SpaceX repeatedly polluted waters in Texas, TCEQ, EPA found

Elon Musk’s SpaceX violated environmental regulations by repeatedly releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water in Texas, a state agency said in a notice of violation focused on the company’s water deluge system at its Starbase launch facility.

The notice from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week came five months after the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 office, which covers Texas and surrounding states, had also informed SpaceX that it violated the Clean Water Act with the same type of activity.

The notices and related investigative records, obtained by CNBC, have not been previously reported.

TCEQ said its agency’s office in the South Texas city of Harlingen, near Starbase in Boca Chica, received a complaint on Aug. 6, 2023, alleging that SpaceX “was discharging deluge water without TCEQ authorization.”

“In total, the Harlingen region received 14 complaints alleging environmental impacts from the Facility’s deluge system,” the regulator said in the document.

Aerospace companies, including SpaceX, generally need to be in compliance with state and federal laws to gain approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for future launches. SpaceX was seeking permission to conduct up to 25 annual launches and landings of its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket at its Boca Chica facility. Notices of violation could delay those approvals and result in civil monetary penalties for SpaceX, further probes and criminal charges.

SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A rush to rebuild

On July 25, 2024, an environmental investigator with TCEQ “conducted an in-house compliance record review” to determine SpaceX’s compliance with wastewater regulations. The investigation found that SpaceX discharged industrial wastewater without a permit four times between March and July of this year.

Water deluge systems with flame deflectors diffuse heat, sound and energy generated by orbital test flights and rocket launches. But SpaceX didn’t build that system into its launch site at Boca Chica before it began test flights of the largest rocket ever, Starship.

SpaceX is developing Starship to transport people and equipment to the moon and, if Musk eventually realizes his grand vision, to colonize Mars. In its first test flight of Starship in April 2023, energy from the rocket caused SpaceX’s concrete launchpad to explode, and its spacecraft also blew up in mid-air.

Chunks of concrete were hurled into a nesting and migration site important to some endangered species nearby and a 3.5-acre fire chewed through Boca Chica State Park Land south of the launchpad. In response, environmental groups filed a lawsuit against SpaceX and the FAA, which had authorized its…