Tesla's lithium refinery discharges 231,000 gallons of polluted wastewater a day

Re:Tesla's lithium refinery discharges 231,000 gallons of po... by Aurornis on Tuesday May 19, 2026 @05:59PM (#48200245)

Those levels are low enough that they might be coming from the water going into the plant.

Arsenic and hexavalent chromium are both naturally occurring substances in low quantities. You can pull uncontaminated water out of the ground in remote locations and detect low levels of arsenic and hexavalent chromium.

That hexavalent chromium number would be just barely about California's strict limit for drinking water, but it's 1/10th of the EPA's limit.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tesla's lithium refinery discharges 231,000 gallons of po... by jandrewrogers on Tuesday May 19, 2026 @06:29PM (#48200557)

Out of curiosity, I checked the water records re: arsenic.

Test wells for the region in question have had arsenic levels several times that being discussed here for years. In fact, the water district started failing Federal arsenic standards last summer[0] and has received three formal violation notices.

They were nearly in violation a year before the lithium plant even opened. At least in terms of arsenic, the levels coming out of the plant are significantly lower than background.

[0] https://www.kristv.com/running-dry/ncwcid-3-gets-third-arsen...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tesla's lithium refinery discharges 231,000 gallons of po... by cucumber3732842 on Tuesday May 19, 2026 @08:15PM (#48201403)

Reading between the lines here the local .gov knows this and didn't mention it specifically or at least they weren't quoted as such.

The journalist got their hands on the report saw "arsenic" and just copypasta'd without understanding the context and now everyone is screeching about something that's less than the local baseline.

[ Parent | on HN ]