A new 60 Minutes+ report reveals that government documents back up
allegations that SpaceX’s Starbase test facility in Texas has violated its
federal permit through excessive road closings and has encroached and
trespassed on the protected Boca Chica National Wildlife Refuge.
The documents back up a claim by the environmental group Save Rio Grande
Valley (Save RGV) that SpaceX has been closing the Texas state highway that
runs through its operation for more than the 300 hours per year allowed
under the permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The
organization sent a letter to the local district attorney outlining its
concerns.
SpaceX responded to the district attorney with a letter saying they
take the matter seriously, and that they are “committed to working
cooperatively” to resolve it. They say they are honoring their agreement
with the FAA, and by their count, they’ve only closed down the highway
for “226 hours and 9 minutes.” SpaceX referred to the allegations
brought by Save RGV as “not accurate.”
But in documents obtained by 60 Minutes+, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service communicated to the FAA that they also believe SpaceX has been
exceeding their assigned hours. They calculated disruption to public
access in “excess of 1,000 hours in 2019.”
Fish and Wildlife told 60 Minutes+ they estimate SpaceX also exceeded
their closure hours in 2020 and 2021….
Government documents reveal officials’ frustration over SpaceX’s actions,
which they claim include illegal use of the neighboring Boca Chica National
Wildlife Refuge.
In one letter to the FAA’s environmental protection specialist, written in
April of 2019, Fish and Wildlife asked for closures and testing to stop
until, “noncompliance issues are resolved.”
A refuge manager expressed his frustration in an internal email to a Fish
and Wildlife biologist. They wrote, “this is totally unacceptable. If we
don’t stop this now, we’ll never be able to reel it back in.” They added,
“how do we stop this thing in its tracks and start over?”
In a letter to SpaceX’s director of starship operations dated June 21, 2021,
a Fish and Wildlife complex refuge manager described, “unauthorized
encroachments and trespass on the refuge.” He attached photographs that he
said shows SpaceX’s employees using refuge lands as a parking lot and, in
another one, a drainage ditch on protected land.
In March, a prototype of the Starship rocket exploded during a flight test,
sending debris into the wildlife refuge. It took more than three months to
clean up the debris.
SpaceX didn’t respond when 60 Minutes+ asked for comment on the story.
SpaceX originally planned 12 launches annually of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy
rockets from the Boca Chica facility, which sits just north of the Mexican
border. The company abandoned that plan and has instead been conducting
tests on its much larger Super Heavy/Starship launch system.
A new environmental review is underway to determine whether SpaceX can use
the site for operation of these larger rockets. The company is looking to
expand the footprint of its Starbase site.