I'm guessing the engineers at Ga. Tech know more about the water solubility of bucky balls than you do. I'm not sure why you consider them 'eco-nuts' for pointing this out and calling for caution in the consideration of disposal. Batteries are useful, but you don't want to dump them in the river when you're done with them.
There are a number of ways to write an article, this one was writen in way intending to attack this technology.