Local Residents Not Happy With SpaceX

Residents near SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas test facility are not happy with SpaceX right now, as the company continues to expand the production and test site. They claim that SpaceX is violating the original environmental agreement for the site. 

Ellen Tyma and Dan Griffen built their retirement home 15 years ago on the banks of the Rio Grande to spend the days kayaking, jet skiing and enjoying the river. But since SpaceX built its South Texas launch facility 12 miles away, their quiet lives have been upended.

Now, without warning, the main road leading to their home and a popular beach is frequently closed for test launches, including twice last week.

The couple and other South Texans say when SpaceX was wooing the community in 2013 to develop its site here, they billed it as a launch facility — not a testing facility.

The residents may have a case.

Border Report was told the FAA had not approved significant plans that SpaceX has for the facility since the company told the agency it had switched projects and is now using this facility to develop a new, massive spacecraft to travel to Mars, called the Starship. The FAA also said it has begun a new environmental review of the company’s new plans.

“The current testing falls within the current EIS. However, a full-scale Starship launch site falls outside the scope of the 2014 EIS. The FAA is in the early stages of an environmental review. Any proposal must meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the FAA’s policies and procedures for conducting a NEPA review,” an FAA official wrote in an email to Border Report on Friday.

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