Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas • Hacker News Board

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#231

Post by BriggyDwiggs42 » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:33 PM UTC

jvanderbot wrote: post #181

BriggyDwiggs42 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true? I recall seeing a 16% or so number for the increase in mass burning up in the atmosphere. Edit: I can’t find a source for any number for the increase. If you know could you share one? Ah nevermind this seems solid https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02731...

100 tons/day from NASA https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/asteroids/asteroid-fast-fa...

Okay, that makes sense. The reading I did indicated that the composition of the man-made mass is very different, and could greatly elevate the amount of certain elements released in the upper atmosphere, like aluminum. Is this not cause for concern?

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#232

Post by idiotsecant » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:33 PM UTC

leetharris wrote: post #165

fragmede wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible to be pro-progress while being anti-this specific thing. In particular, Elon Musk came out and admitted that he hates trains and busses and admitted that he just made up Boring Co to distract from giving money to them. The Boring Co tunnels in Vegas are a boondoggle and not even well designed (whether that's due to lack of funds or stupidity or corruption, who knows!). The problem is the opportunity cos…

In the last 50 years, well before Elon was involved and supposedly sabotaging all this great subway progress, how many new subway projects in America were started and successfully finished? Maybe Elon's solution is a requirement to make ANY progress because the other ones have stalled out? I would love a subway. Here in Austin, they proposed a bunch of new trains and subways for billions of dollars. We all voted yes…

>> Making infrastructure is hard, so making dumb infrastructure that doesn't work is better.

Not really following if you're making some other point here.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#233

Post by idiotsecant » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:35 PM UTC

jordanb wrote: post #68

sebmellen wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes this sounds quite serious. In line with Elon’s “at all cost” mindset, which is very powerful but also dangerous.

"At all costs" to the workers and community, not to Elon.

move fast and break people, communities, and governments. The motto of the post-tech boom new american robber barons

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#234

Post by capriciotrary » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:35 PM UTC

thereisnospork wrote: post #209

skopje wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stifled by a dumpster!!!

Yes. 5 figures were lit on fire, for a dumpster. Two, technically. Do you intend that isn't stifling, that a regulatory environment that requires spending 5 figured to house 2 dumpsters isn't stifling?

That's a steal! A "La Sombrita" bus shelter-on-a-stick in Los Angeles will set you back $200k. Stiflingly, it doesn't even provide shelter.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#235

Post by 93po » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:36 PM UTC

3D30497420 wrote: post #39

Seattle3503 wrote: post #35

The tricky thing about environmental regulations is that they are crafted and utilized by NIMBYs to block any infrastructure development. Even if, on balance, the infrastructure is a net positive. It's not clear if these violations actually represent a real environmental hazard or are more reflective of NIMBY degrowth sentiment.

From the article: > Workers have complained of chemical burns from the waste material generated by the tunneling process, and firefighters must decontaminate their equipment after conducting rescues from the project sites. The company was fined more than $112,000 by Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in late 2023 after workers complained of “ankle-deep” water in the tunnels, muck spills and burns.…

How much of this is coverage is because this a true outlier situation versus Elon ragebait? Let's look at one of the larger construction companies in the US:

https://violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/?parent=acs-sa&or...

Since the year 2000, they've had 45 fines (and many violations per fine) by the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration, and nearly $8 million in fines. And over $200k in fines just last year. There's separately 34 global violations totalling is over $50 million in fines.

This doesn't make Elon's company's violations excusable - it is however clearly the course of business in construction that these sorts of things happen. I think this is a good criticism of capitalist pressures in general rather than Elon being uniquely shitty in how he operates his companies.

obligatory Elon sucks, i'm just allergic to bullshit and ragebait

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#236

Post by idiotsecant » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:36 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #127

Seattle3503 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed I agree chemical burns would suggest a real environmental hazard in this case.

Technically the term chemical burn doesn't indicate severity, just that you got in contact with a corrosive material which had an effect on your skin. My guess would be someone got lime/cement powder on themselves and reported it as a chemical burn. They could have also been dissolved alive in an acid bath, but the size of the fine and the fact propublica doesn't say what happened suggests it was minor.

as was posted elsewhere, it was an industrial curing accelerant chemical used to make grout cure faster. It was not a cement burn.

It's interesting, though, that your first impulse is to defend the robber barons that made this happen.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#237

Post by idiotsecant » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:39 PM UTC

Seattle3503 wrote: post #35

The tricky thing about environmental regulations is that they are crafted and utilized by NIMBYs to block any infrastructure development. Even if, on balance, the infrastructure is a net positive. It's not clear if these violations actually represent a real environmental hazard or are more reflective of NIMBY degrowth sentiment.

This is so wildly ignorant that I wasn't sure what website I was on for a minute.

Clearly, anyone who says [complex, multifaceted loose grouping of kind of related things] is [extreme, polarizing claim with no evidence] is not worth listening to further.

Please explain exactly what regulations in this context were 'crafted and utilized by NIMBYs'. Please cite agency and ruling for each supposed grave offense to your anti-NIMBY sensibilities.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#238

Post by preisschild » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:39 PM UTC

leetharris wrote: post #169

abvdasker wrote: post #162

At this point we all know Musk only did this as part of his general "hyperloop" boondoggle to kill California high speed rail. Why do we have to continue to pretend this was anything other than an idiotic PR stunt?

[flagged]

Can you Musk defenders literally not read? That is not what he wrote...

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#239

Post by dzhiurgis » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:39 PM UTC

paulsutter wrote: post #230

leakycap wrote: post #3

All this so a handful of passengers a week can wait for the extremely small pool of vehicles in a dusty hole

If you’re curious, this is a demo/experiment. The long term goal is tunnels so inexpensive that they can go 30 levels deep, letting us travel within cities at 200kph with no stop signs (even eliminate automobiles from the surface of cities) This will require considerable progress in tunneling r&d, which is their primary activity

IMHO Tunnels for bicycles make a ton of sense - similarly to EVs low ventilation requirements, small diameter means cheaper build and most importantly protects you from weather elements.

Takes most of the biking joy away tho.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#240

Post by olelele » Fri, Oct 10, 2025, 7:40 PM UTC

ETH_start wrote: post #69

I think the big picture here is much more important. If tunneling technology is radically improved, we're going to see massive improvements in urban living, including: • Cleaner air at street level because vehicle exhaust stays underground and can be filtered, which would have massive health and environmental benefits • Quieter cities with most traffic noise eliminated • Cooler temperatures since asphalt and vehicle…

There is simply no way to make enough tunnels for personal vehicles. That is basic city planning. Building more roads increases congestion.

The only _real_ way to achieve the above goals are building bicycle friendly cities with diverse public transport options and less parking spaces. There are European cities that function more like this.

This is anathemic to the US of course.