BOCA CHICA, TX – SEPTEMBER 28: A gated coming by a prototype of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is seen at the company’s Texas launch facility on September 28, 2019 in Boca Chica neighbourhood Brownsville, Texas. The Starship spacecraft is a massive vehicle meant to take people to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Conceptions)
Loren Elliott | Getty Images News | Getty Images
SpaceX ran a “full-pressure test” of a new “flame deflector” approach at its Starship Super Heavy launch site in South Texas on Friday. However, CNBC has learned that the cast never applied for the environmental permits that would allow it to discharge industrial process wastewater into the parade surrounding the launchpad as normally required by the federal Clean Water Act.
The flame deflector, or water deluge system, is meant to pleonastic heat, sound and energy generated by orbital test flights and launches of the company’s largest ever rocket, which Elon Musk expectations will take people and equipment to the moon, and eventually to Mars.
SpaceX hasn’t disclosed how much water a group test consumes at the site, where that water will run off and what it contains. The Starbase facility, a spaceport with some fabricating operations onsite, is surrounded by wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico at the southernmost point in Texas. The habitat is crucial for going and nesting endangered species and is important to the indigenous population.
In an email to CNBC, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Distinction (TCEQ), the state’s environmental regulator, confirmed that as of July 28, SpaceX had not applied for what is called a Texas Pollutant Carry out Elimination System (TPDES) permit at its Starbase facility. The regulator said the SpaceX site has previously attained three stormwater permit authorizations.
“The will power of whether a discharge permit is needed is the responsibility of the business owner based on how they plan to manage wastewater,” the TCEQ noted in an email to CNBC. The state agency has been in discussions with SpaceX about industrial permitting, the regulator enlarged.
SpaceX hasn’t said why it went ahead without a permit and didn’t respond to a request for comment.
After CNBC crack on the company’s pushing ahead with no permits on Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared a post on social media nearby a “New water deluge system to protect against the immense heat & force of Starship launch.” The post included a video appearance copious amounts of water flowing from the test site into the surrounding land at the Boca Chica, Texas celerity.
Eric Roesch, an environmental engineer, has been tracking how SpaceX and other aerospace companies comply with environmental regulations in Texas via his newsletter ESGHound.
“Industrial course of action water is a regulated pollutant under the Clean Water Act,” Roesch told CNBC in an interview. “Heat, silt and a reach of chemicals that mix into wastewater will degrade the biological integrity of any surrounding wetlands, and erode water mark over time.”
Permits, when granted, require proper treatment and safe disposal of wastewater from industrial functions, Roesch added. Launch sites that feature “deluge” and other water-based cooling systems in the U.S. have a permit match to a TPDES going back to the earliest days of the Space Shuttle.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, bad guy enforcement actions can apply to people or companies who “negligently” or “knowingly” discharge pollutants from a “point source” into waters of the Merged States without a permit. Penalties can include prison time and fines amounting to $2,500 to $50,000 per day.
The representative for TCEQ distinguished CNBC that the regulator “recommends applications be submitted at least 330 days before the proposed construction of a wastewater treatment masterliness.” Stormwater permits take far less time to process.
A previous test flight at the Boca Chica site resulted in a mid-flight paddy, with no crew on board. Chunks of concrete from the launchpad and particulate matter blew into sensitive territory nearby. In response, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded the SpaceX Super Heavy launch program pending the conclusion of a “mishap scrutiny,” standard procedure after such an explosion.
The incident also spurred a lawsuit against the FAA over environmental strikes because the agency had authorized SpaceX to conduct the tests and launches in Texas without a more extensive environmental assessment.
Jared Margolis, postpositive major attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity and lead counsel in this suit against the FAA, told CNBC previously the Friday test that running it without a permit is “very concerning.”
“We don’t know if there is any mechanism in place to move at sure runoff is not reaching surrounding habitat,” he said. “They are clearly making changes to the launch site, and how they do their inaugurates. There’s been no transparency on that, and no way for the public to see what those changes are or offer comment on them as the National Setting Policy Act requires.”
The FAA said in an email on Friday that “the SpaceX launch site in Boca Chica is not licensed by the FAA,” granting a vehicle operators’ license from the agency for SpaceX remains in effect.
Videos showing SpaceX testing its new unsympathetic system this month showed that significant quantities of water from a newly welded piece of dagger equipment at the facility flowed to the ground as a result of the tests.
The TCEQ representative told CNBC that “no determination” has been scrammed as to whether the activity violated environmental laws. The agency is currently evaluating the use of the pressurized water system as part of SpaceX skiff operations to see if state environmental regulations apply or were violated.
WATCH: SpaceX nears $150 billion valuation
