Elon Musk company requests to dump millions of gallons of treated wastewater in Texas
Thousands of liters of cleansed wastewater are being proposed for discharge into the Colorado River in Texas by a business intimately associated with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.
According to public records with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the company, Gapped Bass LLC, requested permission to discharge up to 142,500 gallons of treated wastewater per day at its facility in Bastrop close to the river.
A portion of the Colorado River, which originates in West Texas and travels for 800 miles before draining into the Gulf of Mexico, is located in Bastrop, about 30 miles southeast of Austin.
The request was made by Gapped Bass a year after Musk, co-founder and CEO of Tesla, relocated the company’s corporate headquarters to Austin.
Additionally, the request offers a brief window into Musk’s expanding Texas business.
According to news sources at the time, Musk’s infrastructure and transportation firm, the Boring Company, bought 73 acres in northwest Bastrop County last year.
Gapped Bass was given the name in filings rather than Boring.
According to property records, Gapped Bass and the Boring Company have the same address.
Gapped Bass is reported as being managed by Steve Davis, president of the Boring Company.
Gapped Bass’s registered agent is the Boring Company’s corporate controller, Adam Pashaian.
The goal of Musk’s Boring Company is to reduce highway traffic nationwide by constructing a network of underground, high-speed tunnels.
It recently relocated its corporate headquarters from California to the Pflugerville area of Austin.
Although it is currently unknown what function the Bastrop facility will serve, the company’s website includes employment openings there for mechanics, tunnel and concrete workers, as well as welders.
Requests for the reaction from Boring representatives went unanswered.
Every year, industrial businesses routinely discharge billions of gallons of effluent into rivers and oceans.
The TCEQ is doing a technical evaluation of the request, according to Gary Rasp, a spokesperson for the organization, to ensure that the plan will safeguard surface and groundwater.
Austin is one of the Texas cities that draws its drinking water from the Colorado River.
In addition to being used for recreation, the river is home to numerous aquatic wildlife species.
According to the online file, Gapped Bass also asked for the opportunity to irrigate the property with treated effluent.
Although wastewater treatment reduces impurities so that water can be reused, the Environmental Protection Agency has warned that traces of toxins may still be present.
In Texas, the environmental agency must approve any discharge of treated wastewater into or near water.
Public comments regarding the request are now being accepted by the commission.
If there is a significant public interest or if a state elected official requests it, Rasp said, it will call a public meeting.
The Austin Business Journal reported in May that the company was the subject of an investigation by Texas’ environmental regulator because of three complaints regarding the manufacture of concrete and wastewater.
Musk has discreetly and quickly increased his presence in Texas over the past year.
Musk has claimed to be renting a property in Boca Chica, a South Texas beach town, where SpaceX, the company he created, now runs a launch facility.
Recently, the space exploration firm announced job openings in Austin.
Neuralink, another of his enterprises, intends to erect a 37-acre lab and office complex in Austin.
Source: The Dallas morning news
