SpaceX’s Starship launches its fourth flight test from the company’s Boca Chica launch site, designed to eventually send astronauts to the moon and beyond, near Brownsville, Texas, US, in this handout photo taken on 6 June 2024.
Spacex | Via Reuters
Elon Musk’s SpaceX violated environmental regulations by repeatedly releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water in Texas, a state agency said in a notice of violation that focused on the company’s water deluge system at its Starbase launch facility.
The notice from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week came five months after the Environmental Protection Agency’s District 6 office, which covers Texas and surrounding states, also notified SpaceX that it violated the Clear Water with the same type of activity. .
The notices and related investigative records, obtained by CNBC, have not been previously reported.
TCEQ said its agency’s office in Harlingen, South Texas, near the Starbase in Boca Chica, received a complaint on Aug. 6, 2023, alleging that SpaceX “discharged flood water without TCEQ’s permission.”
“In total, the Harlingen region received 14 complaints alleging environmental impacts from the Facility’s deluge system,” the regulator said in the document.
Aerospace companies, including SpaceX, generally must comply with state and federal laws to obtain approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for future releases. SpaceX was seeking permission to conduct up to 25 annual launches and landings of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket at its Boca Chica facility. Violation notices could delay those approvals and lead to civil monetary penalties for SpaceX, further investigations and criminal prosecutions.
In one long post on Xafter this story was published, SpaceX said regulators have told the company it can continue launch operations despite the violation notices.
“During our ongoing coordination with both TCEQ and EPA, we specifically asked if the deluge system should be shut down and were informed that operations could continue,” SpaceX wrote to X.
No regulatory authority responded to CNBC’s questions about SpaceX’s statement.
Rush to rebuild
On July 25, 2024, an environmental investigator with TCEQ “conducted an internal review of the compliance record” to determine SpaceX’s compliance with wastewater regulations. The investigation found that SpaceX dumped industrial waste water without a permit four times between March and July of this year.
Water deluge systems with flame deflectors dissipate the heat, sound and energy generated by orbital test flights and rocket launches. But SpaceX didn’t build that system at its Boca Chica launch site before it began test flights of its largest rocket ever, Starship.
SpaceX is developing Starship to carry people and equipment to the moon and, if Musk finally realizes his grandiose vision, to colonize Mars. On Starship’s first test flight in April 2023, the energy from the rocket caused SpaceX’s concrete launch pad to explode, and its spacecraft also blew up.
Chunks of concrete were hurled at a nesting and migration site important to some endangered species nearby, and a 3.5-acre fire chewed through Boca Chica State Park, south of the launch pad. In response, environmental groups filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and the FAA, which had approved its launches.
With Musk pushing for another orbital test flight within one to two months, SpaceX rushed to rebuild the launch pad by installing a new water deluge system to keep it from exploding again. The company bypassed a permitting process, according to regulators, that would have required it to meet pollutant discharge limits and say how it would treat its wastewater.
SpaceX conducted its first full-pressure test of the water deluge system in July 2023. About a month later, on August 25, 2023, the EPA launched an investigation and requested information from the company about sewage discharges and more.
The agency issued an official breach notice to SpaceX on March 13, according to records obtained by CNBC.
On March 14, despite receiving the EPA notification a day earlier, SpaceX went ahead with Starship’s third test flight, again using the unauthorized water deluge system at the launch site.
The company reached new milestones with the test flight, and Musk emerged triumphant. NASA chief Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on “a successful test flight!” although the missile was lost during its descent over the Indian Ocean.
Environmental engineer Eric Roesch, whose ESG Hound Blog focuses on business and sustainability, predicted that SpaceX would need a water deluge system at the launch site even before Starship’s first test flight. He was also one of the first to call out SpaceX for using such a system without proper permits.
Once the agencies notified SpaceX that it was violating environmental regulations, continuing launch operations at Starbase put the company at greater legal risk, Roesch said in an interview.
“Further sewage discharges could trigger further investigations and criminal charges for the company or any of the individuals involved in authorizing the discharges,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that SpaceX is not yet in the clear for another test flight of its Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle.
The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Years of violations
Roesch also pointed out that after receiving a violation notice from the EPA, SpaceX had to apply for a permit within 30 days. The company filed its application by July 1, about 110 days later, according to a copy of its application made available through the TCEQ’s public records office.
“They have been violating wastewater regulations for years and continue to do so seemingly with the FAA’s blessing,” Roesch said.
In its statement on Monday, SpaceX wrote that the deluge system “does not cause any harm to the environment.” The company said other licenses obtained by SpaceX serve as authorization for its use.
Kenneth Teague, a coastal ecologist based outside Austin, reviewed the 483 pages SpaceX license application. Teague, who has more than three decades of experience in water quality and coastal planning, told CNBC the application was full of holes, missing key details about water discharge volumes, wastewater temperature and outfall locations.
Teague said he is particularly concerned about the concentration of mercury in the wastewater from the SpaceX water deluge system. The levels revealed in the paper represent “very large exceedances of mercury water quality criteria,” Teague said.
According to the US Geological Survey, Mercury is “one of the most serious pollutants threatening our nation’s waters because it is a potent neurological poison in fish, wildlife and humans.”
Teague said the high-temperature discharges and pollutants such as mercury in high concentrations could cause “significant negative effects,” such as killing the “little creatures” that make up the seabirds’ diet.
“The SpaceX application fails to address this very serious concern,” he said.
SpaceX said in its response to X that “no detectable levels of mercury” were found in its samples. But SpaceX wrote in its July permit application — under the heading Specific Test Requirements – Table 2 for Outfall: 001 — that its mercury concentration at one outlet was 113 micrograms per litre. State water quality criteria require levels no greater than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity and much lower levels for human health
CNBC contacted the FAA on Friday. The agency did not comment for this story, but announced Monday that it was postponing public meetings scheduled for this week. The meetings were about an environmental assessment of “SpaceX’s plan to increase launches and landings of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicles scheduled at the Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas.”
The FAA did not give a reason for the postponements and said new dates will be announced in the future.
CLOCK: High above the clouds
