State regulators have signed off on SpaceX’s plan to expand its Starbase launch site even farther into the surrounding wetlands amid lawsuits and a record of violations at the complex near Boca Chica Beach.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality recently said it had approved the project that would add 21 acres to the launch site adjacent to the desolate beach outside Brownsville. The agency was required to complete a review under the Clean Water Act to certify the project wouldn’t harm state waters as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permitting process.
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“There is reasonable assurance that the project will be conducted in a way that will not violate water quality standards,” the agency wrote in its approval letter to SpaceX.
TCEQ issued its certification on Jan. 23, according to a spokesman, about a week before the Corps approved SpaceX’s permit.
The agency, which has been criticized over past decisions seen as too friendly to SpaceX and other Elon Musk companies in Texas, shared the letter with the San Antonio Express-News on Tuesday. It hasn’t made the certification available publicly yet. Formally known as a 401 Water Quality Certification, the document states the plan is in line with the Texas Coastal Management Plan and outlines 19 provisions that SpaceX must abide.
They include mandates to maintain the water quality of the wetlands in accordance with laws, to not do anything to make the waters toxic and to enforce spill control measures.
The agency has referred a public information request for more details about its review to the Texas Attorney General’s Office. A separate request to the Corps for public comments on the project is still pending.
The permit allows SpaceX “to fill over 17 acres of wetlands and tidal flats,” the Corps said. The work “includes building new infrastructure such as a new entrance road, test and staging pads, water and propellant storage, blast walls, equipment staging areas and internal roadways.”
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The company began work on the site last month. When complete, it will be more than double the launch site’s current 20-acre footprint.
The permit also requires SpaceX to buy “mitigation credits” to offset the development’s environmental impacts. It’s doing that with the “Rockhands Mitigation Bank,” a tract of 1,050 acres of land northwest of Starbase that it intends to preserve.
With funding from SpaceX, the city of Starbase annexed the land in August and is responsible for keeping it untouched. Acreage from the bank will offset the acreage SpaceX develops at Starbase, meeting its mitigation requirements.
TCEQ’s approval was contingent on the creation of the mitigation bank.
There are long-running concerns over beach access and environmental damage caused by SpaceX’s operation in South Texas.
The area has had multiple Starship rocket explosions, fires and chemical discharges. The problems have led to lawsuits and fines by regulators.
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In 2024, TCEQ and the Environmental Protection Agency fined SpaceX a combined $152,000 for operating its deluge system multiple times without the proper permit as well as for a 2022 liquid oxygen spill.
A June 18 Starship explosion consumed tons of liquid methane, liquid oxygen and hydraulic fluid at a Starbase test site. The EPA, TCEQ and other agencies responded to the blast that sent debris into the Rio Grande River and Mexico.
Environmental regulators haven’t cited SpaceX over the blast, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company nearly $116 for a crane collapse during the cleanup.
Musk’s other firms in Texas also have been cited for not complying with environmental laws.
Local and state regulators have levied multiple fines and violations against Tesla’s factory outside Austin over clean water and air violations as well as failing to report issues.
Musk’s tunneling firm, the Boring Co., has been fined by TCEQ for water violations at its Bastrop site.
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In February, TCEQ investigated Tesla’s lithium plant in Robstown over concerns about the company sending liquid waste into a nearby drainage ditch. Investigators found no violation in that case.
In court, SpaceX has been winning. Multiple lawsuits filed in state and federal courts by environmental groups have been dismissed, although at least one remains pending with the Texas Supreme Court.
That case, between area activists and state officials, questions the legalities of closing the beach for SpaceX tests and launches. The state’s high court heard arguments on the matter in a public hearing in Edinburg early this month.
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