McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The Federal Aviation Administration has postponed a series of public hearings that were to begin Tuesday on SpaceX’s request to expand its launches in South Texas — the same day that a report became public from a state agency that cites SpaceX is improperly discharging industrial wastewater into Texas waterways.
The four FAA public hearings were to start Tuesday afternoon at two South Texas locations and have been indefinitely delayed, according to the FAA.
The public hearing included allowing public commenting to the agency’s review of a draft tiered environmental assessment that the regulatory agency has done on SpaceX and its request to boost additional launches and landings of its Starship and Super Heavy spacecrafts from its facility on Boca Chica Beach, Texas, just miles from the border with Mexico.
“The FAA apologizes for any inconvenience. Public meetings will be rescheduled,” the agency said.
The FAA did not give a reason for the delayed hearings, but in a statement in response to questions from Border Report, the agency on Tuesday said: “The FAA is seeking additional information from SpaceX before rescheduling the public meetings.”
TCEQ report faults SpaceX
The postponement comes as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality made public a report that found SpaceX has been discharging industrial wastewater into Texas waterways without permission as part of its facility’s operations.
“Respondent failed to obtain authorization to discharge industrial wastewater into or adjacent to any water in the state, in violation of 30 TEX. ADMIN. CODE 305.42(a) and TEX. WATER CODE 26.121(a)(1). Specifically, the Respondent has been operating Starbase Launch Pad Site and discharging industrial wastewater without proper authorization,” according to a July 30 report by TCEQ.
Border Report has received a copy of the TCEQ report that alleges “industrial wastewater was discharged without a TPDES (Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit.”
The agency claims there were four discharges since March 13 without approval and is taking issue with water discharged in conjunction with SpaceX’s deluge system at its Starbase facility in South Texas.
SpaceX said Tuesday that the deluge system is “Starship’s water-cooled flame deflector system is critical equipment for SpaceX’s launch operations. It ensures flight safety and protects the launch site and surrounding area.”
In a statement, the company said the system “applies clean, potable (drinking) water to the engine exhaust during static fire tests and launches to absorb the heat and vibration from the rocket engines firing. Similar equipment has long been used at launch sites across the United States – such as Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations in Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.”
“SpaceX worked with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) throughout the build and test of the water deluge system at Starbase to identify a permit approach,” the company said in its statement, which was also published on X.
TCEQ, in its report, acknowledges that SpaceX has applied for an Industrial Wastewater Individual Permit for Starbase, however, during a July 25 investigation by TCEQ, “it was documented that the Respondent failed to obtain authorization to discharge industrial wastewater into or adjacent to any water in the state,” the report says.
Border Report spoke with one of the complainants cited in the TCEQ report, Mary Angela Branch, of the nonprofit group Save RGV, and she says the SpaceX facility should not be allowed to conduct future tests.
“They should not be allowed to continue if they’ve obviously been cited in violation of not having a permit,” Branch said. “It should be TCEQ’s obligation, we feel, to stop the activity and to take some enforcement action.”
Branch serves on the board of the nonprofit organization, Save RGV, which has filed lawsuits to try to stop SpaceX activities in the sensitive ecosystem of Boca Chica beach.
On Tuesday, the organization said: “SpaceX must stop any further tests and launches until a permit is issued, and only after a full environmental impact study and technical review are completed, with enforceable mitigation, protection and enforcement measures included in the permit issuance. This must be done to ensure that our wetlands are protected. It is on TCEQ’s shoulders to protect the integrity of our waters and keep them safe.”
The group claims SpaceX is in violation of the Clean Water Act.
Groups want change to hearings
Also Tuesday, Border Report received a letter sent to FAA Administrator Michael Whitaker from several environmental and civil rights groups, and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, that is urging the federal agency to change the public hearing process that had been scheduled in South Texas.
The Aug. 5 letter cited that the public hearings were not advertised for 30 days prior to Spanish-language media, despite over 90% of households in the Rio Grande Valley being Hispanic. The letter also cited that the FAA had intended to allow the public to leave comments with an agency stenographer in private one-on-one meetings, and the groups want the public to speak and to be heard by others regarding their views toward allowing SpaceX to increase the number of tests it launches from Starbase annually.
“The current format of the public meetings does not allow the public to learn about SpaceX operations’ concerns. We request that the FAA have an open public meeting that allows attendees to hear the public comments from their peers. The FAA’s plan to require residents to give comments one-on-one to a court reporter prevents residents from learning about the concerns and opinions of others,” according to the letter sent to Whitaker from the Tribe as well as representatives of the following groups:
- South Texas Environmental Justice Network, Brownsville, Texas
- Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, Harlingen, Texas
- Border Workers United, Brownsville and El Paso, Texas
- Voces Unidas, Rio Grande Valley
- Texas Rising RGV, Brownsville, Texas
- Frontera Fund, Rio Grande Valley
- ARISE Adelante, Alamo, Texas
- Trucha, McAllen, Texas
- Centro por la Justicia, San Antonio, Texas
- South Texas Human Rights Center, Brownsville, Texas
“The organizations signed onto this letter are directly impacted stakeholder groups based in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley region, where SpaceX is currently conducting its operations on Boca Chica Beach. The current review and public participation process carried out by the FAA is inadequate and hinders engagement from our community members directly impacted by SpaceX’s operations,” the groups wrote in the letter.
They are asking for a meeting with FAA staff “to discuss our concerns as soon as possible before the FAA decides on the license for SpaceX,” according to the letter.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].