At this point, the suits at Tesla probably figure their public image can’t get much worse.
According to new reporting by SFGate, the Tesla’s factory in Freemont, California is planning a thirteenfold increase of heavy metal particles into the surrounding area. Besides the massive residential population nearby, there’s another glaring problem with the company’s plans: an elementary school right next door.
As parents of children attending the Lila Bringhurst Elementary School told SFGate, the Bay Area Air District — the local government agency in charge of regulating air quality — issued a vague and wishy-washy memo meant to inform them of the planned emissions spike.
Though the Tesla plant is looking to increase its total suspended particulate (TSP) emission count by 13 times its current level, SFGate reports the notice to parents only used words like “modify” and “abatement” to describe the change. What’s worse, many parents didn’t even see the email, and only learned about the coming emission spike from a Substack blog published by an anonymous user.
The Substack presents a section of a heavily-redacted engineering evaluation filed by the Air District, which they allege buries Tesla’s application for a thirteenfold-increase to its current emission levels.
“What is clearly stated is that Tesla will be permitted to emit 4.85 pounds per hour of total suspended particulates after these applications are approved,” the Substack fumes. “Tesla will be permitted to emit more than 21 tons per year into the atmosphere from these applications alone. This will include toxic metals such as arsenic, beryllium, and cadmium.”
The revelation didn’t go over well with parents, to say the least, who are now demanding answers not only from Tesla, but from their local regulators.
“Air pollution is a real thing. It could cause health problems down the line,” Bringhurst parent Phoebe Yu told SFGate. “I don’t want my kid to be affected. I don’t want to be affected. I don’t want other people’s kids to be affected.”
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