An unauthorized building is said to have been erected on the site of the factory of the US electric car manufacturer Tesla in Grünheide near Berlin.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, the State Office for the Environment (LfU) Brandenburg is checking information from the environmental associations Green League and NABU after there is suspicion of illegal construction on the site.
The approval authority was informed on July 5 that tanks may have been erected on the construction site for which no approval according to Section 8a of the Federal Immission Control Act has been granted, the ministry said on Wednesday when asked.
According to the environmental associations, this should be a refrigerant tank for the chemical tetraflourpropene.
First of all, the Tagesspiegel reported.
According to the ministry, the LfU carried out an inspection on the construction site on Tuesday.
The knowledge gained is currently being evaluated by the authority.
Only then will a decision be made on possible further measures, it said.
Tesla was initially not available for comment.
So far, the car factory has not received an environmental permit under the Federal Immission Control Act. Tesla is therefore building with early approvals. The final decision is still pending. The timing is unclear. The environmental associations NABU and the Green League are currently taking legal action against the 15th early partial approval for the construction of the Tesla factory. You are against the pre-approval with tests of the functionality of systems in the paint shop, foundry and body shop.
In addition, the installation of tanks for wastewater treatment and the refueling system was approved ahead of time.
The Ministry of the Environment had declared that these were functional tests in which only small amounts of substances that are hazardous to water and significant in the event of an accident are used.
Therefore, the knowledge gained from a submitted accident report would not conflict with this decision.
The environmentalists see it differently.
"Black building is a dismantling," said the managing director of the Green League, Michael Ganschow.
According to him, there is no technical drawing of the refrigerant tank in Tesla's application documents.
The infrastructural policy spokesman for the left-wing parliamentary group, Christian Görke, called for an immediate halt to construction if the suspicion of "illegal construction" was confirmed. Then the environment minister would have to inform the state parliament immediately. Against the background of the controversial accident problem, which also includes considerable risks when handling chemicals, further consequences would then be necessary.