--- title: "Green Ooze Gushing Out of Tesla Headquarters" description: "A strange, lime-green goo was spotted gushing out of Tesla's engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, California earlier this month." date: "2024-10-28" modified: "2024-10-28" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/green-ooze-tesla-headquarters" categories: - "Advanced Transport" - "Tesla" tags: - "chemicals" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Green Ooze Gushing Out of Tesla Headquarters ![A strange, lime-green goo was spotted gushing out of Tesla's engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, California earlier this month.]() *\Image: Mike Hedblom via X\* ## Happy Halloween A strange, lime-green goo was spotted gushing out of Tesla's engineering headquarters in Palo Alto, California earlier this month, prompting outrage from local residents. As [*SFGate* reports](), gallons of the stuff were seen pouring out of a storm drain on October 17. Officials later determined the ooze to be a "nonhazardous" mix of borax, lye, and green dye. Local resident Mike Hedblom made the unusual discovery during an evening walk. A [video]() he shared on social media shows a fluorescent green stream running along a roadway. "At that point, I didn’t know what it was," he told *SFGate*. "But I didn’t think it was right." https://twitter.com/stephencouncil/status/1849948946581553189 ## Coolant Leak Tesla employees quickly came out of the nearby engineering headquarters with absorbent pads to clean up the mess. One worker told Hedblom that it was liquid coolant. As detailed in a [report]() by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the green ooze was "used for the chiller system to cool the Tesla Artificial Intelligence Supercomputer." "The Palo Alto Fire Department recovered approximately 550 gallons of the mixture from the storm drain," the report reads. "The incident occurred while Tesla personnel were draining the system." An "unrelated natural watershed flow upstream" complicated matters, washing the green ooze further downstream and necessitating additional cleanup. The exact impact on the local environment, including the nearby Matadero Creek, remains unknown. The Elon Musk-led company may have also breached some rules by not applying for the required permits. "Storage of sodium hydroxide requires a City permit, which Tesla had not obtained," the report reads. Naturally, Tesla won't be publicly commenting on the matter as it [dissolved its PR department]() just over four years ago. **More on Tesla:** *[Tesla Has Secretly Been Testing Robotaxis]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()