A report has suggested that a Tesla lithium refinery in Robstown, Texas, could be exploiting a gap in testing to discharge two toxic metals and other concerning pollutants.

Nueces County Drainage District No. 2 asked for the test from Eurofins Environment Testing after local workers were alarmed to see that a pipe unknown to them was sending a black liquid into a drainage ditch, per The Texas Tribune.

Further testing detected hexavalent chromium and the “environmental poison” arsenic, both of which can pose severe health risks. Frank Lazarte, an attorney representing Nueces County Drainage District No. 2, called that “quite disturbing” in a cease-and-desist letter sent to Tesla.

A lot of the confusion around the situation relates to a gap in testing between Tesla and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

While Tesla’s senior manager of site operations for the lithium plant, Jason Bevan, said the company is in compliance, the story is deeper than that.

To begin with, TCEQ didn’t communicate with local drainage workers, which meant the source of the black liquid was a mystery to them.

Their discovery prompted them to do testing in February. However, TCEQ didn’t seek out heavy metals because an earlier sampling of the facility didn’t detect them.

It was up to volunteer drainage district engineer Aref Mazloum to fill in the gaps of the report. While he didn’t want to take away a valuable source of jobs and commerce to the community, the situation unsettled him.

“Public safety is my highest priority,” Mazloum told The Texas Tribune. “Secondly would come the economy.”

With the results in hand, the district is getting the word out to local officials to help protect residents and the local environment.

This isn’t the first time Tesla or companies owned by Elon Musk have been accused of mishandling wastewater. The Wall Street Journal reported that Tesla’s Austin facility improperly released pollutants and wastewater in 2022.

Meanwhile, The Boring Company faced fines nearing $500,000 in Nevada for releasing over 2,400 gallons of illegal fluids.

In Robstown, it might be too early to tell how bad the damage could be from the discharges. While it shouldn’t reach drinking water supplies, it could reach humans via local fish or flooding, per Mazloum.

Traces of lithium link the contamination to Tesla, which Mazloum called a “fingerprint at a crime scene” in a report.

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