SpaceX accused of dumping polluted Starship wastewater in Texas for years
www.popsci.com
The bombshell allegations may violate the EPA's Clean Water Act.

SpaceX’s Starship launches at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, have allegedly been contaminating local bodies of water with mercury for years. The news arrives in an exclusive CNBCreport on August 12, which cites internal documents and communications between local Texas regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.

SpaceX’s fourth Starship test launch in June was its most successful so far—but the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever built continues to wreak havoc on nearby Texas communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. But after repeated admonishments, reviews, and ignored requests, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have had enough.

  • gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    78·
    29 days ago

    Did you even read the article? It says in the article that the mercury waste is actually way below the legal threshhold.

    One of the major initial concerns—the wastewater’s mercury content—stems from what experts believe may be egregious typos within SpaceX’s records. Lab reports indicate polluted waters contained 0.113 μg/L of mercury, while subsequent summaries appear to misplace the decimal point to show 113 μg/L. If the former measurement is accurate, then Starship’s wastewater contains roughly 1/17th the legal mercury limit.

    About people just mindlessly hating on SpaceX: SpaceX is really important for the US society as it provides vision and a specific type of stimulation that would otherwise be hard to get. What makes you think the moon landings of 1960s/1970s were great achievements, but spaceflight today is not?

    You telling SpaceX to stop operation is like a fish telling a bird to stop flying, because swimming is sooo much better.

    • naughtyguy17@lemmynsfw.com
      2·
      29 days ago

      Which measurement is accurate? The former, or the latter?

      You also fail to reference the next statement: “… This, however, does not explain SpaceX’s numerous other alleged reporting issues, regulatory side steps, and disregard for federal and local concerns. In a blog post last year, environmental engineer Eric Roesch also pointed to previous SpaceX water samples reports that appear to omit measurements for nickel, a toxic metal. Meanwhile, the same chart lists multiple pollutants at concentrations at or above TCEQ and EPA standards, including total suspended solids, cyanide, copper, and chromium.”

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      22·
      29 days ago

      What makes you think the moon landings of 1960s/1970s were great achievements, but spaceflight today is not?

      probably because we literally invented digital computers for the purposes of doing it. The amount of technical construction and mathematics knowledge required to design build and manufacture the hardware of that era is lost, the space shuttle is one of the most incredible technical achievements of the US to date.

      SpaceX doesn’t even use large rocket engines because they’re hard to build and impractical, but we managed them perfectly fine in the 70s