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

Tesla's $1 billion lithium refinery in Texas is discharging 231,000 gallons of treated wastewater daily into a drainage ditch managed by a local district that was never notified of the discharge permit issued by state regulators in January 2025. When the drainage district conducted its own independent testing after discovering the dark liquid from Tesla's pipe, it found concerning levels of pollutants, though state investigators who tested the water found it within permit limits because they did not test for heavy metals or lithium itself.