the boko chica national wildlife refuge is home to many vulnerable species the critically endangered
kemp's ridley turtles the ocelot a wildcat with a population of less than 60 nationwide
and hundreds of thousands of birds rely on the habitat surrounding spacex
this is not the right place to do that not against rocketry technology spacex the genius of what musk
can bring to us and the power and the money but i i don't feel this is the right place and i don't
think how they're going about it is the right way so this is uh part of the national wildlife refuge
members of save rgv weren't the only ones keeping watch so was david newsted director of the bird
program at the non-profit coastal band base and estuaries program what's really unique about
them is they're foraging he's been studying their populations here for the past six years
they're using this whole complex they're using this side of the road they're using the other
side of the road spacex's tests have repercussions beyond their private land one kilometer altitude a
test flight on march 30th of this year blew up in midair sending debris into the refuge taking over
three months to clean up and david have you seen any changes in birth migration patterns or nesting
patterns since the expansion and the operations of spacex began we have where we used to have
a dozen or more nests starting last year we only found two and this year there was only there was
only one under their agreement with the faa spacex has permission to close down the highway and beach
for a total of 300 hours per year newstead and his team started keeping track of the closure times
we weren't tracking hours in order to to make any sort of point we were trying to figure out
if there was any you know a pattern to it we could resume our work after that what did you
find by our count we ended up over well over a thousand hours a thousand hours a thousand hours
save rgv use new stats information as evidence in a letter they wrote this june to the cameron
county judge and the district attorney alerting them to alleged breaches of spacex's permit
so we sent a letter to the d.a just hey here's our concerns and it he replied promptly and swiftly
you know asking spacex here's some you know allegations that may or may not be serious
you know can you answer these if spacex has indeed exceeded the allotted hours the d.a wrote
then there's no longer a legal authorization to obstruct highway 4. in a letter to the da
spacex said they take the matter seriously and that they are committed to working cooperatively
to resolve it in addition they calculate their closure time at 226 hours and 9 minutes
referring to the allegations brought on by save rgv as not accurate eddie trevino jr is a cameron
county judge the highest ranking local official who signs closure orders this local non-profit
save rgv sent a letter to the da and to yourself expressing some of the concerns around spacex
operations you have not answered that that letter why is that well the letter wasn't addressed to
me the d.a sent that letter to spacex the letter that save rgb sent originally was addressed to
the da and to you right well part of the part of the issue there is i don't have law
enforcement authority number one number two some of the information in that particular letter uh
we're not we're not sure that it was completely accurate one of the allegations that was made
was that the spacex has exceeded the 300 hours that's not that's not correct judge
trevino says he's trying to be a good partner to spacex while following the law do you keep
account yourself we do yes is that information public it's not public uh but i can tell you
that it's under 300. in documents obtained by 60 minutes plus the u.s fish and wildlife
service communicated to the faa that they believe spacex has been exceeding their assigned hours
they calculated disruption to public access in quote excess of 1 000 hours in 2019
fish and wildlife tell 60 minutes plus they estimate spacex also exceeded their closure hours
in 2020 and 2021 communications shows space access operations in boca chica have been a major source
of contention between government agencies in one letter to the faa's environmental protection
specialist written in april of 2019 fish and wildlife ask for closures and testing to stop
until quote non-compliance issues are resolved a refuge manager's frustration on full display
in an internal email to a fish and wildlife biologist this is totally unacceptable if we
don't stop this now we'll never be able to reel it back in adding how do we stop this thing in its
tracks and start over in a letter to spacex's director of starship operations dated june 21
2021 a fish and wildlife complex refuge manager described unauthorized encroachments and trespass
on the refuge he attached photographs he says show space access employees
using refuge lands as a parking lot and in another one a drainage ditched on protecting land