SpaceX’s Starship launched its fourth test flight from the company’s Boca Chica launch pad, designed to send astronauts to the moon and beyond, near Brownsville, Texas, US, in a handout image obtained on June 6, 2024.
Spacex | Via Reuters
Elon Musk’s SpaceX violated environmental regulations by repeatedly releasing pollutants into or near waters in Texas, a state agency said in a notice of violation that focused on the company’s water flooding system at its Starbase launch facility.
The news from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week comes five months after the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 6 office, which covers Texas and surrounding states, also notified SpaceX that it violated the Clean Water Act with the same type of activity. .
The news and related investigative records, obtained by CNBC, have not been previously reported.
TCEQ said that the agency’s office in the city of Harlingen, South Texas, near the Starbase in Boca Chica, received a complaint on August 6, 2023, alleging that SpaceX “burned flood water without TCEQ authorization.”
“In total, the Harlingen area received 14 complaints alleging environmental impacts from the Facility’s flood 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 launches. SpaceX is seeking permission to conduct up to 25 annual launches and landings of Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rockets at its Boca Chica facility. Notice of violations could delay the agreement and result in civil monetary penalties for SpaceX, further investigations and criminal charges.
In a lengthy post on X, following the publication of this story, SpaceX said that regulators had informed the company that it could continue launch operations despite notice of the violation.
“During ongoing coordination with TCEQ and EPA, we have clearly asked if the operation of the flood system should be stopped and we have been informed that operations can continue,” SpaceX wrote on X.
Neither regulator responded to CNBC’s questions about SpaceX’s statement.
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On July 25, 2024, environmental investigators with the TCEQ “conducted an in-house compliance record review” to determine SpaceX’s compliance with wastewater regulations. The investigation found that SpaceX dumped industrial wastewater without a permit four times between March and July of this year.
A water deluge system with flame deflectors dissipates the heat, sound and energy generated by orbital test flights and rocket launches. But SpaceX didn’t make it to the launch site in Boca Chica before it began testing its biggest rocket, the Starship.
SpaceX is developing Starship to transport people and equipment to the moon and, if Musk finally realizes his grand 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 the spacecraft also exploded in midair.
Concrete chunks were thrown into important nesting and migration sites for several nearby endangered species and a 3.5-acre fire chewed through Boca Chica State Park Land south of the launch. In response, environmental groups filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and the FAA, which had authorized the launch.
With Musk pushing for another orbital test flight in one to two months, SpaceX hastily built a launchpad that installed a new water flooding system to prevent further explosions. The company bypassed the permit process, according to regulators, which must impose pollutant discharge limits, and say how it will treat wastewater.
SpaceX conducted the first full pressure test of the water flooding system in July 2023. About a month later, on August 25, 2023, the EPA began an investigation and requested information from the company about wastewater disposal and other issues.
The agency issued a formal notice of the breach to SpaceX on March 13, according to records obtained by CNBC.
On March 14, despite receiving the EPA’s notice a day earlier, SpaceX went ahead with the Starship’s third test flight, again using an unauthorized water flooding system at the launch site.
The company achieved a new milestone with a test flight and Musk appears to have won. NASA chief Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX on its “successful test flight!” although the rocket disappeared as it descended over the Indian Ocean.
Environmental engineer Eric Roesch, whose ESG Hound blog focuses on business and sustainability, predicts SpaceX will need a water flooding system on the launchpad even before Starship’s first test flight. He was also one of the first to call out SpaceX for using the system without proper permission.
After the agency notified SpaceX that it violated environmental regulations, continuing launch operations at Starbase put the company at greater legal risk, Roesch said in an interview.
“The release of more wastewater could lead to more investigations and criminal charges for the company or other person who authorized the launch,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that SpaceX has not been cleared for flight tests other than the Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle.
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The year of the offense
Roesch also stated that after receiving a notice of violation from the EPA, SpaceX must apply for a permit within 30 days. The company did not submit an application until July 1, about 110 days later, according to a copy of the application available through the TCEQ’s public records office.
“They have been violating wastewater regulations for years, and they continue to do so with the blessing of the FAA,” Roesch said.
In a statement on Monday, SpaceX wrote that the flooding system “does not cause environmental harm.” The company said another permit obtained by SpaceX is the authorization to use it.
Kenneth Teague, a coastal ecologist based outside Austin, evaluated SpaceX’s 483-page permit application. Teague, who has more than three decades of water quality and coastal planning experience, told CNBC this application is full of holes, missing basic details about the volume of water discharge, the temperature of the effluent and the location of the outfall.
Teague said he is deeply concerned about mercury concentrations in wastewater from SpaceX’s water deluge system. The levels revealed in the document are “extremely in excess of mercury water quality criteria,” Teague said.
According to the US Geological Survey, mercury is “one of the most serious contaminants threatening our nation’s water because it is a potent neurotoxin in fish, wildlife, and humans.”
Teague said high-temperature discharges, and pollutants like mercury in high concentrations, can have “significant negative impacts,” like killing “small creatures” that make up the seabird’s diet.
“SpaceX’s application fails to address this serious issue,” he said.
SpaceX said in response to X that “no detectable levels of mercury” were found in the samples. But SpaceX wrote in its permit application that the concentration of mercury in one of the spill locations was 113 micrograms per liter. The country’s water quality criteria require a level of no more than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute acute toxicity and a lower level for human health.
CNBC reached out to the FAA on Friday. The agency did not comment for this story but announced on Monday that it was postponing a public meeting that had been planned for this week. The meeting was for an environmental assessment for “SpaceX’s plan to increase the launch and landing of Starship/Super Heavy vehicles scheduled at the Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas.”
The FAA did not give a reason for the delay and said a new date would be announced in the future.
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