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U.S. D e p a r tm e n t

Com m ercial S p ace Transportation

o f T ransp ortation

8 0 0 Independence A ve., S W .
W ashington, D C 20591

Federal Aviation
Administration

July 17, 2020
Mr. Jim Chapman
President, Friends of the Wildlife Corridor
613 West St. Charles Street
Brownsville, Texas 78520
Dear Mr. Chapman:
Thank you for your July 3,2020 letter requesting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
conduct a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Space Exploration Technologies
Corporation’s (SpaceX’s) facility at Boca Chica, Texas.
Before we received your letter, SpaceX proposed operating its Starship/Super Heavy launch
vehicle at its Texas Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas. To operate Starship/Super Heavy at
the Texas Launch Site, SpaceX must obtain an experimental permit or launch license from the
FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Issuing experimental permits and launch
licenses is a major federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and
requires a new environmental review beyond the 2014 EIS.
As the lead federal agency, the FAA is responsible for complying with NEPA. Under our NEPA
policies, applicants have the right to choose whether to conduct an Environmental Assessment
(EA) under FAA oversight or work with the FAA to initiate the EIS process. If an applicant
believes the proposed action would have no significant environmental impacts, or that they can
mitigate any potential impacts, then the applicant typically chooses an EA. However, all
applicants run the potential risk that further review may uncover significant impacts that cannot
be mitigated. In those cases, the FAA must conduct an EIS.
SpaceX has begun an EA for the action of issuing experimental permits or launch licenses to
SpaceX for Starship/Super Heavy launch operations at the Texas Launch Site.
The FAA has invited the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Parks Service, and the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to participate as cooperating agencies.
In the role of cooperating agency, each agency will actively participate in project meetings and
provide comments regarding the description of the proposed action and the proposed action’s
potential impacts on resources for which it has special expertise and any related mitigation
measures.
Again, if the EA identifies one or more significant environmental impacts from the proposed
action, and mitigation measures would not reduce the impact(s) below significant levels, the
FAA must prepare an EIS.

 2
Your letter also raised several issues on the current mitigation measures, stemming from the
2014 EIS process that SpaceX has conducted. First, that SpaceX no longer conducts bird and
vegetation monitoring. Much of the biological resources mitigation stated in the Record of
Decision (ROD), including bird and vegetation surveys/monitoring, is also included in the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Biological Opinion for the project. The Biological
Opinion (BO) requires the FAA to submit an annual report to the USFWS Coastal Ecological
Services Field Office by December 31 of each year. The FAA has submitted an annual report to
the USFWS every year since publication of the BO and ROD (2015-2019). The last annual
report was submitted to the USFWS in December 2019. SpaceX is continuing active
construction biological resource surveys in accordance with the USFWS-approved monitoring
plan.
Second, on the ocelot, jaguarundi, and falcon issues, SpaceX has continued to work with the
USFWS on how best to conduct monitoring.
Third, SpaceX has and continues to coordinate with the Lower Rio Grande Valley National
Wildlife Refuge staff establishing security fencing to protect Refuge lands. SpaceX has
contributed funds towards the purchasing of the fence supplies as well as provided storage for
the supplies. In addition, SpaceX immediately notifies the Refuge when operations are occurring
and in the event of any anomaly or unplanned emergency occurs.
Finally, the FAA coordinated the development and review of the Facility Design and Lighting
Management Plan and the Security Plan over several years with the National Historic
Preservation Act Section 106 consulting parties. The FAA coordinated the development of the
Fire Mitigation and Response Plan with the USFWS and Texas Parks and Wildlife in 2019.
SpaceX is currently in the process of updating the Facility Design and Lighting Management
Plan given SpaceX’s changes to the launch site. As with the mitigation measures described
above, these plans stemmed from the 2014 EIS process. All mitigation measures and SpaceX’s
site plans, including these three plans, will be revisited as part of the FAA’s new environmental
review for SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy proposal.
Thank you again for your letter. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at (202)
407-2381, or send me an email at daniel.murray@faa.gov.

for: Daniel Murray
Manager, Safety Authorization Division, (ASA-100)
Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Federal Aviation Administration