SpaceX is preparing to launch the largest rocket in the history of
spaceflight. If permitted by federal regulators, it will lift off from a
beach-side facility at the southern tip of Texas. But residents and
researchers have criticized the permitting process, saying the company has
flouted rules — at the expense of the environment and the community.
There’s only one road to SpaceX — Texas Highway 4. It runs parallel to the
Rio Grande, from Brownsville to Boca Chica Beach.
The 40-minute drive takes visitors past dense thickets of thorn scrub, the
preferred habitat of endangered ocelots. The spiny vegetation eventually
gives way to coastal flats, dunes and a peaceful beach, home to endangered
sea turtles, as well as migratory birds not found elsewhere in Texas.
On a Tuesday in early September, a Cameron County sheriff's vehicle blocked
off the road.
“The Highway’s closed until further notice,” a deputy told David Newstead, a
program director with the nonprofit research and conservation group Coastal
Bend Bays & Estuaries Program.
“Closed today?” Newstead asked.
“Yes, sir.”
The deputy was mistaken. After a brief back-and-forth about the nature of
the closure — authorized by what’s known as “a temporary and intermittent
closure order” — someone came over his walkie-talkie.
“We are clear to open up the highway.”
The deputy moved his vehicle and let Newstead through. But other people,
unaware of the esoteric closure rules that allow a private company to shut
down a public road, had already headed back in the direction of Brownsville
after being told the highway was closed.
SpaceX is allowed to completely close Boca Chica beach for only 300 hours
per year.
“That's when they're doing a launch or a test or something like that,”
Newstead explained.
But with the permission of Cameron County, the company can keep the beach
technically open while closing Highway 4 — the sole access road. This type
of closure doesn’t count towards the 300-hour annual limit, even though
people can’t enter or exit the beach.
Newstead estimates the company has effectively closed the beach in excess of
1,000 hours per year. The 8-mile strip runs from just below South Padre
Island down to the spot where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of
Mexico. It’s popular with the majority-Latinx, working-class population from
Brownsville.
The frequent closures complicate the type of research Newstead’s program
does. The work often requires multiple surveys each week.
“That became impossible, essentially, starting last year,” he said.
Stephanie Bilodeau is the researcher trying to do those surveys. She’s a
conservation biologist with the coastal bird program that Newstead leads.
“In areas where we previously had a dozen snowy plover, wilson plover nests
in a season, close to where the launch pad is, it's slowly decreased over
the years,” she said. “This year, we only had one nest in that area.”
The decline in nesting plovers has coincided with a dramatic increase in
SpaceX operations.
Before SpaceX moved in, the Federal Aviation Administration conducted an “environmental impact statement” — an in-depth examination required by federal law. Since then, FAA
regulators have allowed the company to ramp up activity beyond what was
initially planned for.
“They incrementally just kept approving whatever it was that SpaceX
continued to do,” Newstead said. “And that worked for
five written reevaluations
up to the point where you can see that the project bears no resemblance to
what was originally proposed.”
Rather than doing new impact statements for the company’s increasingly large
tests and launches, the FAA has done a series of “reevaluations” — a less
intensive process.
The agency said SpaceX’s expanded operations haven’t been significant enough
to warrant more scrutiny, although that could soon change. The FAA is
currently reevaluating the impact of a possible Starship launch. If
permitted, it would be the largest rocket to ever fly.
The agency’s boilerplate line in launch-related reevaluations reads, “Any
potential accidental releases of hazardous materials would be managed
according to SpaceX’s Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Plan.
Accordingly, the data and analyses contained in the (environmental impact
statement) remain substantially valid, and the Proposed Action would not
result in a significant impact related to hazardous materials, solid waste,
and pollution prevention.”
Put simply: SpaceX has a plan for any accidents. Therefore, accidents won’t
have a significant impact.
In late March, SpaceX tested a large rocket — a prototype of the so-called
“starship.” It had been approved through the FAA’s less intense reevaluation
process.
It exploded.
Rocket parts showered protected habitats overseen by the Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department (TPWD). TPWD researchers were unable to access the area.
SpaceX drove over the sensitive land with heavy machinery to retrieve the
debris, which was scattered for miles.
A TPWD biologist tweeted, and then deleted, “It's fine Spacex. I'll just
reschedule my field work until next year again because I can't drive down a
state Highway or state beach. It's only public land and critical habitats
you just showered with rocket parts.”
In internal communications obtained by TPR, a Texas Parks and Wildlife
program leader wrote to the biologist, “It absolutely should not be this
hard for us to get access to our own property. My impression is that they
don't know what they are doing 4 days from now and want to keep all their
options open which is completely unacceptable.”
The biologist said he had been asked to delete his tweet, and noted that
taxpayers bear the cost of the frequent closures.
“Yep but taxpayers can't access a public beach and refuge area,” the program
leader responded.
60 Minutes+ has
documented similar concerns
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates a national wildlife
refuge in the area. The program obtained documents that described,
"unauthorized encroachments and trespass on the refuge,” and photos that
showed “SpaceX employees using refuge lands as a parking lot and, in another
one, a drainage ditch on protected land.”
SpaceX declined TPR’s interview request and did not respond to written
questions.
In a written statement, TPWD State Park Regional Director Reagan Faught said
“Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and SpaceX are working cooperatively on
a multitude of issues that are of interest to both parties. Our adjacent
lands and respective missions have at times produced a need to collaborate
more closely, therefore we are continuing to work on refining measures that
mitigate impacts to state park property and outdoor recreational use of the
area. TPWD is committed to implementing strategies that will minimize or
offset long-term impacts. The collective focus is on how our respective
entities can better function and operate as neighboring property owners.”
State Highway 4 is now bustling with SpaceX equipment, employees,
contractors and enthusiasts. The increased traffic has led to more roadkill
— and hazardous conditions for drivers. The company is facing a
$20 million lawsuit over
the death of a 35-year-old man earlier this year. According to his family’s
lawyers, Carlos Venegas crashed into a stalled 18-wheeler that was blocking
the road at 4 a.m. while on the way back from the beach with his wife and
children.
Before it became an industrial artery between the manufacturing facility and
launch sites, the roadway was quiet, servicing public lands and a retirement
community.
On her deck near Port Isabel, looking out over the Brownsville Ship Channel,
South Bay and — in the distance — SpaceX, Maria Pointer spoke of her life in
two chapters.
“We’re sitting in chapter two of Maria’s life,” she said, softly laughing.
“We had a really nice life in the wilderness.”
That was chapter one. A house near Boca Chica Beach, towards the end of
State Highway 4.
“And we thought no one would ever find us where we were at the end of the
road,” she said.
Then SpaceX moved in.
The FAA’s initial environmental impact statement said area residents, like
Pointer, wouldn’t experience too much disruption at night, aside from the
occasional rocket launch.
“Significant impacts to community noise levels from proposed daily
operations are not anticipated,” the statement read. “Noise impacts to up to
35 households in Boca Chica Village would be considered significant during a
nighttime launch of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.”
But then operations ramped up. Pointer and her husband suffered from the
24/7 noise.
“It caused an immense amount of stress because of health issues for both of
us… so we had a lot of grief,” she said.
Pointer and her husband sold the house to SpaceX.
“People were saying, ‘Gosh, Maria, you're supporting SpaceX, and they're
taking your house, you know, what an idiot,’” she recalled. “They just
didn't understand that after sleep deprivation, lights, noise, dust, choking
dust, not just dust, but choking dust with grit and grime in the air, you
could hear it hitting your house in the wind. Your trees and plants died.”
“You can't live in that situation. And you can't fight a billionaire.”
Now, chapter two: Pointer bought a new house just across the bay, with a
view of the SpaceX launch site. She runs a YouTube channel devoted to all
things SpaceX. “StarshipBocaChica” has more than 16 thousand subscribers and
millions of views. Despite the grief, Pointer is excited by Elon Musk’s
grand vision of colonizing Mars.
“Yeah, I’m an Apollo kid from the '60s, and I was wanting to go back to the
moon,” she said. “I’m right there with Elon, I’m ‘rah rah!’”
Not everyone feels the same. Cheryl Stevens sold her rental home to SpaceX.
It was her primary source of income, and she planned to retire in it.
“I don't understand why people think that (Elon Musk) is such a genius,”
Stevens said. “I think, in my opinion, he’s a sociopath.”
In a 2019 letter, SpaceX told Boca Chica residents like Stevens that the
company initially expected minimal disruption. But, the company said, the
need to comply with FAA regulations and to continue expanding its operations
would make that impossible.
“They're saying whatever they need to say to get things to go the way they
want them to,” she said. “And in fact, that's what it's turned out to be —
like, really a gigantic bait and switch.”
Further up the road in Brownsville, property prices have soared as Elon Musk
has encouraged out-of-towners to move in. Local advocacy organization Fuera
SpaceX has organized protesters and criticized local elected officials who
helped pave the way for the company. Those officials often cite the economic
benefits and employment opportunities that a company like SpaceX would
ostensibly bring.
“Elon Musk has been inviting many people from around the country, from
around the world, to come and take the jobs at SpaceX,” organizer Xandra
Treviño said. “The people here — the lower income, middle income class
people — they're not going to be involved in that. They were never meant to
be involved in that. And this wealth divide is just going to grow.”
For SpaceX, the road to Mars is temporarily closed. The FAA is evaluating
the environmental impact of what would be the largest rocket to ever fly.
The agency is
seeking public comment
on the project. Elon Musk
asked
his 60 million Twitter followers to add their support.
“Humanity’s future on the moon, Mars & beyond depends upon it,” he
wrote.
SpaceX appears confident about the outcome of the process. The company has
already built a launch tower — without the approval of regulators — and has
begun assembling the rocket in question — without a license to actually
launch it.
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