Published on: November 11, 2025, 02:38h.

Updated on: November 11, 2025, 02:38h.

Environmental authorities have once again imposed a fine on Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunneling enterprise. This time, they are required to pay $500,000 for infractions committed during the recent expansion of the Vegas Loop, an underground transportation system. According to Fortune magazine, the company improperly discharged toxic drilling fluids into manholes in Las Vegas in August 2025, which “significantly harmed” essential public infrastructure.

The latest violations were described as egregious and intentional, according to the notice acquired by Fortune through a public records request. Boring allegedly “pretended to comply,” only to resume dumping the fluids once the company manager believed that the inspectors had left the site.

As a consequence, the Clark County Water Reclamation District reported that its teams had to clean up 2,400 gallons of hazardous drilling mud and solid waste from a sewage treatment facility.

All manhole covers located on or near the Las Vegas Strip are part of a stormwater drainage system that directs untreated rainwater runoff towards Lake Mead, which supplies around 90% of the drinking water for Las Vegas.

Fines for Boring

In 2019, when work commenced on the Vegas Loop, Boring was fined $90,000 by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection for improperly discharging groundwater into storm drains without the necessary permits.

Later, in 2023, it faced an additional fine of $112,000 from the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious safety infractions, including severe skin burns experienced by 15-20 employees due to hazardous chemicals leaking from hoses they were connecting.

This recent development follows a report by ProPublica and City Cast Las Vegas podcast co-host Dayvid Figler, which highlighted 800 new environmental breaches that Nevada regulators had identified for Boring in the last two years.

For Musk, whose wealth is immense, fines of $90,000, $112,000, and $500,000 may simply represent the cost of doing business. As a result, Boring persists in breaching regulations and perceives these penalties as routine expenses.

“In my opinion, environmental regulations are mostly flawed,” Musk stated during a Buenos Aires political conference back in June.

“You must obtain prior approval, rather than paying a fine if you err, which I believe would be far more effective,” he explained. “We should be allowed to proceed with projects, and if any issues arise, we’ll be obliged to pay a penalty. However, we cannot afford to navigate a three- to four-year environmental approval timeline.”