Elon Musk’s drilling company, Boring Co., has been accused of committing nearly 800 separate environmental violations in Las Vegas over the past two years by Nevada authorities.
ProPublica reports that the company allegedly released untreated water onto construction sites and into storm drains, spilled muck from its trucks, and began drilling before obtaining the proper permits from environmental agencies, citing a cease-and-desist letter from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP).
Neither Musk nor the Boring Co. have publicly addressed the allegations as of this writing, though a state spokesperson told ProPublica that the company intends to dispute the violation letter.
The reported violations all occurred during work on Boring’s project, The Loop, an underground transport system designed to ferry passengers beneath the city in Teslas. The Vegas Loop began operation as an 0.8-mile route from the Las Vegas Convention Center, though the long-term plan is to expand it into a much larger network with 68 miles of tunnels and 104 stations.
In 2022, the Boring Co. signed a settlement agreement with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection for discharging groundwater into storm drains without a permit, intended to prevent future violations. ProPublica notes that under the terms of that agreement, the agency could have fined the company more than $3 million, though it chose to reduce the penalty to $242,800.
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“Given the extraordinary number of violations, NDEP has decided to exercise its discretion to reduce the penalty to two $5,000 violations per permit, which it believes offers a reasonable penalty that will still serve to deter future non-compliance conduct,” read the letter.
The Boring Co. was also hit with more than $112,000 in fines from Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, mainly due to workers being burned by chemicals used in the concrete mix for the tunnels. And in early September, the company was forced to halt work on a tunnel to Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport due to a crushing injury, according to Fortune.
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