SpaceX is, for all intents and purposes, the current state of American space flight. Sure, there’s that Boeing rocket, but we’ve all seen how that’s going — SpaceX is now how NASA gets shit done. It’s also, according to reports from two separate regulatory bodies, a massive polluter of Texan waters.
Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have issued reports this year slamming SpaceX for violating pollution laws. The reports, as seen by CNBC, concern the Starship rocket’s deluge system:
TCEQ said its agency’s office in the South Texas city of Harlingen, near Starbase in Boca Chica, received a complaint on Aug. 6, 2023, alleging that SpaceX “was discharging deluge water without TCEQ authorization.”
“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 need to be in compliance with state and federal laws to gain approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for future launches. 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. Notices of violation could delay those approvals and result in civil monetary penalties for SpaceX, further probes and criminal charges.
The deluge system is exactly what it sounds like: A torrent of water released beneath the Starship, which disrupts both the heat and the acoustic waves from the engines before they can reach the launch pad. Deluge systems aren’t some new SpaceX innovation — they’ve been in use since at least the 1950s — but SpaceX appears to be dumping its water back into the local environment, where it can contaminate its surroundings.
SpaceX has claimed CNBC’s reporting is “factually inaccurate,” and says that it’s been granted permission to continue operating while all the necessary paperwork is processing. Whether the company is correct or not, however, the reports from the EPA and TCEQ do exist — and they show that SpaceX’s missions come with an environmental cost.