Pete Mendoza
On May 10, SpaceX sent a proposed permit to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to discharge 200,000 gallons of treated wastewater daily into South Bay, which is yet to be approved.
The proposed permit for the wastewater treatment facility will be located 1,000 feet west of the intersection of Boca Chica Boulevard and Remedios Lane.
UTRGV School of Earth, Environmental, and Earth Sciences Professor Hudson Deyoe said the water in South Bay has always been fine and nothing has been added as of now.
Deyoe compared the 200,000 gallons of water going into the bay to pouring water out of a hose into a really big pool. He said there would not be much of an effect on the bay.
“Typical kind of wastewater which comes from houses and things like that,” he said. Things that the treatment plant cleans up and then they release that water. The other part is what SpaceX [might be] proposing to do is treated industrial wastewater.”
Deyoe said anything that is not natural will not be good for the bay, especially things like heavy metals. However, what would be inside the wastewater is still unknown.
“Conventional [types] usually [have] a lot of plant nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus which sound like a good thing, but you could actually have too much of that,” he said. “It kind of unbalances a system.”
According to Deyoe, the extreme amount of nutrients can have effects on plantations such as seagrass because other plants like algae and seaweeds will use the nutrients to grow, and it will begin to block out the light needed for the seagrass.
He mentioned companies have been dumping their wastewater into certain areas.
“It’s not new that the state has given permits to other cities for dealing with wastewater,” Deyoe said. “You can’t just store it because it’s always being produced, so the easiest thing is to send it to the bay.”
He said if you compare the bay to a water bottle and add something that is contaminable, like nutrients or pollutants, it won’t flush out rapidly and will be harder to get rid of.
Assistant Professor of the School of Earth, Environmental, and Earth Sciences Jongsun Kim said they need to monitor the water.
“Regarding the SpaceX wastewater treatment, all we need to do is monitor the water quality issue and try to do our best to develop the wastewater treatment,” Kim said.
Deyoe said South Bay is a good fishing spot because fish tend to prefer seagrass, so fishermen would be concerned and even upset. He even said the Coastal Conservation Association would have concerns with the discharge of wastewater.
Deyoe said they should at least understand the ecosystem before they discharge any wastewater into the bay.
For more information about South Bay visit, utrgv.edu/seems/.
This is Pete Mendoza for Vaquero Radio.
