Aug. 31—SpaceX has been fined $3,750 for illegally discharging wastewater into wetlands surrounding its South Texas launch site near Boca Chica Beach, but the potential slowdown of the commercial space company's launch plans due to the violation outweighs the monetary penalty.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality levied the fine after finding SpaceX broke state law by operating its launch pad water deluge system without the proper permits.
The penalty came hours after the Federal Aviation Administration said its mid-August postponement of public comment sessions on SpaceX's plans to launch and land as many as 25 Starships a year was due to the issue. The agency said Thursday the meetings were halted after it learned of the allegations and parts of the documentation the company submitted in its application for the expanded timetable were called into question.
Separately, the FAA is reviewing SpaceX's launch license application for Starship's fifth flight, a process that's also been slowed by the issue.
The delays suggest the company's timeline for expanded testing of its Starship mega-rocket will be further slowed as it's put under tighter scrutiny from state and federal regulators.
In a comment posted to his X social media site Friday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk downplayed the state's action.
"Just to be clear, this silly fine was for spilling potable drinking water!" he wrote.
In reality, the fine came after TCEQ's finding in early August that SpaceX failed to apply for and receive a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit before operating the deluge system under its launch tower. The system sprays more than 100,000 gallons of fresh water during each test fire and launch to dampen the force, heat and noise from the 33 rocket engines that lift the giant Starship off its pad. Some of the water flows into surrounding saltwater wetlands.
A state inspector who visited Starbase on July 25 — after TCEQ's Harlingen office had received 14 complaints about the system's impacts — documented that the company violated clean water laws when it "failed to obtain authorization to discharge industrial wastewater into or adjacent to any water in the state."
The state's actions weren't the first official word SpaceX received. It had been notified March 13 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency of its violations of the Clean Water Act, as well. The EPA did not assess a penalty but called for the the company to comply with federal regulations.
Despite the warning, SpaceX operated the deluge system the next day as it conducted its third test launch of Starship.
The company tested the system multiple times and used it during three Starship launches before applying for the necessary permit July 1 — more than a year after installing the system. According to TCEQ, the approval process for a new permit takes "at least 330 days."
The company didn't respond to a request for comment. But on Aug. 12, it broke its typical official silence and posted a statement online saying it worked with state and federal agencies during installation of the deluge system.
"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," SpaceX said.
State records show SpaceX has agreed to the state's enforcement order but the penalties won't be finalized until TCEQ commissioners review the case. As of Friday, the issue wasn't listed in agendas for the commission's upcoming meetings.
The comment period for the FAA's revision of its environmental assessment of SpaceX's proposal for the increased launch cadence from South Texas closed Friday. The agency said it's now revising the assessment.
It did not say when it might publish the revised document but said new public meetings would be scheduled. Comments received throughout August as well as those that come in for the new document "will be given equal weight and be taken into consideration," the FAA said in a statement.
The environmental slowdown comes as SpaceX is waiting to launch its fifth Starship — and planning to land its 230-foot-tall Super Heavy booster back at the launch tower, a risky maneuver that requires even more FAA scrutiny to ensure public safety.
Landing such a large spacecraft at its pad has never been done, Kathryn Lueders, Starbase general manager, said Wednesday during a Brownsville Chamber of Commerce event.
"It is one of the most critical first steps for us to begin then the sequence of activities that we need to have to happen to be able to begin our march towards landing on the moon," she said, according to a recording of her talk posted by The Rio Grande Guardian.
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