SpaceX needs permit to upgrade new launchpad system

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — SpaceX is asking the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) permission for an update at Starbase. The update is for something called a “deluge water system.”

It is designed to vent rocket flames underground and flush them out with recycled water.

Louis Balderas is considered an enthusiast when it comes to all things SpaceX and hosts a live-streaming service that lets the public watch Starbase launches in real-time. He said the water system SpaceX plans to upgrade would make launches smoother.

“This one is a little different, they’re permitting for a flame trench," Balderas said. "Plumbing fixtures that blast water through that trench to help suppress sound and suppress the fire.”

SpaceX has been testing it since last year but was threatened with a lawsuit by SaveRGV, an ecological rights organization, for not having a permit. Hudson Deyoe, a science professor at UTRGV, says that while the water system is meant to reuse water, it eventually goes back into the river.

Deyoe emphasized that SpaceX needs a permit with the TCEQ to do so.

"I’m not sure how many times they’re going to reuse that water, but they do," Deyoe said. "That’s why they’re applying for the permit, getting rid of that water. It’s going to be going to the Rio Grande.”

He noted that SpaceX also submitted a permit request for another water system, intending to relocate faculty wastewater to South Bay.