Save RGV Files Second Suit Over Wastewater Disputes

Environmental group Save RGV filed a second lawsuit against SpaceX -- just days before the company launched its fifth and quite successful Starship flight test. Save RGV is seeking an additional $56,460 per day over wastewater discharge violations.

The wastewater dispute began last year with the first Starship launch. The rocket’s Super Heavy Booster powered up its 33 engines, generating force and heat that damaged the launch site and even vaporized its toilets. SpaceX’s lack of a water deluge system, which sprays water during liftoff to protect the launch pad, was partly to blame.

These launch issues led to five environmental groups, including Save RGV, filing a suit against SpaceX. They aimed to get SpaceX’s five-year license suspended.

So, the company installed a ‘mega-steel pancake’ system with a retention pond. Still, the design lacked several features used in other launch locations. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Wallops Flight Facility both use a “flame trench,” allowing wastewater to be contained, cooled, and tested. Starship’s is flat, causing nearly 34,200 gallons of water to end up in the wetlands after a given launch.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) determined that SpaceX was in violation of the Clean Water Act, imposing fines upwards of $150,000 against the company.

SpaceX asserted that the water deluge system uses “literal drinking water,” and that the fines can be chalked down to merely paperwork disagreements.

While the water entering the system may be pure, it may not exit that way. It is in the direct path of the rocket exhaust, containing high quantities of potentially toxic chemicals.

Now, Save RGV has filed a second lawsuit over the wastewater issue. SpaceX referred to the suit as "unwarranted and frivolous” in a social media post.

These arguments have put SpaceX months behind schedule, but the fight isn’t over yet. The activists hope to block SpaceX’s attempt to increase allowed test launches from 5 to 25 per year.

FMI: www.spacex.com, www.savergv.org