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Greetings from the Texas coast!  I’ve already been here for two weeks, but WordPress is much more intricate than I expected so it’s taken me a while to get the blog up!  I’ve stayed in Houston, Galveston, Port Lavaca, but drove down to Brownsville, right on the border with Mexico for a community meeting organized by South Texas Environmental Justice Network (whom I’ve been following on social media) on Thursday and am here for the weekend, trying to get the blog done!

As I drove eastward on Route 48 to Port Isabel, an environmental justice community, where the meeting was held, I could see the pristine wetlands and marshes of Bahia Grande stretching for miles on one side, and the massive development of the Rio Grande LNG terminal stretching for miles, on the other side in progress.  I could also see, just afterwards, the entrance to Texas LNG.  Beautiful egrets, herons, pelicans, and other birds were in the marshes, with some flying overhead and then sharply veering away from the development, massive cranes, pipes and other structures, as they came near.  This stretch of the Texas Gulf Coast, close to the longest barrier island in the world, Padre Island, is the last undeveloped stretch of land that, in the words of Christopher Basaldu, a Ph. D., and co-founder of SOTXEJN, and a member of the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe, that has not been colonized by the fossil fuel industry.  It is part of the Central Flyway, a major stopover and feeding ground for hundreds of different species of migratory birds.

According to NPS:  “Padre Island National Seashore is the longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island in the world. In addition to its 70 miles of protected coastline, other important ecosystems abound, including rare coastal prairie, a complex and dynamic dune system, wind tidal flats teeming with life, and the Laguna Madre, one of the few hypersaline lagoon environments left in the world. The National Seashore and surrounding waters provide important habitat for marine and terrestrial plants and animals, including a number of rare, threatened, and endangered species.

Situated along the Central Flyway, Padre Island is a globally important area for over 380 migratory, overwintering, and resident bird species (nearly half of all bird species documented in North America). Thirteen of these species are considered species of concern, threatened, or endangered.

Also of significant concern at Padre Island is the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the most endangered sea turtle species in the world, which nests on the beach from late April through mid-July.The National Seashore is also one of the few places people can see newly hatched Kemp’s ridleys released into the wild.”  Because of the tremendous variety of ecosystems, biodiversity abounds.  

Unfortunately, these two megaprojects have been proposed, and the Rio Grande LNG project has moved forward with construction even though they lack a federal permit.  They have already destroyed some 2000 acres of wetlands for mining, liquefaction, trains, and making room for giant ships, the size of three football fields to come through, all only one mile from Port Isabel, an environmental justice community.  All of this LNG is destined for foreign markets, not for use domestically.  During the meeting, SOTXEJN discussed the human rights abuses, as Carrizo Comecrudo land has been taken without any consultation.  A quarter of the people here live in poverty, and as much as one third of the population does not have health care.  There are already high rates of asthma, cancer, and other ailments, and the pollution from these megaprojects will only further tax the limited health care available here in the Rio Grande Valley.  A local newspaper here also discussed how many people here are staying in hiding and avoiding seeking medical care as the Trump administration ramps up deportation raids.

Texas LNG so far hasn’t broken ground.  Texas LNG would span about 625 acres and the Rio Grande LNG is 984 acres. The Rio Bravo pipeline that would supply gas for the Rio Grande LNG facility would stretch over 137 miles from  near the Agua Dulce gas hub near Kingsville.  This pipeline would be made of two 48 inch diameter pipes that would put families living along the route, especially within 1.6 miles of the pipe, at risk of fiery pipeline explosion.  All together, these LNG facilities would be the largest air polluters in the region, emitting tons of VOCs, CO, NOx, PM 2.5, SO2, and CO2.  Prior to Rio Grande LNG, the area was covered by mangroves.

SOTXENJ has sued these companies twice because they did not do a review of the impacts to environmental justice communities, and did not review the greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on climate change.  The County Commissioners keep voting in support of Rio Grande LNG, and approved 300 million dollars in tax breaks over the next 10 years.   For more information, check out their online reports at sc.or/rgv-report, and their petition is at sc.org/rgv-petition.

Another David and Goliath fight that SOTXENJ is battling is against SpaceX.  Elon Musk’s Space rocket launch facility is on Boca Chica Beach in the Rio Grande Valley. For years, SpaceX has been testing dangerous rocket technology such as the “Star Hopper.” As of April 2023, a license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is allowing SpaceX to test the “Starship Super/Heavy,” the largest rocket in history from this community. The scale and growth of SpaceX operations have destroyed wildlife habitat, taken away beach access from the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas and local people, threatens the safety of residents, and increased tourism and outsourced workforce is displacing long-time residents, and more:

SpaceX in the Rio Grande Valley is a testing site where Elon Musk has openly said there will be explosions, fires, and other impacts from the monthly test launches. He is treating the Valley as a testing ground, while final launches into space will be in Florida. SpaceX’s daily operations and explosions have blown up rocket debris like metal shrapnel into communities such as the South Padre Island jetties where families swim and fish. Rocket testing has also caused dangerous shockwaves that shook the historic Port Isabel Lighthouse and shook residents’ homes in Port Isabel, Long Island Village, and South Padre Island. Even further out in Brownsville and Los Fresnos, residents have reported hearing dangerous blast noises or have felt their homes shake. The most recent explosion on April 20, 2023, blew up dust particles for miles, and residents reported feeling scratchy throats and allergies.

SpaceX is destroying wildlife habitats. SpaceX is destroying pristine habitats, including Boca Chica Beach State Park, the Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Refuge, and the Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge.

SpaceX has repeatedly burned down acres of the protected Lower Rio Grande Valley Wildlife Refuge, home to endangered species such as the ocelot and threatened migratory birds like the piping plover. Most recently, SpaceX burned down over 60 acres of the wildlife refuge. Less than 3% of wildlife habitat remains in the Rio Grande Valley, and the growth and operations of SpaceX threaten what is left.

SpaceX is taking away Boca Chica Beach access from families. For generations, Boca Chica Beach was a popular fishing and vacation spot for families in Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley family to enjoy.

Since 2019, SpaceX has violated the Texas Open Beaches Act by closing the beach up to 5 times a week from morning to sunset and more than 600 hours per year. These excessive beach closures have prevented the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas from accessing the beach for ceremonies.

Every launch of SpaceX has caused disastrous explosions and SOTXENJ is extremely worried about these explosions and the debris that has been accounted to fall 7 miles or more away, including in Tamaulipas where the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle has one of its only two nesting grounds (the other even closer to SpaceX on Padre Island).  Space X launches and their vibrations, explosions, and debris have been found to shatter the eggs of endangered species of birds.  Space X has caused trouble in Hawaii, and the British government as well as the Mexican government have spoken up about the debris, etc.  Schools in the community are having to pay thousands of dollars a month to clean the ventilation systems.   In addition, this is an area of Texas with very limited water supplies, and suffers from drought, and these industries use extraordinarily large quantities of water.  They’ve had 9 disastrous launches, but recently received approval for up to 25 launches per year.  The unregulated FAA never conducted a full environmental review of this project; rather, a small review was done by Space X and the FAA just signed off.  See very recent Guardian article.

The drive back was also extremely disturbing with darkness on one side of the road, and hundreds and hundreds of huge bright white glaring lights on the other side.  It is startling and disturbing to realize how quickly and extensively this alteration and desecration of this pristine landscape has taken place, just over the last two years.  There is an eerie feeling in the air, and, much like the other places I’ve visited, a strange juxtaposition of the overly hot, overly humid air, and clear signs that the trees and animals are stressed, as climate change pushes all to the brink and yet these industries press on, making matters even worse.  

This was just a quick stop in Brownsville, but I will be back in the middle of August for a week and a half with much more time to see what’s happening here and to blog.

**Note this entry includes large excerpts from materials provided at the meeting by SOTXENJ.