Brandenburg State Environment Minister Axel Vogel said on Wednesday during a State Parliament meeting in Potsdam that Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin, nor the approved contracts for increased water withdrawal, have any negative effects on the drinking water of 170,000 people.
The Green League and Brandenburg Nature Conservation Union filed a lawsuit against the State Office of the Environment, claiming that approval for higher water pumping rates at the Eggersdorf waterworks could “endanger the public drinking water supply for 170,000 people in the association area.”
The lawsuit is about the increased pumping rates. They were increased by nearly 50% from the 1976 approval of 2.5 Million cubic meters per annum, according to the lawsuit.Welt. However, this 1976 approval rate was “inadvertently assigned to another waterworks,” the report stated.
Some confusion has resulted about when the factory, which was in development since early 2020 has been filed. The lawsuit seems to have retracted expectations about when Gigafactory Berlin would start building vehicles. It is possible that Gigafactory Berlin is still going through the German bureaucratic process. This is something that Elon Musk has been critical of in the past. Tesla submitted its approval documents on December 22.
Musk visits Gigafactory Berlin, September 2020. (Credit: Tobias Lindh/YouTube)
However, the State Government has not provided support for the environmental groups. Axel Vogel, Environment Minister, stated Wednesday that there is no evidence of any drinking water quality problems.
“The State Government does not see the drinking water supply of 170,000 people in the catchment area of the WSE (Water Association Strausberg-Erkner) and the water supply of Tesla as being at risk,” Vogel said.
Gigafactory Berlin is currently in the final stages for approval and could start production soon. Elon Musk is expected to join the electric automaker’s Earnings Call scheduled for next week, where he will give an update regarding Tesla’s product roadmap and could shed more details on the German factory and Gigafactory Texas, where production is also expected to begin very soon.
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