Environmental protection advocacy groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, called on federal agencies to halt any further SpaceX rocket launches at Starbase on Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.
In a letter, they pointed to newly documented environmental damage on federally protected lands surrounding the site.
“A June 6, 2024, report issued by the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, immediately following the fourth test launch of the SpaceX rocket, documents extensive damage to active migratory bird nests at Boca Chica,” explained the letter, which was addressed to several agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI).
The report cited in the letter documented that every federally protected shorebird nest the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program monitored on Boca Chica Beach was either missing eggs or had damaged eggs following the June 6 launch.
“We now have incontrovertible, irrefutable evidence of violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA),” said Eric Glitzenstein, director of litigation for the Center for Biological Diversity and one of the signatories of the letter, in an interview with TPR.
Glitzenstein believed that the documented damage represented a violation of federal environmental law, which he thought could trigger a halt to launches at Starbase under U.S. law.
In May 2023, Glitzenstein represented the groups that signed the letter in a lawsuit accusing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of failing to trigger an appropriately extensive environmental review of the Starbase project before it was built.
“The letter is designed to accomplish two things,” he explained. “And it's related to the claims we currently have in the case. It’s designed to put the government on notice that we are seeing ongoing violations of the law. And it reinforces our argument that we've been making now in the lawsuit for some months: that the environmental review has been woefully inadequate.”
Glitzenstein believed that the Starbase case represented an unlawful relationship between SpaceX and federal regulatory agencies.
“This is on a scale that is shocking,” he added. “I think here we have almost sort of a cooperative situation. And I think that level of involvement and interrelationship are clear violations of the law.”
The original lawsuit sought a court order to force the FAA to do what it has never done — a full environmental impact statement on the SpaceX activities at Starbase.
For now, the environmental advocacy groups are waiting for a court ruling on their request to expand the lawsuit to include what Glitzenstein calls “massive damage to the surrounding ecosystem and environment” from launches that took place since the suit was filed.
Glitzenstein said they will also move to include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as a defendant in the lawsuit, pending approval from a court.
SpaceX is currently seeking approval from the FAA to begin launching 25 times per year from the Rio Grande Valley and land its Super Heavy booster right on the beach launch tower, rather than into the Gulf of Mexico.
The FAA must take comments from citizens before it can make those approvals.
A USFWS spokesperson said in a statement, “The Service is committed to working with SpaceX and other relevant parties on recommendations to improve protective measures to reduce impacts to wildlife and public lands and comply with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and other applicable wildlife protection laws."
Space X did not respond to TPR's request for comment, nor did the other agencies addressed in the letter.
FAA public comment
Rio Grande Valley residents can share their comments with the FAA at the following upcoming events in August.
- South Padre Island Convention Center
Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024 — 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. - Port Isabel Event & Cultural Center
Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 — 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
