FAA cancels scheduled public meetings to review new Boca Chica environmental assessment
For as yet unknown reasons, the FAA today sent out an email canceling all the public meetings that it had scheduled in mid-July and were designed to allow the public to comment on its new environmental assessment of SpaceX’s application to increase its Starship/Superheavy launch rate at Boca Chica from five to as much as 25 launches per year.
The FAA is cancelling the in-person public meetings on the Draft EA scheduled for: Tuesday, August 13, 2024; 1:00 PM–3:00 PM & 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT City of South Padre Island Convention Center, 7355 Padre Blvd, South Padre Island, TX 78597 Thursday, August 15, 2024; 1:00 PM–3:00 PM & 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT Port Isabel Event & Cultural Center, 309 E Railroad Ave, Port Isabel, TX 78578 The FAA is also cancelling the virtual public meeting scheduled for: Tuesday, August 20, 2024; 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT The FAA will provide notice for new dates for the meetings and a new date for the close of the comment period in the future.
The FAA’s email also noted that public comments can still be submitted either electronically here or by mail sent to Ms. Amy Hanson, FAA Environmental Specialist, SpaceX EA, c/o ICF 1902 Reston Metro Plaza Reston, VA 20190. In both cases, the commenter must reference Docket No. FAA-2024-2006. The email also stated that the public comment period would be extended beyond its August 29, 2024 closure date.
This cancellation mirrors the situation in 2021-2022, when the FAA was reviewing its previous environmental reassessment of the Boca Chica site. At that time the agency repeatedly failed to meet its own deadlines, sometimes on a month-by-month basis, so that the final approval process ended up stretching out more than a half year. Similar delays further stalled the first Starship/Superhavy test flight by another full year.
I once again suspect that higher ups in the White House are applying pressure on the FAA to stall this process, for political reasons, probably because those higher ups want no action taken before the November election. I am guessing, but this is how Washington works. Real achievement by American private citizens must always take a back seat to the power lusts of the DC politicos who now rule us.
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For as yet unknown reasons, the FAA today sent out an email canceling all the public meetings that it had scheduled in mid-July and were designed to allow the public to comment on its new environmental assessment of SpaceX’s application to increase its Starship/Superheavy launch rate at Boca Chica from five to as much as 25 launches per year.
The FAA is cancelling the in-person public meetings on the Draft EA scheduled for: Tuesday, August 13, 2024; 1:00 PM–3:00 PM & 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT City of South Padre Island Convention Center, 7355 Padre Blvd, South Padre Island, TX 78597 Thursday, August 15, 2024; 1:00 PM–3:00 PM & 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT Port Isabel Event & Cultural Center, 309 E Railroad Ave, Port Isabel, TX 78578 The FAA is also cancelling the virtual public meeting scheduled for: Tuesday, August 20, 2024; 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CDT The FAA will provide notice for new dates for the meetings and a new date for the close of the comment period in the future.
The FAA’s email also noted that public comments can still be submitted either electronically here or by mail sent to Ms. Amy Hanson, FAA Environmental Specialist, SpaceX EA, c/o ICF 1902 Reston Metro Plaza Reston, VA 20190. In both cases, the commenter must reference Docket No. FAA-2024-2006. The email also stated that the public comment period would be extended beyond its August 29, 2024 closure date.
This cancellation mirrors the situation in 2021-2022, when the FAA was reviewing its previous environmental reassessment of the Boca Chica site. At that time the agency repeatedly failed to meet its own deadlines, sometimes on a month-by-month basis, so that the final approval process ended up stretching out more than a half year. Similar delays further stalled the first Starship/Superhavy test flight by another full year.
I once again suspect that higher ups in the White House are applying pressure on the FAA to stall this process, for political reasons, probably because those higher ups want no action taken before the November election. I am guessing, but this is how Washington works. Real achievement by American private citizens must always take a back seat to the power lusts of the DC politicos who now rule us.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Mr. Musk. Is it time for an Atlas Shrugged moment? Perhaps the Starlink system could be simply turned off and all military launches indefinitely postponed. Ditto, any flights to and from the ISS. Such a move would be costly even for a billionaire, but it might get people’s attention.
Similarly, it would be nice to see a real strike by long haul truckers, thereby letting the out of touch Powers That Be in Washington know what “reality” looks like. I don’t think that they would care much for it, though. They sure didn’t in Canada.
Milt: What Rand got wrong in Atlas Shrugged was portraying the boycott of qualified people as voluntary and a victory. Instead, in the real world of communist and socialist tyranny such people get squashed, and it is an utter defeat when it happens, especially if the good people give up and stop fighting.
For Musk to do what you suggest would be a total victory for the Democrats. All they care about is destroying him. Having the entire space effort and the American military fail would simply be icing on the cake, as the left has opposed both for decades.
There are some new developments today (5:35 EST) which may or may not be related to this FAA move – but which are dismaying. Not least because it is coming on the state (Texas) level, not federal.
1. From CNBC: “Elon Musk’s SpaceX violated environmental regulations in releasing pollutants into or nearby bodies of water in Texas, a state environmental agency said in a notice last week. The report from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) came five months after the Environmental Protection Agency also notified SpaceX that it had violated the Clean Water Act. The violations could threaten SpaceX’s ambitions to increase Startship launches from its Starbase facility in South Texas.”
Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/12/spacex-repeatedly-polluted-waters-in-texas-tceq-epa-found.html
2. In an unusual move, SpaceX responds with a statement on Twitter/X, and swiftly at that. Statement in full:
____________
CNBC’s story on Starship’s launch operations in South Texas is factually inaccurate.
Starship’s water-cooled flame deflector system is critical equipment for SpaceX’s launch operations. It ensures flight safety and protects the launch site and surrounding area.
Also known as the deluge system, it applies clean, potable (drinking) water to the engine exhaust during static fire tests and launches to absorb the heat and vibration from the rocket engines firing. Similar equipment has long been used at launch sites across the United States – such as Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations in Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California – and across the globe.
SpaceX worked with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) throughout the build and test of the water deluge system at Starbase to identify a permit approach. TCEQ personnel were onsite at Starbase to observe the initial tests of the system in July 2023, and TCEQ’s website shows that SpaceX is covered by the Texas Multi-Sector General Permit.
When the EPA issued their Administrative Order in March 2024, it was done without an understanding of basic facts of the deluge system’s operation or acknowledgement that we were operating under the Texas Multi-Sector General Permit.
After we explained our operation to the EPA, they revised their position and allowed us to continue operating, but required us to obtain an Individual Permit from TCEQ, which will also allow us to expand deluge operations to the second pad. We’ve been diligently working on the permit with TCEQ, which was submitted on July 1st, 2024. TCEQ is expected to issue the draft Individual Permit and Agreed Compliance Order this week.
Throughout our ongoing coordination with both TCEQ and the EPA, we have explicitly asked if operation of the deluge system needed to stop and we were informed that operations could continue.
TCEQ and the EPA have allowed continued operations because the deluge system has always complied with common conditions set by an Individual Permit, and causes no harm to the environment. Specifically:
– We only use potable (drinking) water in the system’s operation. At no time during the operation of the deluge system is the potable water used in an industrial process, nor is the water exposed to industrial processes before or during operation of the system.
– The launch pad area is power-washed prior to activating the deluge system, with the power-washed water collected and hauled off.
– The vast majority of the water used in each operation is vaporized by the rocket’s engines.
– We send samples of the soil, air, and water around the pad to an independent, accredited laboratory after every use of the deluge system, which have consistently shown negligible traces of any contaminants. Importantly, while CNBC’s story claims there are “very large exceedances of the mercury” as part of the wastewater discharged at the site, all samples to-date have in fact shown either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.
– Retention ponds capture excess water and are specially lined to prevent any mixing with local groundwater. Any water captured in these ponds, including water from rainfall events, is pumped out and hauled off.
– Finally, some water does leave the area of the pad, mostly from water released prior to ignition and after engine shutdown or launch. To give you an idea of how much: a single use of the deluge system results in potable water equivalent to a rainfall of 0.004 inches across the area outside the pad which currently averages around 27 inches of rain per year.
With Starship, we’re revolutionizing humanity’s ability to access space with a fully reusable rocket that plays an integral role in multiple national priorities, including returning humans to the surface of the Moon. SpaceX and its thousands of employees work tirelessly to ensure the United States remains the world’s leader in space, and we remain committed to working with our local and federal partners to be good stewards of the environment.
https://x.com/spacex/status/1823080774012481862?s=46
3. Here’s the active TCEQ case for SpaceX, last updated on August 8th (input “WQ0005462000” into the “TCEQ ID Number:” field).
https://www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eCID/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.reportResults&requesttimeout=9000
By the way, here is the link to the water quality permit application by SpaceX on July 1, for those interested:
https://www.tceq.texas.gov/downloads/permitting/wastewater/title-iv/tpdes/wq0005462000-spaceexplorationtechnologiescorp-starbaselaunchpadsite-cameron-tpdes-adminpackage.pdf
I shamelessly cribbed much of this from StraumliBlight at the NSF forums, who deserves credit for the hard online spadework.
Getting back to the FAA meeting cancellation, a little more information via Marcia Smith:
“Several hours ago I asked the FAA why they canceled the public meetings. I just asked again and explictly asked it’s bc of the CNBC story.
Their reply is: “The FAA is seeking additional information from SpaceX before rescheduling the public meetings.””
https://x.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/1823121510225379405
Is this info request related to the TCEQ development? I have no idea. Stay tuned.
P.P.S. On further reflection, I think it might be easier on everyone for me to just provide the direct link to the actual TCEQ complaint:
https://www2.tceq.texas.gov/oce/waci/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.complaint&incid=425155
Again, it is unclear as of yet whether the TCEQ complaint is related to the FAA cancelling this week’s public meeting, but there is obviouslt quite a lot of speculation on social media today that they must be related,
https://www.popsci.com/science/spacex-mercury-water-pollution/
Between mine and Richard M’s links it looks like the EPA thinks that mercury is ablating off of the rocket engines and contaminating the water Space X uses for its deluge system.
All Space X has to do is prove they do not use Mercury in its engine construction. Wait any use of mercury in industry has to be reported to the EPA already.
Though the methane may contain mercury. If that methane comes from the general utility company there might a far bigger and wider problem than just at Space x.
Based on Richard M.’s comments and links, I speculate that the “water melons” are at it again to shut down SpaceX. Their complaints are seemingly without merit based on what SpaceX tweeted (or is that now Xed) regarding what they have done with the deluge system. However, the “water melons” have to be officially answered. And since Elon Musk is not a public enemy of the Democrat party the environmental issues provide a way to punish him.
Richard M: I was thinking of posting about this TCEQ complaint, but based on all the facts at the various links you provide in this thread, I think it can be summed up entirely as a hit job by CNBC, miscontruing the complaint as something bigger than it is, as part of the propaganda press’s effort to squash Musk.
I expect this particular issue will fade away with no consequences. As to the FAA environmental assessment, that is going to linger I think for many months, and is likely going to prevent any increase in the launch rate at Boca Chica for years, if not forever.
t can be summed up entirely as a hit job by CNBC
A lot of people have that sense now. I didn’t even get into the howling typos in the report!
Problem is, what if this bogus nerfed story actually *did* cause the FAA to cancel these meetings – and thus push back the whole regulatory timeline? Jeff Foust at SN has a story about this today, but he confines himself to observing that it “coincides” with the TCEQ development. The connection is still unclear. But it’s more lawfare FUD SpaceX has to deal with now.
https://spacenews.com/faa-postpones-hearings-on-starship-environmental-review/
I had no expectation of what you would do with this stuff. You’re doing a great job, Bob. Keep up the great work.