Fact check: Are the Great Lakes being pumped full of lithium to power electric cars? A viral TikTok shows pipes being lowered into Lake Michigan, claiming the water is being "mined for lithium" for EV batteries. This is fake. The pipes in the video are actually part of a routine municipal water intake project near Milwaukee, not a lithium extraction operation. While there is growing interest in lithium mining around the Great Lakes region for battery production, no major drilling or pumping of lake water for lithium is currently happening. The claim is false.