u.s fish and wildlife service report sent to the federal aviation administration for the faa's
ongoing programmatic environmental assessment pea of spacex's expansion plans for boca chica
predicts the impact on endangered species in the surrounding area though the report concludes that
mitigation measures can help counter the impact the usfws's draft biological and conference
opinion bco had been submitted to the faa having obtained the 141-page document through a freedom
of information act request spacex is awaiting the results of the long-delayed pea before
it can conduct its first orbital launch from boca chica of a starship super heavy prototype
may 31st is the latest target date set by the faa for the study's release
over a two-year construction period spacex has proposed expanding the solar farm at
its production complex and adding parking lots a liquid natural gas pre-treatment system liquefier
payload processing facility and pull-offs along with sh4 according to the bco at the
vertical launch area vla closer to boca chica beach the company is proposing redundant launch
and landing pads a second launch integration tower tank structural test stands additional
support buildings and a 15 megawatt power plant on 5.4 acres it appears the biggest
losers in all this are shorebirds specifically the piping clover and red knot according to usfws
the bco focuses on an action area of a 13 mile radius around the spacex site
within that area usfws identified more than 903 acres of unconsolidated shore bare land
water and estuarine aquatic bed that makes up critical habitats supporting foraging roosting
and sheltering that could be impacted by spacex's proposed construction and operations within the
903 acres is more than 446 acres of piping plover critical habitat that will be directly impacted
and result in loss of habitat according to the bco red not critical habitat covers the same
903 acres and the same portion is expected to be directly impacted said usfws in its report
impacts would occur due to construction and storm water runoff from impervious surfaces
that would cause vegetation to grow within the wind tidal flats or reduce available piping
clover and rednot food and roosting habitat said the agency loss and degradation of foraging and
roosting habitat could result in decreased fitness and survivorship of wintering piping plumbers
despite these impacts and taking into consideration the amount of critical habitat and
proposed critical habitat for these birds across the united states losing 446 acres around boca
chica would not represent an adverse modification of such habitat in general the bco concluded
in order to minimize potential impacts on listed species and critical habitats
spacex will implement certain terms and conditions contained in the bco according to usfws
spacex agrees to continue to work with usfws and texas parks and wildlife department
to select appropriate native plant species to re-vegetate temporarily disturbed areas
said the agency spacex will reduce impacts to vegetated wetlands and wind tidal flats
include locating the parking area predominantly in uplands and locating installing and citing payload
and processing facilities away from wetlands and that wraps up today's episode we did also like to
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