this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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SpaceX’s Starship launches at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, have allegedly been contaminating local bodies of water with mercury for years. The news arrives in an exclusive CNBCreport on August 12, which cites internal documents and communications between local Texas regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.

SpaceX’s fourth Starship test launch in June was its most successful so far—but the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever built continues to wreak havoc on nearby Texas communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. But after repeated admonishments, reviews, and ignored requests, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have had enough.

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[–] [email protected] 163 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

Ok so, going to the CNBC article and my own memory, as charitably summarized as I can:

Boca Chica is originally built with certain parameters and specifications, before Musk announced they would be doing all of the testing for Starship at that location.

Then, SpaceX just started doing so, and then asked for permission from relevant regulatory bodies ... later.

At this point, Common Sense Skeptic on YouTube did a video or two specifically going into the details of exactly how bonkers it is to do huge scale rocket testing basically half a kilometer away from protected nature zones.

Then, one of the Starship tests blew apart huge parts of the launch pad after Elon had said that would not be a problem.

Then, Elon folded on that notion, and built the water deluge system and modified the launching configuration, without getting any permits beforehand from relevant regulatory agencies.

So the run off from all that water has been going into a protected natural environment for... about a year now.

The EPA began investigating this in August of 2023, and informed SpaceX they were in violation in March of 2024.

Literally the day after SpaceX was formally notified their water deluge system was in violation, SpaceX did its third Starship test, again using the water deluge system.

Now, cue SpaceX lying all over the place, saying that they've been told they were allowed to do this the whole time, and that there were no detectable levels of mercury in the discharge, even though their own permit that they belatedly filed indicates the detectable level of mercury in the discharge were about 50x the safe level.

SpaceX said in its response on X that there were “no detectable levels of mercury” found in its samples. But SpaceX wrote in its permit application that its mercury concentration at one outfall location was 113 micrograms per liter. Water quality criteria in the state calls for levels no higher than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity and much lower levels for human health.

To conclude:

“Further wastewater discharges could trigger more investigations and criminal charges for the company or any of the people involved in authorizing the launches,” he said.

  • Eric Roesch, Environmental Engineer

Basically, the environmental aspects of this have been a known and ongoing shit show for over a year, but have only been covered by a few YouTube channels and blogs, vastly drowned out by the cacophony of SpaceX fans.

I highly suggest every one check out Common Sense Skeptic on YouTube, they have been calling bullshit on SpaceX for a while now.

In particular, one interesting vid they did shows that a former NASA administrator bullshitted her own request for project process to get it awarded to SpaceX, using blatant double standards.

I say former NASA admin because quite quickly after rubber stamping a huge amount of taxpayer money toward Starship development, she now works for SpaceX.

[–] teamevil 34 points 4 months ago

Good thing the supreme Court expects companies to not do this shit

[–] Fuckfuckmyfuckingass 25 points 4 months ago

Thank you very much for the synopsis. I am disgusted and unsurprised.

[–] Raiderkev 11 points 4 months ago

Don't worry, with the Chevron ruling out of the way, this can be thrown out in court and promptly swept under the rug. 💪🇺🇲🦅

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I’m very curious as to who this NASA admin is…no name comes to mind?

[–] villainy 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Ah you beat me to it, I stepped away for dinner =P

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

SpaceX said in its response on X that there were “no detectable levels of mercury” found in its samples. But SpaceX wrote in its permit application that its mercury concentration at one outfall location was 113 micrograms per liter. Water quality criteria in the state calls for levels no higher than 2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity and much lower levels for human health.

Upon closer inspection, it seems possible that this discrepancy is based on two typos in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report. The actual value may be closer to 0.113 micrograms per liter, not 113.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just a small correction about the pad exploding/water deluge system.

They were already working on the water deluge system before the pad blew up. They simply didn't think it was going to explode like that since it worked as expected during the half thrust test, and the water system wasn't ready yet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe they should have had the water system ready before the full test just in case.

Like someone concerned about health and safety would do.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Why would you wait to have something else ready if you think what you have is going to work?

All the physics modeling they did and live tests showed that the concrete should work.

When it looks like something should work, you test it. They had approval to test it after showing it should work.

These people are launching and landing rockets at a pace never done before, they know how to model these kind of things. Now obviously something went very wrong here, but it wasn't just a willy nilly choice.

You test the things that you think will work, otherwise you never know if they'll work.

While the concrete may not have been their final decision for Boca Chica, it doesn't mean it wasn't a possible solution for other location where a large quantity of potable water isn't available.

Edit: just further to possible other locations, the concrete if it worked, wouldn't allow the rapid turn around time they want as they'd need to set new concrete vs piped water ready to go. But for a launch location that maybe wouldn't need the rapid cadence, maybe it'd be perfect and cheaper if it'd work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why would you wait to have something else ready if you think what you have is going to work?

Because it might not work, and we're talking about millions of dollars worth of rocketry here, not a bottle rocket launched in your back yard.

These people are launching and landing rockets at a pace never done before, they know how to model these kind of things.

Obviously not, or the pad wouldn't have blown up.

Now obviously something went very wrong here, but it wasn't just a willy nilly choice.

Which is why you implement backup/alternative systems.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Because it might not work

LOL. Dude, they weren't even sure that the ROCKET wouldn't destroy the pad (edit: as in, the WHOLE launch pad including the tower). They're literally making the largest most advanced rocket ever. There are countless unknowns until you test it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Exactly, which is why implementing backup systems or planning for catastrophic failure modes is a Really Good Idea.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName -2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] NotMyOldRedditName -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I just find it hilarious that your trying to say people shouldn't test things all their tests and modelling says should work, because this OTHER thing, that's also never been tested at the same extreme levels, might work better, but you know, maybe not.

I'm done with this conversation before I feel more inclined to violate rule 1.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

I'll take that as a no.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Standard for engineers is to have backup systems to your backup systems.

Especially for something as important as a rocket that will someday have astronauts on it.

This was cost cutting and rushing which is bullshit pushed by management, not engineers who know what they’re doing.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

This is a TEST rocket program.

The goal of the program is to figure out what does and doesn't work.

There are numerous ~~zero~~ single failure points all over the ship currently as they figure things out.

Using the concrete was a way to test if they could set up a launch pad easier. ALL their tests and modeling proved it should work.

Tests and modeling aren't the end all be all though and sometimes things you don't or can't anticipate happen and then you remodel with the new info. This isn't a high school project, it's rocket science.

There was nothing bullshit about testing it out.

The goal of IFT1 was don't blow up the entire stage 0. They didn't blow up the entire stage 0. They learned the concrete doesn't work, but also hopefully they were able to learn WHY. And if they found a why that why may lead to it being attempted again in the future maybe even by someone else.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You’re not an engineer, are you?

[–] NotMyOldRedditName 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

No, I'm not an engineer (and that's an Ad Hominem fallacy). But for the love of god, SpaceX is a terrible company because they launched a rocket with INTENTIONALLY missing heat shield points to see what would happen (edit: all while knowing if certain heat shield tiles failed it would guarantee the complete destruction of the ship, that would obliterate any crew you're oh so concerned about in this test phase!), and even launched their rocket with wing flaps that they suspected would be destroyed by the hot plasma and had already made changes in future designs! God forbid they test a ablative concrete launch pad that survived all their real world tests and showed it should work in models.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You’ve just explained why we’re pissed at them and not even realized it.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

And you've just explained how you have absolutely no understanding of how spacex functions and why and why it's a good thing.

This is how they land rockets on barges at sea and no one else can, or thought it was even possible.

[–] Wrench -2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the summary! Very easy to follow.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but wouldn't diluting the runoff with more than 1:50 ratio with fresh water fix this problem? If it's joining a large body of water down the line, wouldn't that effectively negate the problem?

I don't know anything about the area or it's ecosystem. But it seems like being close to protected wilderness is kind of a prerequisite for this kind of thing, because you can't have human inhabitants nearby. And it seems that logically, large swaths of unoccupied land would be zoned as such until there was a need for some kind of development.

[–] FabledAepitaph 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

One of the fundamental principals of the RCRA is that dilution is not an allowable solution to pollution. Otherwise, you could just say that any amount of pollution is below applicable concentrations after it mixed into the oceans, atmosphere, whatever. And any company could emit as much as they wanted as long as they diluted it. Oil spills could simply be left alone because they'd eventually distribute throughout the earth.

Concentrations must be considered as they occur in their process streams. The process stream must meet certain requirements first and foremost, and it must be further checked to see if that could significantly affect the air or water in which it is emitted, just to make sure its good to go since water flow, temperature, and wildlife migration change throughout the year. The same is true for air emissions as well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Thank you for some more specific commentary on this.

I had a gut feeling that uh... reverse homeopathy probably is not a legitimate methodology to approach environmental toxins with.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I am far from an expert on the toxicity of mercury (and that's nearly certainly just one kind of pollutant in this scenario), but it seems unlikely this would solve the problem.

The same amount of mercury is still being emitted, it just might lessen the amount that gets absorbed by immediately local soil... and just disperse it a bit more evenly over a longer range eventually mostly pooling along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Which... is still part of a protected natural environment with endangered species living in it. As I recall, there is specifically a species of endangered turtles that live in this area, so, they're still fucked, along with I think some other endangered birds, reptile and small mammals.

What they should have is a proper method of containing this dirty water, filtering and extracting dangerous chemicals, and a proper way of disposing those.

But that would require foresight and planning, which is anathema to Musk's 'move fast and break stuff' style of 'rapid iteration'.

Also, It is not true that large sections of uninhabited land are necessarily zoned as some kind of protected habitat. It is true there are lots of areas of the US where this is the case, but not totally.

Musk was trying desperately to get NASA to let him use Cape Canaveral for Starship, but they viewed this (correctly, in hindsight) as too risky.

So, when they said no, and he had deadlines to meet, basically said 'fuck it', took his existing facility and massively illegally upgraded it far beyond what was legally allowed by initial use permits, and just did everything Starship there, generally completely ignoring any concept of 'regulations' that might apply to this.

He could have actually given investors and NASA themselves more realistic budget and timeframe ideas for how expensive and time consuming it would be to do this properly, but he did not.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago

What they should have is a proper method of containing this dirty water, filtering and extracting dangerous chemicals, and a proper way of disposing those.

It is also important to note that the dirtiness of the water may have been misreported. It seems possible that this story is based on two typos in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report. The actual concentration of mercury may be 1000x lower.