BOCA CHICA – NOW STARBASE – WATER WOES COME HOME TO ROOST

By Juan Montoya

Various Sources

I confess. I did it.

I t seems like a lifetime ago when I was the administrative assistant to Cameron County Pct. 1 commissioner Lucino Rosenbaum Jr. and met with a delegation led by a woman whose name I forget, except to think that it was Dorothy, a resident of the then-forlorn Koepernick Shores. It is now known as Elon Musk's Starbase.

The residents there then – as now –  had no running water and had to haul it themselves, a daunting task for many of them because they were mostly retired and had no way to haul it to their tanks at home.

"Could we help?," Dorothy asked.

I explained that we were a road-and-bridge precinct, and not in the water business. El Jardin Water Supply or the Public Utility Board would be more able to help them out, I said.

"We've tried," Dorothy answered. "They can't help."

"But we pay property taxes to the county, too," chimed in one of the residents.    

At the time – as now – a precinct crew went out to Boca Chica once a month, sometimes twice, to clean the beach and hauled tons of trash from 55-gallon drums and stuff that had been thrown into the water by shrimp boats and washed up on the shore. We were reimbursed at 75 percent of our labor and machinery use under a deal cut with the Texas General Land Office.

(In the photo at right, yours truly is loading a truck with some of the trash bags collected at Boca Chica beach. Rosenbaum is wearing sunglasses to my right. Joe Cuellar, our foreman, is standing with his back to the camera handing me a bag. At the time the crews did not have uniforms as now under the Cameron County Public Works.)

After a couple of such meetings where Dorothy put forward far-fetched plans like desalination, digging deep-water wells, etc., we found what we thought was a stop-gap solution.

"We could do this for you folks," I told Dorothy. "Each time we go out there, we'll send one of our water trucks to refill your tanks. You just have to be sure that someone is there to show our driver where to fill up your tanks. Now, keep in mind that this is not drinking water. It's only for your domestic needs. We don't want anybody getting sick. But you'll just have to pay the PUB for the water. We really don't have to do this, and aren't under any obligation, but we will help you with that if you want."

This seemed to satisfy the group and we began hauling water in a  deal cut with the PUB. Each household was charged  an average of $15 a month and the money paid to the utility. That was back in the late 1980s, early 1990s. "Los polacos" – as our workers called them – were satisfied, and over time, we stopped at several isolated ranches along Highway 4 to deliver them water on our way to the beach. They were all rural  Hispanic families living on modest incomes.

At the time, there was no contract, no formal document, just a handshake and an agreement.

And now, some 40 years later, the county – and precinct 1 where Sofia Benavides is now commissioner after succeeding her late husband Pedro – have stopped delivery since the town has now been incorporated under Musk and they haul in their own water to use during their launch of their rockets. Since Starbase hauls in its own water by truck, it is within their jurisdiction and the county decided to stop its goodwill, humanitarian hauling of water there.

Residents there, and along the way, are now clamoring for the county to continue hauling them water. At least some of them including Keith Reynolds, owner of Raptor Roost, a Starbase resident unaffiliated with SpaceX who opened the business to make a dollar off the rocket launches, are indignant that the county stopped the service.

“Abruptly cutting off water service without notice poses safety and public health risks,” wrote Kent Myers, the Starbase' city administrator in a letter to Benavides made available to the San Antonio Express. Starbase, he pointed out, “has neither the legal authority nor operational capacity to deliver water to these residents.

Reynolds said the county and Benavides “decided to leave everybody high and dry without water – didn’t say a word.”

The dispute over the county delivering water to the distant subdivision – and now incorporated city – has even reached the ears of State Sen. (D-27) Adam Hinojosa, who has expressed concern over the issue. His research of the matter has found that the county undertook the informal agreement to provide water, but is not obligated to continue, Starbase's existence not withstanding. If anything, he said Couny Administrator Pete Sepulveda – who oversees the county's roads and public works – might have used a little more tact and diplomacy before abruptly cutting off the water hauling. 

In addition to the non-SpaceX residents within Starbase’s footprint who were cut off, at least a half dozen others living near the city limits also were dropped from the county water service, according to Myers’ letter.

“We respectfully urge the county to resume and continue water delivery to these residents, who remain within Cameron County, and who have relied on county service for decades,” he wrote. It asked the county “to update its records” and “take any necessary steps to restore water service to those properties.

Reynolds told an Express reporter that the county’s recent move bothers him. 

“That’s just a willful denying of basic services to your residents,” he said. “You can’t just stop being a provider of water for a whole community.”

The newspaper noted that SpaceX, however, has stepped up for its neighbors since the county halted deliveries.

“They reached out and asked if I needed my tanks topped off,” Reynolds told the Express. “They can’t charge me for it, and I didn’t have to sign anything.”

But in exchange for access to the Starbase water system, non-SpaceX-affiliated residents would have to sign the “unconditional and perpetual agreement,” which requires them to leave the area for “any and all launch, testing and other operational activities.”

It also says that “SpaceX has no obligation to provide resident with access to SpaceX’s water and wastewater treatment,” does not guarantee the quality or volume of water and adds that residents “shall have no legal or monetary recourse against SpaceX.”

The deal would give the company the “unrestricted right to terminate (the agreement) at its sole discretion.” SpaceX has attained permission from the state to begin construction of its water system early last year. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it doesn’t have jurisdiction over Cameron County’s water distribution. The state’s Public Utility Commission has remained mum on the subject.

SpaceX’s water use in South Texas has been a growing source of concern as the company’s complex continues to grow. The company has its own water delivery contracts for its operations and some of Starbase’s residents.

The newspaper reported that its water deluge system — which dampens the force, heat and noise from launching its rockets — sprays about 180,000 gallons of fresh water per launch. Currently, that water is being trucked into SpaceX’s complex. As SpaceX ramps up its launch schedule — it’s gotten clearance for up to 25 a year — its need for fresh water will grow.

Texas legislators recently passed a bill giving Starbase officials powers to close Boca Chica Beach and Texas 4 for Starship rocket testing during weekdays. The responsibility previously fell to county leaders. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. has said he was disappointed with the change, which he described as widely unpopular.

As I recall, Rosenbaum and commissioners after him were guided by the belief that "a nadie se le niega la agua" when they decided to provide the service as a humanitarian gesture decades ago. Now, current resident have taken the goodwill  gesture as an obligation and are pointing the finger at Benavides for stopping the use of county personnel and assets.

"We have been doing this (delivering water) for years and years without any obligation because we wanted to help them out," said Pct. 1 administrative assistant Patty Matamoros. "But they have Starbase out there now which is better equipped to get them water. The commissioner and other county officials 

feel it's time to step aside and let them handle it themselves. We cannot continue to expose the county to potential liability. 

"We've already done more than we had to using public employees and resources. They have fend for themselves. I don't think they can complain about that. We helped them all we could."

And to think that I had a hand in creating this mess.