Everyone in Texas is extremely exited about SpaceX coming to Cameron County from the former and present Governor to Cameron County Commissioners to the Local Municipality Leaders and Economic Development Councils.
It's going to be a huge boom for our area.
Right?
Jobs, tourism draws in the estimated 10's of thousands coming to watch a launch, educational opportunities and business opportunities for the entire area. While the County and the Cities of McAllen, South Padre Island, Port Isabel and Brownsville are falling all over themselves to entice Space X to benefit them by offering up huge sums of money to entice Space X to either voluntarily or forcefully invest in their areas, this is yet to be determined.
After all, all we have seen is a few fences erected. There is no doubt that Space X has their foot in the door and is coming and can see the bowing down before them. Absolutely there are benefits to the entire area of SpaceX's development, however they shouldn't be given a blank check on possible negative impacts we may incur as a result. On May 7, 2015, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a public notice, regarding permit number SWG-2012-00381, that Space X had underestimated their impact on the wetlands and estuaries they will occupy near Boca Chica Beach within the Bahia Grande watershed.
Originally SpaceX had estimated that they would need to fill in 3.3 acres of the area to build their launch facility.
Now in an addendum to that approved application, they now claim they need to expand their wetland fill by an additional 2.13 acres – an increase of 64 percent.
The reason given is to add vehicular access areas around the site so they can access to parts of the facility they would need to service.
Fair enough.
Except when you look at the map of the new fill areas (see below) there seems to be a problem with that request. Yes, most of the area would be consistent with the vehicular access request (the areas in yellow and blue) but one stands out as serving the purpose of acting as a barrier or berm to inhibit water flow and hydrology of the area. This would be the section to the south separate from the facility.
I point this out for two reasons. The first is that this area is both a washout area from the Gulf of Mexico that can be easily identified in the below photo. It is also a collection area for the Rio Grande River which can be identified in the second photo below.
 |
| Washout area near SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site |
 |
Showing at the north east bend of Rio Grande emptying into wetland/ Bahia Grande watershed. |
As far as the mitigation area of the impacted wetland by the fill, it doesn't make any sense. The purpose of mitigation is to offset the damage to to the functionality of the tidal dependent wetland.
This includes plants and wildlife habitat lost. However as one can see below the mitigation area has never ever been able to sustain any flora within its area since 1950 according to satellite imagery from Google Earth. The below sequence of photos begins with the mitigation tract locations and then goes on to show the historic photos of the area showing no substantial vegetation growth because of the nature and hydrology of the area.
 |
| Washout area 1950 |
 |
| Washout area 1961 |
 |
| Washout Area 1995 |
 |
| Washout area 2014
The appearance of this addendum and what is being considered is essentially allowing SpaceX to not only fill in critical habitat and alter the hydrology of the wetlands and estuaries around them but to mitigate the damage by "fixing" the "problem" by having them plant in areas that have never supported the types of biota that they are destroying.
This application addendum is up for public comment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until June 8, 2015. Comments can be made to the contact below. The entire mitigation plan can be viewed here.  |
7 comments:
So?
Woe is me .
After all the hype, as of yet "nada". Tony Martinez is riding high on "nada", that's what I "believe" Tony has done for Brownsville!
Tony the Herb has just spent $25K on a mail out bash on Pat Ahumada. It ain't his money . United Cártel and eux paid it. Oops !
Tony the Herb will fly gratis to Alpha Centauri. There he will live in bliss .
Noooo...... Tony's backers are the conglomerate of wealthy who's who type backers who are going to clean up big in Brownsville on a number of mega projects. All of them dependent on the public who are unwittingly financing the whole program. Good show at the polls Brownsville. ..... non - voters and schmucks alike.
From the article: "most of the area would be consistent with the vehicular access request (the areas in yellow and blue) but one stands out as serving the purpose of acting as a barrier or berm to inhibit water flow and hydrology of the area"
No, this is not a barrier. According to the SpaceX Texas Launch Site Wetland Mitigation Plan Addendum: "It should be noted that the proposed crossing to the south of the site, which has been included to allow vehicular access to the southern portion of the site, would include culverts..."
Here's an example of what culverts look like:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Feccia_001.JPG
Post a Comment