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Tesla Motors has spilled about 916 gallons of solution into the storm drain earlier this month, far more than the city had initially estimated or that the company had reported, according to city’s updated sampling test results.
Initial reports from the state Office of Emergency Services suggested that the company spilled about 550 gallons of chemicals into a storm drain near its headquarters at 1501 Page Mill Road on the afternoon of Oct. 17. While the cleanup near the Stanford Research Park site was quickly completed, city officials later detected damage from the spill in the storm drains in the Ventura area, including near Boulware Park.
The company, which last year opened its engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, had reported to the city that only 12 gallons of the substance had been released into the storm drain. Tesla had also failed to obtain a permit for storing the chemicals at its site and may face a fine, according to the city.
Tesla had hired a contractor to clean up these areas, work that had stretched throughout last week. Meanwhile, staff has been sampling the chemical substance, which it deemed does not pose a risk to life or health.
The initial sampling results indicated that the green solution consisted primarily of bright dyes, water and a chemical called Meras 1020, which is composed of disodium tetraborate pentahydrate and sodium hydroxide. According to the state Office of Emergency Services, the chemical was used for the chiller system that Tesla uses to cool its artificial intelligence supercomputer. A final round of testing is underway, with results expected to be released later this week.
Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, Palo Alto’s chief communications officer, said that much of the solution that was discharged was water from the cleanup, with 0.647% concentration of Meras 1020.
The cleanup effort was halted on Friday afternoon because of an unrelated incident in which someone had hit a fire hydrant on El Camino Real, near Matadero Creek, prompting a large volume of water flow to be discharged into the Matadero Creek creek.
“Fortunately, the spill cleanup was almost complete. With this level of dilution, staff has stopped any additional cleanup efforts,” the city’s update stated.
City officials warned that naturally occurring green algae remains in the creek.
“This has been evaluated and poses no risk to life or health,” the update states.
Tesla did not respond to questions about the spill.
Clarification: The story had initially failed to specify that much of the water that was discharged into the storm drain was part of the cleanup effort.
