boca Chica. A local nonprofit in Tennessee, where Musk’s xAI has installed its supercomputer, has raised concerns on its effect on the environment.

Despite the various problems encountered by his companies, Musk has proclaimed himself the greatest champion of the environment on the planet.

“Tesla has done more to protect the environment than all other companies combined” he said last year. “So it would be fair to say that as a leader of the company, I have done more for the environment than any human being on Earth.”

Musk has repeatedly criticized environmental regulations – and all regulations in general – as an obstacle to innovation, particularly to the work of his companies.

In September, Musk said he prosecute the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for “excessiveness” regarding new fines imposed on SpaceX and complained that the agency was holding it back. He recently slammed other rules governing his Boring Company and SpaceX.

Thanks to his close relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, Musk has now been put in charge of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), which aims to cut “at least $2 trillion” from the federal budget. Although much remains unclear about achieving this goal, Musk has said that he wants reduce regulations and the federal workforce in general.

This could affect the EPA and other agencies that regulate Musk’s companies, such as the FAA and the Food and Drug Administration, which regulate SpaceX and Neurlink, as well as the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

“Not only would fewer employees be required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority was properly limited,” Musk and DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy wrote, in a press release. editorial last week, noting that Trump would cut “thousands” of regulations.

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