Okay. So, I've been working on a complaint to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about my neighbor. I have not been able to confirm if this is a violation. So, legally, this is a complaint, and I hope they'll investigate. Let me just start with TCEQ Complaint. So, I received complaints 24 hours. That's great. Let's just do an email. I've actually worked on some text here. I'm going to drop in, and then we'll go through it. I am concerned that the Boring Company, registered number 111473534, is not appropriately handling the material they're removing from the ground in their tunneling operation at their site in Bastrop. Here's a video that highlights my concerns. So, let's watch that. There's no sound on this video, but you can see this is the next door, and I've got the dates. This is back in February. They've been doing this for a few weeks, and so I'm splicing together a few shots just because some of them are better than others. But essentially, they pull the dirt out. It comes down this conveyor belt. They've got this loader here, and a truck pulls up, and they move all that spoils. Spoils is what they call the material that comes out of the ground when you're digging a tunnel. There's dirt that comes with it. But the concern is that it's not just dirt, and they've come over here to the site and just start dumping it in piles. So, this has been going on for a few weeks, and it's kind of all along here they've been doing, but also back in this other area. They have also been piling things up, and this was a little bit earlier. February 28th, they got a truck going there. Unfortunately, the storm water, the surface water, just runs right off, and they kind of have this creek in the middle, and then this driveway kind of blocks their runoff, and so they end up throwing a pump in there and moving the water to the other side. And this has been a long-term issue. This driveway, and even back in November, they were fooling around with this pump, trying to get the water. And so, once it comes over across the driveway, it actually ends up leeching out into the public right-of-way here, and so this is a long FM-1209. Even on dry days, we're getting water out here now from basically that water runoff. And they have a silt fence, but I'm not sure it's really effective there. Unfortunately, we have flooding, and this is just February 8th. We saw rain, and this is all washed out. I didn't see any spoils at that time. I got to check the dates to see if they had started tunneling, but my concern is the next rainfall, we're essentially going to see this same issue, but now we have the spoils to contend with, this whole area. So, this is the big picture here, and this is the part where there basically has become their spoil storage. So, in that video, you'll see spoils being removed from the tunnel and piled at various locations, no kind of containment of the spoils, no labeling or signage to identify the spoils, standing water in the spoils, stormwater runoff from the spoils, traversing the property, pumped over a driveway, and seeping into the tech stop right away along FM 1209 outside the fence. And also, the examples of recent flooding and spoil storage areas. I have been discussing this with the Office of the Public Interest Council at the TCEQ. They actually have lawyers that can help you determine what is legal, and there is this code. It's covered in the water code called subsurface excavations, and there are rules here that I'm working with the lawyer to try to understand. What I understand is that there is a permit application for this process, and we can't find a permit for them. So, I'm awaiting a call back from a representative there as they gather their research, but in searching, we were unable to find a permit related to subsurface excavations for this corporation. In the meantime, I have received an anonymous tip from a supposed former employee that the fluids used in the boring process may not be safe for disposal, and a tunnel engineer has also contacted me with their concerns, including their comments verbatim. Let's make this look a little nicer. Okay. As a tunnel engineer, I'm concerned about what I see at the boring company and SpaceX site adjacent to your property. The pumping of standing water over the fence line without any form of treatment is a clear violation and should be followed up with the relevant authorities. My main concern is the potential for contamination of the local groundwater and groundwater from the TBM or the tunnel boring machine tunneling going on in your video. This type of TBM uses three key chemicals that come into contact with the ground. Number one, injected foam or other chemical injected through the cutter head of the TBM into the ground head to lubricate or otherwise treat the excavated material to make it more manageable. This may or may not be being used. If so, it should be, well, there's actually Elon's video tweeted the foam party, so you can search Elon foam party. They are using this. If so, it should be identified in some environmental submission and be of a biodegradable non-toxic type. This chemical can spread into the ground and around the excavation and is also present in the excavated material being disposed. Grout injection around the segment till lining to fill the excavated annulus and stabilize the lining. A cement sand additive mixture with a chemical accelerator is injected into the extra dose gap left by the TBM skin as the segments exit its tail. The type of additive, retarder, stabilizer, and accelerator to cause it to rapidly harden should be known and submitted as above. Again, this should be non-toxic because the tunnel is very shallow and adjacent to farmland where crops and our livestock graze. As the TBM moves forward, it is maintained watertight by a type of grease injected into things called tail brush seals at the rear of the machine, which form an active seal against water, grout, or grout leakage in the annulus between the TBM tail skin and the erected segmental lining. This is a continuous injection as the TBM moves forward, maybe 20 or 30 gallons per day. The grease remains in the ground on the extra dose of the segments. Again, this should be documented in an environmental submission of some kind. I'm not familiar with Texas regulation, but you discussed them in your video. The grease should be a biodegradable product. It's worth checking to avoid ground contamination and potential toxic leachate. Yeah, so I think these are the laws, and like I said, from what I can see there, we don't have a permit yet for this. So can you please, this is back to me, to TCEQ, can you please investigate what chemicals are being used in their tunneling? Can you test to confirm that their documentation matches the reality? I would also like assurances that the appropriate remediations are done to any potentially contaminated areas. I trust you'll treat this with the appropriate urgency, but my concern is the impact of the next rainstorm on my family's groundwater that we rely on for domestic use. Finally, I'm including some pictures of my concerns below. I'm included, I am. So let me just drop those in. These are very similar to what we saw in the video. The other thing I'm including here is an email that I got through public records request, and it's from the TBC Director of Operations to Bastrop County back in 2021. They say we will have a 150 by 150 foot dedicated spoils area on each site, so it's contained, and we'll haul to a licensed landfill if spoils exceed the footprint. They actually give a map of exactly where they're going to do that. And they built a house there. In reality, there are two mobile homes and people living in them. So I don't think that's where they're putting the spoils. I know it's not. I know where they're putting it, and it's not contained. And that's not going to work. Oh great, big pictures. I've never built a tunnel. So I'm not a tunneling expert. I'm not an environmental expert, but we need the experts here. And yeah, I'm going to go ahead and submit this, and it is March 6th. No, sorry, it's March 11th. 5 39 a.m. Trying to get this done before the family gets up. So we're going to follow this one real time because I've got a complaint to the TCEQ that's four months old that I'm waiting on a report, and I hope, I think this is more urgent. So let's just submit it. There we go. So that rural internet, oh, of course it's up here. Okay, can I move? Oh gosh. Okay, that's going to be scary. Here's another tip. Just redo it. I'm going to fight that. Those big pictures are attachments. Okay, that's fine. And let's just double check this YouTube link. This should be the video that I just showed you. I can share it too, but yeah. All right. We good? You know what? I'm going to have my phone number and then submit this. We don't all need to see that. So thanks. Let me know if I can help you submit a report. This is important.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

complaint

underground tunneling operation

groundwater contamination

chemicals used in tunneling