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SpaceX wants to go to Mars. To get there, environmentalists say it’s trashing Texas

With each launch, SpaceX has been discharging tens of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater into sensitive wetlands. Environmentalists say an increase in launches will only make things worse.

“Boca Chica was a literal refuge and state park where these species could go and not have to deal with people,” says Justin LeClaire, a conservation biologist with the Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, a nonprofit that studies South Texas’ coastline. “The shockwave blast created by engine ignition and take-off destroyed the pad restroom … the building has been leveled and the system is non-existent,” SpaceX wrote Texas environmental regulators in an email shortly after the launch that was obtained by NPR through a freedom of information request. But the EPA rejected that claim: “Discharges from the water deluge system operations during rocket launching activities do not appear to be covered under [the permit],” the agency told SpaceX in an April 15 letter obtained by NPR through its records request.

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