Las Vegas Pond From The Boring Company A Free Gift for Residents
After deploying one of the world’s most inefficient “transit systems” in Las Vegas, Elon Musk’s Boring Company has a gift for the local populace: a large water feature in the form of a pond, free of charge. There’s just one little hitch, namely, that Elon Musk’s company has been using the pond to illegally dump its fluid waste, giving it a noxious green hue.
In This Article:
Cameras, Tarps, and a Green Crater Aimed at Hiding the Pond
On November 12, footage captured local news station 8 News Now showed the company’s workers scrambling to hide the site from outside observers by covering the site’s fencing with tarp. When workers noticed 8NN cameras filming from the sidewalk, they confronted the cameraman. “I know what you are,” a site worker said. “You’re fake news.” A spokesperson from the company later told 8NN that the roughly tennis-court sized pond is “certainly not being hidden,” even as the tarps remained. Barbed wire even soon appeared on the fences, apparently to block any gumshoe journalist from sneaking a few shots of the toxic green crater. The pond is roughly tennis-court sized, about 260 square meters in area.
Inspectors Find Illegal Dumping Two Sites and a $500,000 Fine
After local press broke the news, county inspectors demanded a better look, and found the Boring Company was using the pit as a site to dump excess drilling fluids from its work on the Vegas Convention Center Loop. Per 8NN, Musk’s company was then hit with a $500,000 fine related to illegal dumping of “drilling mud, spoils, and solid waste byproduct” as far back as April of this year. Worse yet, investigators found there were at least two separate dumping sites where this occurred, and that workers on both sites continued to dump their noxious drill waste even after a representative agreed to stop. “[The Boring Company’s] brazen refusal to stop its illicit discharges after being contact in the act, coupled with [The Boring Company’s] representative’s false statements to district inspector, proves [The Boring Company’s] activities to be knowing and intentional,” the county lawsuit reads.
August Statements and Ongoing Investigations
In August, a representative wrote that “we are currently investigating the matter, and will remain transparent with respect to facts we learn and to corrective actions.”
Environmental and Financial Toll Could Outlast the Fine
The fine for the violation is due by December 1. Prior reporting shows that Boring Company workers and local firefighters alike have suffered a high number of chemical burns related to accelerant fluid used in the massive drills. An October report by ProPublica found that the Vegas project has notched nearly 800 environmental violations over the last two years. While the violation carries a hefty price tag, the true cost on the local environment is likely to be paid over years to come.
Author's Note
I’m a tech and transit correspondent for Futurism, where my beat includes transportation, infrastructure, and the role of emerging technologies in governance, surveillance, and labor.
