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Elon Musk's Company Plans To Dump Wastewater In This Texas River — And Locals Have Concerns

Roque Planas
Wed, March 22, 2023 at 4:32 PM MDT
BASTROP, Texas ― Farmer Steve Hipe is concerned about what will happen to his landscape tree nursery if Elon Musk's infrastructure company gets its way.

Musk's Boring Company plans to discharge up to 142,000 gallons of wastewater into the Colorado River and across an on-site spray field each day, and dozens of the controversial billionaire's new neighbors raised concerns at a packed public comment hearing Tuesday night.

Tesla founder Elon Musk attends Offshore Northern Seas 2022 in Stavanger, Norway, Aug. 29, 2022.
Tesla founder Elon Musk attends Offshore Northern Seas 2022 in Stavanger, Norway, Aug. 29, 2022.
Tesla founder Elon Musk attends Offshore Northern Seas 2022 in Stavanger, Norway, Aug. 29, 2022.

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"Am I going to be able to use pond water and not kill my trees?" Hipe asked the Boring Company's environmental consultant. "We're not a big company like y'all. We're a family-owned farm."

Another resident feared Bastrop would go the way of Austin, where you can't toss a ball into the river for your dog without fear of fatally poisoning it. Others worried that groundwater contamination from the new site would threaten their drinking water, or that discharge would expose the area's vegetable farms or downriver rice fields to new contaminants.

Several wondered why a company owned by a self-styled environmental champion wouldn't find a way to recycle wastewater, rather than dumping it into the Colorado. (The Colorado River in Texas is different from the longer Colorado that flows through other Western states.)

Many, including Bastrop Mayor Connie Schroeder, wanted Musk's companies to pipe wastewater into the public system, rather than dumping it themselves.

Some people at the hearing, however, felt like letting the Boring Company control its wastewater was a reasonable price for the city to host an A-list corporation. The Boring Company aims to build zero-emissions tunnels for electric vehicles to take pressure off city transportation systems, though it has only completed one such venture so far.

"Where there's people, there's going to be wastewater," said Ron Whipple, treasurer for the Bastrop County Water Control and Improvement District. "We can't stop progress."

It's common for large companies or housing developments to generate wastewater, treat it, and then dump it into local creeks and rivers.

The Boring Company's permit application, first filed by Gapped Bass LLC on its behalf in July 2022, would authorize the company to build its own wastewater treatment facility for the restrooms, break rooms and on-site bistro at the company town Musk is building in Bastrop. The permit would allow Boring to spray wastewater into fields as well as discarding it into the river.

The discharge rate of 142,000 gallons per day is not very high by local standards. The city itself discharges around 5 million gallons per day into the river, state environmental officials told the crowd at Tuesday's hearing. A single wastewater treatment facility in Austin, 30 miles upstream of Bastrop, is authorized to discharge some 75 million gallons per day.

Still, most viewed Musk's Boring Company with suspicion, given its record of brash moves and seeming disinterest in following local permitting regulations.

It's an awkward position for many in the laid-back central Texas town, which sports a distinct libertarian streak that seems like it would dovetail with Musk's eco-capitalist mindset. SpaceX's Starlink program, which connects rural areas to broadband internet service using low-orbit satellites, serves hundreds of households in the area. Many of the magnate's new critics were self-professed fans before he set up shop in their town.