Texas regulators late last week approved billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX to discharge wastewater from its South Texas launch site into nearby wetlands, the Express-News reports.
On a 3-0 vote, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) denied environmental groups’ and residents’ requests to halt the permit. The regulators panel ruled that opponents provided no “new factual information or an error” that could change its decision, according to the daily reports.
The permit allows SpaceX to discharge up to 358,000 gallons of water into wetlands near its Boca Chica facility during rocket tests and launches. Environmentalists argue that the discharge would violate the federal Clean Water Act.
There was no public comment allowed at the TCEQ hearing on Thursday.
According to the Express-News, environmental engineer Eric Roesch argued in a written statement submitted prior to the vote that SpaceX submitted a flawed permit request and that the TCEQ mischaracterised the nature of the wastewater to make it appear less environmentally damaging.
“Considering the numerous technical flaws in SpaceX’s permit application and the baffling shortcuts enabled by TCEQ, I am proactively requesting a contested hearing on this permit issuance,” he said. “The agency can and must do better.”
The state’s decision comes as residents and environmentalists express growing dissatisfaction with SpaceX’s environmental record in the Rio Grande Valley.
According to the EPA, SpaceX agreed in September to pay approximately $150,000 in penalties for spilling 36,000 gallons of liquid oxygen into wetlands near its launch site.
Some of the same groups that petitioned the TCEQ have also filed a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration, demanding that it halt SpaceX’s South Texas activities. Their petition contends that the agency failed to conduct environmental reviews of the company’s test launch in April.
The groups also sued the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for approving a deal that would have given SpaceX 43 acres of Boca Chica State Park in exchange for 477 acres adjacent to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Texas Tribune.
According to the Tribune, SpaceX called off the land deal late last year.
