Lawsuit seeks to stop SpaceX land exchange near Texas wildlife refuge

Several conservation groups and a Native American tribe have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking to block the exchange of more than 700 acres of federally protected land in Cameron County.

The exchange would give Elon Musk's SpaceX around 700 acres of national wildlife refuge along the Rio Grande River near the city of Starbase in exchange for around 683 acres of private land on Boca Chica Beach and near Laguna Heights.

What they're saying:

"Despite the Service’s longstanding vision that the Lower Rio Grand Valley National Wildlife Refuge will eventually include 132,500 acres of contiguous, protected habitat along the Rio Grande, the Service has decided to divide the Refuge’s largest contiguous parcel by giving over 700 acres of the Refuge to SpaceX for its expanding industrial operations," the lawsuit states.

FWS said the move allows them to "divest lands likely to be impacted by SpaceX activities, and SpaceX would exchange land that includes desirable habitat for conservation."

The lawsuit claims that FWS violated the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act by taking action that will permanently reduce and degrade the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

"Our protected public lands are being gifted for the benefit of the world’s richest man, who could trash them while playing with his exploding rockets," Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said. "The Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge was built by decades of conservation work and funded by millions of taxpayer dollars to protect our vulnerable wildlife like ocelots and piping plovers. We’re not letting Trump and his political cronies lock the American people out of Texas’ cherished public lands just to give Elon Musk another payday."

However, FWS said the land exchange will "consolidate fragmented refuge holdings, reduce land use conflicts, and enhance long-term conservation of high-value habitats."

Those opposed to the exchange, the Center for Biological Diversity, Save RGV, the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe and South Texas Environmental Justice Network, disagree.

"The Service simply cannot demonstrate that the Exchange would provide a conservation benefit to the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit claims SpaceX already harms the surrounding area through noise, bright lights, traffic, closures, explosions, debris, fires, and industrial development and that the exchange is effectively giving SpaceX refuge lands that SpaceX helped degrade, rather than using enforcement authority to prevent or remedy harm.

"The refuge is a national public treasure with immense ecological and cultural value. The tract being swapped to SpaceX, whose arrival here has been an unmitigated disaster, will permanently sever the very heart of the wildlife corridor established by Congress in 1979," Mary Angela Branch, board member at Save RGV, said. "This corridor, running along the Rio Grande River, is prime wildlife habitat, and nothing gained in this ‘swap’ will be equal. This will be a huge loss. The federal government should protect our public land for future generations, not turn them into hellscapes for soon-to-be trillionaire corporate interests."

The lawsuit is asking for the court to stop the exchange and a judgment that FWS violated federal laws by allowing the exchange.

SpaceX began purchasing land in the area in 2012 and in 2014 announced Boca Chica Beach as its launch site.

According to FWS the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge is home to 1,200 plants, 300 butterflies and 700 vertebrates, of which at least 520 are birds.

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