Syed Imran Haider 
A state agency issued a notice of violation regarding Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It said that the company had released pollutants repeatedly not just into bodies of water in Texas, but also those surrounding it.
This is a violation of environmental regulations. The violation was related to the water deluge system of the firm at its Starbase launch facility.
The Notice
Last week, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued the notice in question. Five months earlier, the Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 office had declared the same.
In addition to Texas, the office also oversees surrounding states. SpaceX had also been informed that the same type of activity was also a violation of the Clean Water Act.
TCEQ has an office located in Harlingen, a city in South Texas. This is close to the Starbase launch facility in Boca Chica.
According to TCEQ, they had received a complaint about Space X on August 6th last year. As per the complaint, the company was discharging deluge water without obtaining proper authorization.
The regulator revealed that they had received a total of 14 complaints in the Harlingen region alone about the alleged environmental impact of the deluge system of the facility.
Compliance with federal and state laws is a must for aerospace companies, such as SpaceX. Only then are they able to get the approval for future launches from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Impact
SpaceX goal was to get permission for conduct 25 launches and landings annually of its Super Heavy Rocket and Starship spacecraft, both at its facility in Boca Chica.
These approvals could be delayed due to these violation notices. Moreover, SpaceX may also have to face civil monetary penalties, criminal charges and further investigation.
After the story was published, SpaceX took to X to publish a lengthy explanation. It said that regulators have informed the firm that it can continue with its launches despite the notices of violation.
SpaceX said that they had coordinated with both EPA and TCEQ. They had explicitly asked the regulation if deluge system operation had to be stopped, but had been told otherwise.
A Rush to Rebuild
This year on July 25th, TCEQ’s environmental investigator had conducted a review of the in-house compliance record of SpaceX.
The purpose had been to assess the company’s compliance with regulations related to wastewater. The results of the investigation showed that no permit had been granted to SpaceX to discharge industrial wastewater.
Yet, it had done so at least four times this year between March and July. Water deluge systems are supposed to have flame deflectors.
These can diffuse the energy, sound and heat that rocket launches and orbital test flights generate. But, the Boca Chica facility did not have such a system in place before it started testing Starship’s flights.
This is the largest rocket of the company. SpaceX plans on using the rocket to taking both equipment and people to the moon.
Musk’s goal is to colonize Mars. In April last year, the first test flight of Starship had resulted in an explosion of the concrete Launchpad. The spacecraft had also blown up in mid-air.
