Musk’s Boring Company Faces Multiple Complaints As It Looks To Expand In Texas County

Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has been the subject of multiple complaints from local regulators and residents of Texas’ Bastrop County over licensing issues and environmental concerns as the tunneling construction company expands its presence in the state.

Texas natural resources management regulator, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has slapped The Boring Company’s building sites with several violations over poor erosion control and other matters, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The company started constructing a large warehouse in Bastrop County last year. Other facilities that popped up around the Boring site include a pool, a clubhouse and mobile homes for workers.

The county accused Boring of a violation over wastewater holding tanks that did not get the necessary approval from the local government, the report said.

Bastrop County notified Boring of its unpermitted operation of a septic system in February 2022. The county gave the company two months to resolve the issue. But the system was still in operation two months after the notice was issued, public records show.

“Regarding the Boring Company, we have been regularly hounded by their staff and consultants to expedite and approve permit applications that are incomplete and not in compliance,” Bastrop County’s then-director of engineering and development, Robert Pugh, wrote in an email to a workmate in the summer of 2022.

The Texas Department of Transportation has also rebuked the tunneling company for building a driveway without the necessary licensing, citing traffic safety risks.

Miguel Arellano, a transportation department employee, reportedly wrote in an email to colleagues in April 2022 that agency officials were clear about Boring’s “unapproved driveway” posing “a hazard to the public.”

“The Boring Company has objected to some of these mitigation actions,” Arellano reportedly wrote.

Boring and SpaceX, another Musk company, are reportedly seeking permission from the state to dump its treated wastewater into the Colorado River, reported The Post.

Chap Ambrose, a local resident, complained to the TCEQ after he shot footage of a Boring hose pumping water from a construction site to a roadside ditch last year. The TCEQ then issued a violation over the company’s discharge of “sediment-laden water.”

“I would say, I’m still a fan [of Elon], but I want him to do better here and be a good neighbor,” Ambrose told The Post.

So far, the TCEQ has hit The Boring Company with three violation notices, NBC-affiliated KXAN-TV reported. It said the first two violations were posing “moderate” harm, while the third was bringing “minor” harm to surrounding areas.

The company reportedly resolved two earlier violations that were posing “major” harm over “untreated wastewater flowing from the site onto public road drainage.”

In March, Bastrop residents had a meeting with TCEQ and Boring to discuss the tunneling company’s wastewater disposal permit after Ambrose launched the “Keep Bastrop Boring” campaign.

“I’m very invested here, my family lives here, and I have environmental concerns on what I see,” Ambrose told Insider ahead of the meeting.

Ambrose tweeted that around half of the 400 people who showed up for the meeting had to be turned away as the seating capacity was only set for 189 people.

He also raised concerns about Musk valuing “speed over everything,” while another resident, who operates an organic farm near the Boring site, said the idea of having wastewater dumped into the Colorado River was “horrifying.”

Mayor Connie Schroeder said Bastrop “would prefer wastewater to be treated at state-of-the-art plants and it just so happens the City of Bastrop has one under construction,” even as she hopes Boring would find success in the area, ABC affiliate KVUE reported.

The Boring Company is also facing a lawsuit from four employees over alleged inadequate time records and unpaid overtime. The unpaid overtime wages reportedly reached $2 million.

Musk is reportedly planning to establish his own town in Bastrop County. People familiar with the project and documents related to it indicated the tech billionaire’s town would be adjacent to the Boring and SpaceX facilities. Boring executives reportedly have already discussed and researched incorporating the town into the county to give the Tesla CEO the authority to set his own rules in the area.