SpaceX refutes reports that its Starship launch pad system polluted Texas waters

[Admin]

SpaceX has strongly refuted a media report claiming the company violated environmental regulations by releasing pollutants related to Starship launches in South Texas.

SpaceX refutes reports that its Starship launch pad system polluted Texas waters : Read more

 

[Laz]

anyone who believes elon at this point is a fool

 

[Unclear Engineer]

The CNBC report did strike me as odd, particularly the report of extremely high mercury in just one sample.

The samples really need to be taken from the deluge water before it reaches any "natural habitat". Aren't there berms for capturing it? Where were the samples taken. Specifically, where was the one with high mercury taken? There should be some report that shows the locations on a map, with sampling sites numbered, and results posted to the location numbers and date/time of collection. Is there a reference we can obtain to look at?

 

[comet243]

The CNBC report did strike me as odd, particularly the report of extremely high mercury in just one sample.

The samples really need to be taken from the deluge water before it reaches any "natural habitat". Aren't there berms for capturing it? Where were the samples taken. Specifically, where was the one with high mercury taken? There should be some report that shows the locations on a map, with sampling sites numbered, and results posted to the location numbers and date/time of collection. Is there a reference we can obtain to look at?

Here is the link to SpaceX's TCEQ permit application (a PDF with 483 pages, 28.8 MB in size)
If that link doesn't work, then you can just search 'wq0005462000' in Google and it should be the first result.

There are likely two typos in the application regarding the mercury values.

Table 2 on page 79 of the PDF lists the mercury value for sample 1 as being 113 μg/L. However, this value should be <0.113 μg/L as stated in the included lab report for sample 1 (lab sample 2302895) on page 177 of the PDF.

Table 16 on page 98 of the PDF lists the mercury value for sample 2 as being 139 μg/L. However, this value should be 0.139 μg/L as stated in the included lab report for sample 2 (lab sample 2305623) on page 240 of the PDF.

Both samples were taken at the retention pond (coordinates: 25.995617, -97.154928) which is approximately 290 feet southwest of the launch pad.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

If it is correct that, then the actual values are far less than the "2.1 micrograms per liter for acute aquatic toxicity" and lower than some well water samples from other areas.

There are all sorts of "standards" for mercury in drinking water. The Federal level is 2.0 μg/L, but California is 0.2 μg/L. Not sure what Texas has for its limit, but it seems that somebody needs to test the water supply SpaceX is using before blaming these results on "pollutants" added by SpaceX. That might show that the plaintiffs are doing the same thing when they water their lawns.