SpaceX seeks permission to dump treated wastewater into Texas bay(mysanantonio.com)
mysanantonio.com
SpaceX seeks permission to dump treated wastewater into Texas bay
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/spacex-wastewater-dumping-18382673.php
17 comments
Starship doesn't use hydrazine.
The article headline is "technically" correct because ANY water that has come from any pipe work/tanks that isn't rain from the sky is "treated wastewater" by weird government definition.
The water has no known pollutants in it. It's clean drinking water pumped through pipes and splashing on to the ground and picking up whatever dirt is on the ground.
The article headline is "technically" correct because ANY water that has come from any pipe work/tanks that isn't rain from the sky is "treated wastewater" by weird government definition.
The water has no known pollutants in it. It's clean drinking water pumped through pipes and splashing on to the ground and picking up whatever dirt is on the ground.
I was just using that as an example. You are wrong about having “no known pollutants,” though. Pollutants need to be below some agreed-upon level, so they exist but in theory should be below harmful levels.
There can be a perceived difference between industrial chemical wastewater and household wastewater and that’s what I was getting at. One is far riskier for a “spill” accident, and more rigorous prevention measures may need to be discussed upfront. The article didn’t differentiate which it’s going to be.
I feel like by not differentiating, the article may be somewhat sensationalized. Without knowing which it is, I’m left wondering.
There can be a perceived difference between industrial chemical wastewater and household wastewater and that’s what I was getting at. One is far riskier for a “spill” accident, and more rigorous prevention measures may need to be discussed upfront. The article didn’t differentiate which it’s going to be.
I feel like by not differentiating, the article may be somewhat sensationalized. Without knowing which it is, I’m left wondering.
The term chemical wastewater generally sounds like it's generated by some kind of chemical process as a byproduct. In this case though there is nothing chemical happening to this waste water. It comes in via trucks and is then pumped back out again.
I’m just saying is that it’s very unclear from the article.
To be clear, the core of the pushback is not about contaminants, but hesitation on the salt-to-fresh-water ratio of the environment this volume is proposed to be released into:
> While the contaminants are removed from the wastewater, Port Isabel City Manager Jared Hockema told KRGV he's concerned freshwater added as wastewater will throw off the salt balance of the bay.
I'm no expert, but seems like a fine question to ask before doing it.
> While the contaminants are removed from the wastewater, Port Isabel City Manager Jared Hockema told KRGV he's concerned freshwater added as wastewater will throw off the salt balance of the bay.
I'm no expert, but seems like a fine question to ask before doing it.
> The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, a state agency that says it aims to protect the state's human and natural resources consistent with sustainable economic development, is reviewing the proposal and seeking public input.
I mean this truly: stop asking for public input.
This is one of the biggest problems in America, responsible for soaring housing costs, preventing us from making quicker progress on climate change, it is among the reason we have horrible traffic, it's reducing all of our incomes, and in general is making life in the West suck.
The public has no idea at all. There is no scenario where public input is useful, outside of maybe a jury.
We've got to rollback this stuff. The public should not be consulted on anything at all.
I mean this truly: stop asking for public input.
This is one of the biggest problems in America, responsible for soaring housing costs, preventing us from making quicker progress on climate change, it is among the reason we have horrible traffic, it's reducing all of our incomes, and in general is making life in the West suck.
The public has no idea at all. There is no scenario where public input is useful, outside of maybe a jury.
We've got to rollback this stuff. The public should not be consulted on anything at all.
The public input blocking improvement is a feature, not a bug.
Think about who had the permission to vote, when voting was first deemed as a way to impact the world.
'the public' means 'americans' which means 'the norms of white people'. Colonialism, supremacy, violence, the carceral state. (Pardon the redundancy)
American traffic planners use 'the public' has justification for the continued oppression of poor and minority people, via highways and refusal of services that would actually help the real public.
Texas still has in its municipal governments and public populations, enough people that are disappointed by the end of slavery, that often enough the political will is indistinguishable from that of slaveholders.
It's a feature, not a bug.
Think about who had the permission to vote, when voting was first deemed as a way to impact the world.
'the public' means 'americans' which means 'the norms of white people'. Colonialism, supremacy, violence, the carceral state. (Pardon the redundancy)
American traffic planners use 'the public' has justification for the continued oppression of poor and minority people, via highways and refusal of services that would actually help the real public.
Texas still has in its municipal governments and public populations, enough people that are disappointed by the end of slavery, that often enough the political will is indistinguishable from that of slaveholders.
It's a feature, not a bug.
>While the contaminants are removed from the wastewater,
I didn’t even need to click the article to already know this was the case. Let’s see…
Port Isabel is on the gulf. So the issue is dumping 200,000 gallons of clean fresh water into the gulf and seeing if it would change the salt levels.
That’s 200,000 gallons into… what, a trillion (an educated guess)?
Ok, I’ll file this under politics.
I didn’t even need to click the article to already know this was the case. Let’s see…
Port Isabel is on the gulf. So the issue is dumping 200,000 gallons of clean fresh water into the gulf and seeing if it would change the salt levels.
That’s 200,000 gallons into… what, a trillion (an educated guess)?
Ok, I’ll file this under politics.
The request is not for dispersal into the Gulf of Mexico, it is for dispersal into South Bay, a managed coastal preserve that is exponentially smaller than the gulf:
https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/water/conservation/txgems/s...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bay_(Texas)
https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/water/conservation/txgems/s...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Bay_(Texas)
It’s separated by nothing in some places.
There are already streams coming in with brackish water.
We’re talking about 10 swimming pools worth.
Fair enough, but I’m still filing under rage bait politics.
There are already streams coming in with brackish water.
We’re talking about 10 swimming pools worth.
Fair enough, but I’m still filing under rage bait politics.
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That's like 10 swimming pools worth of water. Why is this news?
People are not good at assessing how much bad stuff is in water. For example, the amount of tritium in the infamous Fukushima water is about 3 grams, and it's planned to be released over 30 years at concentrations below 1/100th of the regulatory limit in clean drinking water. Korean and Chinese nuclear plants all release far more tritium than is in those tanks, yet they still protested the release for years and years. Kinda nuts.
Why it's news (biases, politics, etc.) is more interesting than the news itself.
It’s pretty standard to put treated wastewater back into bodies of water.
I once talked to a water activist that made me realize water molecules going through your house are typically recycled back into a river through a treatment process. Also - the further you leave Downstream, the more those water molecules have been used. I had never really thought about it that way before.