A Clark County water agency has fined Elon Musk’s The Boring Company (TBC)’s tunneling venture, “an underground highway” beneath Las Vegas, nearly $500,000 for serious environmental violations.
The Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) issued the penalty last week after Boring was allegedly caught illegally dumping toxic “drilling fluids” and wastewater into county manholes and the sewer system.
Las Vegas Locally took to X on Sunday with news of the fine along with images of the Boring drills in action outside Wynn Las Vegas in August:
The CCWRD’s notice accuses TBC of first refusing an inspector’s directive to stop dumping chemical and dirt-filled drilling fluids at a project site this summer. The following day, this was compounded by a TBC site manager who allegedly “feigned compliance” by temporarily disconnecting the runoff to sewer lines but then “immediately” reconnecting it to resume dumping after CCWRD inspectors left.
CCWRD’s subsequent cease-and-desist letter accuses Boring of a “brazen refusal to stop its illicit discharges after being caught in the act.”
crews had to extract 12 cubic yards of “drilling mud, drilling spoils, and miscellaneous solid waste”
According to Fortune, the total penalty of $493,297.08 includes $131,297.08 to repair “substantial damage to district infrastructure.” According to reports, the regulator’s crews had to extract 12 cubic yards of “drilling mud, drilling spoils, and miscellaneous solid waste” from a sewage treatment facility.
At a September hearing, however, Musk’s tunneling firm acknowledged responsibility for the violations and agreed not to expand its drilling works until it had met “certain conditions.”
Boring’s fine is reportedly one of the largest fines the CCWRD has issued for wastewater discharge in the last three years.
