FLORIDA VOICES ENVIROMENTAL CONCERNS OVER SPACEX

("These worries range from habitat destruction to harmful noise levels. In one example, the service warned that nine "bald eagle nesting territories" near the site might be abandoned because of activity at the launch site. Flight operations also could put marine life in the Indian River Lagoon at risk, wildlife officials wrote: "Increased vehicular traffic, exhaust, and drift from emissions and propellants … could negatively affect water quality.")

The company the state was trying to lure for a controversial spaceport project — SpaceX of California — may go to Texas instead.)

By Mark K. Matthews,
Washington Bureau

The Orlando Sentinel

WASHINGTON — In the long-running battle between spaceships and scrub-jays, the birds appear to be gaining the upper wing.
For more than a year, the state has led a controversial effort to build a launchpad inside the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where the Florida scrub-jay lives with at least 15 other species that federal authorities consider threatened or endangered.
Environmentalists have fought the proposal for months, and now there are signs that the company the state was trying to lure — SpaceX of California — may go to Texas instead.
A federal review of the competing Texas site is near completion, and local media outlets have reported that SpaceX already has bought land in the area, though company officials did not confirm those transactions or respond to repeated requests seeking comment.
Though Florida officials admit that the state is an underdog in the fight, they contend that Spaceport Shiloh, named for an abandoned citrus town in the Cape Canaveral area, is worth fighting for — and not just for SpaceX.

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