{"id":260065,"date":"2026-04-21T21:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260065\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:01:09","slug":"testing-finds-toxic-metals-where-tesla-lithium-refinery-discharges-wastewater-in-south-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260065\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing finds toxic metals where Tesla lithium refinery discharges wastewater in South Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is published in partnership with\u00a0Inside Climate News<\/a>, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

After Texas regulators said Tesla\u2019s lithium refinery near Corpus Christi wasn\u2019t violating its permits by discharging what local officials reported as black wastewater into a drainage ditch, independent water testing there this month found two toxic metals and other contaminants.<\/p>\n

Eurofins Environment Testing, an accredited lab with locations across the globe, reported<\/a> traces of hexavalent chromium, a well-known carcinogen, and arsenic, an environmental poison. Nueces County Drainage District No. 2, which manages the ditch<\/a>, commissioned the test.<\/p>\n

Neither hexavalent chromium nor arsenic is included as an allowable discharge pollutant in Tesla\u2019s wastewater permit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe results are quite disturbing,\u201d wrote Frank Lazarte, an attorney representing Nueces County Drainage District No. 2, in a cease and desist letter<\/a> to Tesla\u2019s associate general counsel last week. The district is asking Tesla to stop discharging wastewater into the ditch until they can discuss the lab results. <\/p>\n

Jason Bevan, senior manager of site operations for Tesla\u2019s plant, in the small municipality of Robstown, said the company remains in complete compliance with all requirements of its state-issued wastewater discharge permit, including applicable water quality standards. <\/p>\n

\u201cTesla routinely monitors and tests its permitted wastewater discharge,\u201d Bevan said in an emailed statement to Inside Climate News. \u201cTesla is currently reviewing the letter from Nueces County Drainage District #2 and looks forward to working cooperatively with the district to address their concerns.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality sampled and tested Tesla\u2019s wastewater discharge in February and confirmed that the company is in compliance with its permit, Bevan said. <\/p>\n

But the state environmental regulator, known as TCEQ, didn\u2019t look for heavy metals in February. Its water sample tested for dissolved solids, oil and grease, chlorides, sulfates, temperature and oxygen\u2014all of which were within the bounds of Tesla\u2019s permit. <\/p>\n

Victoria Cann, a spokesperson for TCEQ, said Tesla\u2019s facility was required to conduct initial sampling of the wastewater discharged from its outfall pipe for conventional and non-conventional pollutants, including metals used at the facility and toxic pollutants believed to be present in discharge. <\/p>\n

The TCEQ industrial permits team reviewed those initial submitted results and had no concerns, Cann stated. Therefore it didn\u2019t require an amendment to the permit to include additional wastewater limitations or monitoring requirements. <\/p>\n

TCEQ initiated its February investigation after workers for the drainage district found an unfamiliar pipe stretched across its easement. The workers reported black liquid expelling into the ditch. The drainage district, which manages the ditch area, was unaware that the state gave Tesla permission to use it. <\/p>\n

District officials were confused how the state could allow Tesla to discharge an average of 231,000 gallons of lithium refinery wastewater each day into the district\u2019s ditch without notification. TCEQ said it doesn\u2019t communicate directly with local drainage districts as part of the permitting process. <\/p>\n

Volunteer drainage district engineer Aref Mazloum said TCEQ didn\u2019t test for heavy metals in its compliance investigation because that hadn\u2019t been part of the district\u2019s complaint filed earlier this year. When the investigation concluded, he said he requested the results and commissioned the third-party wastewater testing to see what else might be in the water. <\/p>\n

Eurofin conducted its testing earlier this month, according to its report. It placed a sampling machine in the wastewater for 24 hours to monitor and collect the discharge, then sent the results to its San Antonio lab on April 7.<\/p>\n

As soon as district staff saw the lab results, they notified a raft of local elected officials, said Mazloum, who also recently started working as an engineer in the water supply division at TCEQ and is a mechanical engineering assistant professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. <\/p>\n

Mazloum doesn\u2019t want to be known as the guy who gave Tesla such a hard time he drove them out of Robstown, but he said the heavy metals must be remediated from the county\u2019s wastewater. He said he wouldn\u2019t be able to sleep if he were to keep quiet about this information. <\/p>\n

\u201cPublic safety is my highest priority,\u201d Mazloum said. \u201cSecondly would come the economy.\u201d <\/p>\n

To safely manage its hyper-saline and toxic discharges, the electric vehicle company should design and fund an on-site multi-stage wastewater treatment plant, Mazloum said. The process Mazloum recommended Tesla take on would remove heavy metals and use industrial reverse osmosis technology. Then, Mazloum said, Tesla could use district infrastructure to dispel wastewater again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resulting clean water will then be discharged and nothing will happen to the infrastructure, the ditches, the plants, the fish, the frogs, the animals, the people, from that water,\u201d Mazloum said. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The unnamed ditch less than a mile upstream of Tesla\u2019s discharge pipe. Travis Prater\/Texas Commission on Environmental Quality<\/p>\n

Mazloum added that the concentrated brine solution created by that on-site treatment would need to be hauled to a hazardous waste facility or processed through a zero-liquid discharge system. <\/p>\n

While water in the ditch does not reach the drinking supply, people can be affected in other ways, such as by eating fish caught nearby or by facing increased flood risk if the ditch infrastructure erodes, Mazloum said. The wastewater pooling in the drainage ditch flows to Petronila Creek and ultimately to Baffin Bay, a longtime fishing spot suffering from decades of deteriorating ecosystem health. <\/p>\n

Nueces County groundwater is known to contain some arsenic, said Chris Cuellar, a retired chemical plant worker who spent 10 years managing wastewater operations at one of the region\u2019s largest industrial facilities. Eurofins tested the wastewater from the ditch, rather than from Tesla\u2019s outfall pipe, so it\u2019s possible there was residual arsenic from a nearby pond overflow that leached into the ditch, for example, rather than coming from the industrial process itself, Cuellar said. <\/p>\n

The metallic particles of arsenic in the sample measured 0.0025 milligrams per liter, a fraction of the federal limit for drinking water, 0.01 milligrams per liter.<\/p>\n

The Eurofins sample is good to have, Cuellar added, but offers a one-time baseline of that day. \u201cIt\u2019s not what it always is or what it has been,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In the wastewater sample Eurofins tested, the concentrations of lithium, strontium and vanadium were abnormally high compared to levels in rainwater or groundwater, according to Lazarte, the attorney. \u201cThe three metals\/chemicals act like a chemical signature pointing back to the battery processing facility,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

Lithium is the active material inside rechargeable batteries. Tesla is seeking to increase the domestic supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide at its nearly $1 billion lithium refinery plant in Robstown. It processes spodumene, an often yellowish mineral and a commercially important source of lithium.<\/p>\n

A report<\/a> written by Mazloum that\u2019s been distributed to legislators and will soon be discussed with Robstown residents calls the traces of lithium a \u201cfingerprint at a crime scene.\u201d <\/p>\n

The electric vehicle company\u2019s wastewater permit does not monitor for lithium and wasn\u2019t tested for in the TCEQ\u2019s February investigation. In the first 60 days of the facility\u2019s operation, Tesla had to test for a variety of metal and chemical pollutants not listed in its permit. Lithium was not among them.<\/p>\n

When the permit was being considered and public comments expressed concern about how the facility would affect the environment, Kelly Keel, TCEQ\u2019s executive director, said the wastewater wasn\u2019t expected to contain any residual lithium, chemical runoff or other harmful pollutants. <\/p>\n

No surface water intake for domestic drinking water supplies is located within five miles downstream of the wastewater discharge point, and so there would be no impact on water wells or drinking water, Keel said at the time. <\/p>\n

Before the permit was issued, TCEQ determined that Tesla\u2019s wastewater discharge plan would meet state requirements and protect the environment, water quality and human health. <\/p>\n

Mazloum\u2019s report noted that Eurofins detected 1.17 milligrams of strontium per liter of water in the sample and said long-term exposure could affect bone density and kidney function in humans and wildlife. <\/p>\n

His report also flagged heightened levels of several chemicals consistent with industrial discharge, including manganese, iron, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and potassium. Manganese, a battery process tracer, can have neurological effects at chronic doses, the report stated. Too much iron can stain the ditch\u2019s infrastructure and too much phosphorus can cause algae blooms that starve waterways of oxygen. <\/p>\n

The risk of algal growth is amplified by ammonia, which the lab results found in the form of nitrogen at 1.68 milligrams per liter of water. \u201cAt this level,\u201d Mazloum\u2019s report said, it is \u201cdirectly toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates. Imagine a slow-acting suffocant for anything that lives in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The high sodium concentrate, combined with elevated calcium, magnesium and potassium, creates a near-brackish water condition that\u2019s 10 to 20 times saltier than normal surface water, according to Mazloum\u2019s report. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis directly threatens the drainage ditch\u2019s ability to protect the neighborhoods,\u201d Lazarte wrote. \u201cPlants hate salt the same way you\u2019d hate drinking ocean water when you\u2019re thirsty.\u201d <\/p>\n

As salt draws out the moisture of plant roots, it kills the grass and ground cover lining the walls of the ditch. Then the bare soil washes away in rain, Mazloum said, and as the drainage ditch walls collapse, the channel loses the capacity to carry stormwater away from homes and raises the risk of floods during heavy rains. <\/p>\n

When a state investigator went to test the wastewater in February, it appeared clear as it flowed downstream, according to state records. Along the banks and in the ditch, there was a heavy growth of algae and vegetation. <\/p>\n

News of the contaminants Eurofin found in the wastewater sample comes as South Texas faces a serious water crisis. Corpus Christi is in the midst of developing groundwater projects<\/a> to try to stave off imminent deletion of its dwindling reservoirs, and it expects to enact emergency water-use restrictions<\/a> in September if weather patterns don\u2019t change. <\/p>\n

Robstown<\/a> is 16 miles west of Corpus Christi. The Tesla situation is the first time the drainage district has had to deal with discharge water quality, said Steve Ray, a consultant for the district. The drainage district typically focuses on maintaining the integrity of its ditches and flood preparedness, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that this is environmentally safe for our citizens and for our employees who have to work in those ditches,\u201d Ray said. \u201cWe also want to make sure it\u2019s environmentally safe and sound for the future\u2014for our kids, our grandkids.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mazloum recommended that Robstown residents stay away from the ditch. It\u2019s off U.S. 77 and County Road 28. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is published in partnership with\u00a0Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156,2327,5790,287,725,1564,56515,293],"class_list":["post-260065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news","tag-environment","tag-nueces-county","tag-politics","tag-robstown","tag-state-government","tag-texas-commission-on-environmental-quality-tceq","tag-texas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}