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.

  • threelonmusketeersEnglish
    103·
    2 months ago

    while CNBC’s story claims there are “very large exceedances of the mercury” as part of the wastewater discharged at the site, all samples to-date have in fact shown either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.

    I think this discrepancy may have been caused by a typo in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report.

    • Burn_The_Right
      162·
      2 months ago2 months ago

      Texas allows pollutors to self-report in “good faith”. Why would we give any credence at all to a self-report (or hired self-report)?

      If the EPA or TCEQ didn’t measure it themselves during an unscheduled visit, then all measurements should be disregarded.

      • _stranger_
        70·
        2 months ago

        If the TCEQ measured it, the EPA needs to double check their work. The typos in the report are a cause for concern, and the Texas agency needs to be put under scrutiny.

      • WldFyre
        20·
        2 months ago

        So you still think there’s a mercury problem?

        • _stranger_
          20·
          2 months ago

          Interesting, glaring red flag and no one caught it, or cared, until someone made a stink about it. Credit where credit’s due, that’s what journalism does. This tells me there were zero eyes that cared on this entire permit process.

    • NotMyOldRedditName
      61·
      2 months ago2 months ago

      Wow.

      I wonder what CNBC is gonna say about that.

      That’s pretty embarrassing if that’s what happened partially triggering this article.

      Also that poor person who wrote the report up is probably going to get an earful too now.

      • threelonmusketeersEnglish
        10·
        2 months ago

        I wonder what CNBC is gonna say about that.

        If they have integrity, they’ll issue a retraction/correction. However, I do not have high hopes.

        that poor person who wrote the report up is probably going to get an earful.

        LOL, yeah. I bet they never expected their report to get blown out of proportion to this extent.