11/01/2024

TCEQ Weighs Permit for SpaceX to Regularly Dump Industrial Wastewater into South Texas Wetlands

Houston Chronicle | Andrea Leinfelder | Oct. 24, 2024

TCEQ Weighs Permit for SpaceX to Regularly Dump Industrial Wastewater into South Texas Wetlands

Houston Chronicle | Andrea Leinfelder | Oct. 24, 2024

Texas regulators are considering allowing SpaceX to routinely dump more than 30,000 gallons of industrial wastewater into South Texas wetlands – a practice the company has already been doing and that locals and environmental activists say could harm the sensitive ecosystem.

SpaceX sprays roughly 180,000 gallons of potable water onto its launch pad each time its Starship rocket takes off to protect the pad and suppress dust and debris.

Most of the water, which is heated as it mixes with the rocket’s flames, is captured in retention basins or vaporized. But between 34,200 gallons and 37,000 gallons spill into the wetlands during launches and engine tests, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The practice has raised concerns among South Texans that small bits of metal and other contaminants will wash into nearby mudflats and waterways, despite SpaceX insisting the water has negligible traces of harmful substances. The company is now seeking a permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to continue the discharge permanently – and the agency has already “preliminarily determined that existing water quality uses will not be impaired.”

“I invite you to a fish fry in five years,” Glenn Harrison, a South Padre Island charter fishing guide who opposes the practice, said about the contamination concerns at a TCEQ meeting this month. “I'll bring you the fish. We can all sit down and eat it together, and we can all enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

The fight is the latest in a yearslong back-and-forth between South Texans and environmental organizations and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, and it comes as Musk wants to ramp up launches from Boca Chica. Separately, SpaceX has applied for another TCEQ permit to dump up to 200,000 gallons of treated domestic wastewater each day into South Bay. 

“TCEQ's job is to protect our environment and our natural resources,” Jim Chapman, president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, said during the public testimony, “not to bend over backward for industry – no matter how powerful and politically connected that industry is.”

The water deluge system was first tested on the launch pad in July 2023 – three months after heat from the inaugural launch of the Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft cracked the pad and caused a volcanic-like eruption that propelled sand through the air six miles to Port Isabel.

SpaceX says it would need to expand into the surrounding wetlands, which it can’t do, to capture all of the deluge water from the rocket launches. It insists the project was always permitted – SpaceX initially tried to roll out the system through an existing stormwater permit – and said it worked with TCEQ to implement various mitigations. The company also emphasized that its system uses “literal drinking water,” according to a statement posted to its website in September. 

Still, the Environmental Protection Agency and TCEQ determined that SpaceX needed a different permit to release industrial wastewater. They fined the company more than $150,000 for violating the Clean Water Act.

SpaceX claimed the fines “are entirely tied to disagreements over paperwork.”

“Paying fines is extremely disappointing when we fundamentally disagree with the allegations,” SpaceX said, “and we are supported by the fact that EPA has agreed that nothing about the operation of our flame deflector will need to change. Only the name of the permit has changed.”

Yet Lauren Ice, an environmental attorney at Perales, Allmon & Ice, said SpaceX should have known it wasn’t using the proper permit. She said the Clean Water Act is predictable.

“It really seemed to be an intentional desire to avoid it as long as possible,” said Ice, whose firm represents South Texas groups that oppose SpaceX activities. “And now, the effort is to try to speed through it as quickly as possible. This is the fastest administrative and technical review of an industrial wastewater permit that I've ever seen.”

SpaceX applied for the permit on July 1, and the company has agreements with regulators that allow it to use the Starship deluge system, given it complies with monitoring and reporting requirements, while this permitting process is underway. Its most successful launch to date, where SpaceX caught its Super Heavy rocket booster with mechanical arms, occurred just days before TCEQ held its public meeting.

The timing did not go unnoticed.

“There is no permit at the present time, yet TCEQ is allowing use of the deluge system and ongoing Clean Water Act violations to continue. Why?” Chapman asked during his public testimony. 

The draft permit would set limits for how much the discharge could alter oxygen levels of the nearby waters, and it would limit the amount of oil and grease that could be present in the wastewater. But it would only set requirements for monitoring, not limitations, on the wastewater’s temperature and the amounts of copper, mercury, thallium and zinc, Ice said. 

Michael Sunderlin, an environmental permit specialist with TCEQ’s water quality division, also noted that the permit application had “incomplete” data as SpaceX only sent in data from two of the four required water samples. The results from those samples had inconsistent numbers for the amounts of copper, mercury, thallium and total zinc, prompting the additional monitoring requirements. 

“Once that data is completed, they will submit it and we will re-review actual data and then make a determination whether or not any additional limitations or monitoring requirements would need to be added to the permit,” Sunderlin said during the public meeting.

Deluge systems are pretty common when launching rockets. For instance, NASA uses roughly 400,000 gallons of water when launching the agency’s mega moon rocket, the Space Launch System. Its water is routed into holding ponds, where the pH is stabilized and the temperature cools down. Once within the acceptable range, the water is pumped into other ponds where it percolates into the groundwater, NASA said. 

Ice, the environmental attorney, said it’s not too late for the TCEQ to place stricter requirements on the SpaceX deluge system. She has seen contested case hearings, which can occur after TCEQ responds to public comments like those made earlier this month, bring forward new information that changes a permit. 

“We regularly disagree with the executive director's preliminary decision that happens in permitting matters,” she said. “We don't think that analysis has been adequate to even make that decision at this point.”