Lawbreakers at Boca Chica Must Be Held to Account
The Texas Constitution is the second largest state constitution in the country, coming in a handful of words shy of 87,000.
The Texas Open Beaches Act is a law that was passed in 1959 and amended in 1991. In 2009, the Texas Open Beaches Act was tacked on to the Texas Constitution after the public passed what was known at the time as Proposition 9. The Constitution now reads:
Texas Constitution Article 1 Section 33 – Public Access to and Use of Public Beaches
Subsection B: The public, individually and collectively, has an unrestricted right to use and a right of ingress to and egress from a public beach. The right granted by this subsection is dedicated as a permanent easement in favor of the public.
How is it that SpaceX is able to lean on Cameron County officials to close State Highway 4, the only road leading to Boca Chica Beach, whenever Spacely Sprockets wants to test one of their flying, exploding grain silos in apoarent violation of the Texas Constitution?
And, more importantly, how is it of all of Brownsville and Cameron County's elected officials have allowed the road closures to happen right under their noses?
The only public official who has done something to investigate the goings on at Boca Chica is Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz. He was investigating SoaceX's failure to abide by the memorandum of understanding the company entered into with the county, state, and federal governments. In that memorandum of understanding, SpaceX agreed to have the county close State Highway 4 a certain number of times to conduct their rocket tests.
According to Save RGV, a local group of environmental activists, SpaceX has surpassed its agreed upon amount of road closures for the year — and despite that fact, they continue to lean on county officials to close SH4. In addition, SpaceX had closed, or denied access to, two other public roads in the area.
However, news on the investigation has ground to a halt. The DA's office hasn't released any statements on the investigation, and none of the local news outlets have bothered to report on any sort of follow-up from the DA.
Thae letter addressing the possible vuilations was sent to SpaceX on June 11th. The deadline for them to reply has come and gone with no response from SpaceX officials. It seems SpaceX is employing a tactic out of the Trumpian playbook — when the government asks you for a response, simply ignore the request.
The tactic seems to be working. Instead of drawing further scrutiny from city, county, and state officials, they continue to operate as if SpaceX is doing everything right.
Local politicians aren't the only ones who have had the wool pulled over their eyes. In addition to all the photo ops our local commissioners have had out at Musk's launch facility, the public has built shrines to Musk and SpaceX. Local artists have painted murals with Musk's face on them. The same artist who painted the mural downtown painted the exterior of his residence in similar fashion, making the first SpaceX house in Cameron County.
The city, failing to learn from the backlash of renaming East Fronton Street, gave a street out by the airport a SpaceX themed name. Several Brownsvillians have even liked the idea of Brownsville being renamed "Starbase" instead of having Musk create his own incorporated town out at Boca Chica Beach.
And as long as Musk keeps doing things like donating money to local schools and to the city to help with downtown revitalization, he's hoping the city and county leaders will continue to turn a blind eye to the laws he's circumventing out at his launch facility.
Another election cycle is ramping up. County Judge Eddie Trevino has said he plans to seek reelection. It's doubtful he's going to do anything to rock the boat out at Boca Chica. I'm sure he's hoping for a few donations from the managers out at SpaceX in exchange for diverting any unwanted attention county investigators might be giving Musk and his people.
Even Mayor Juan "Trey" Mendez has been posting on social media to help let locals know when SpaceX has closed off access to the beach. He posted a link to a number which will notify people via text when State Highway 4 will be closed. He also posted the link to the county's page with the road closure schedule.
It is apparent several local people's concerns, beach enthusiast's, and environmentalist's concerns have fallen on deaf ears. If city and county officials are unwilling to do anything about the road closures, it's time for state officials to become involved. In addition to letting your state representative and state senator know what is going on, it would probably be a good idea for the Texas General Land Office to get involved.
The Texas Land Commissioner and the General Land Office oversee Texas beaches. Contact information for the various GLO officials can be found at glo.texas.gov.
Someone has to defend the public's right to access public beaches. If the local officials don't want to lift a finger to prevent further privatization of public Texas lands, maybe it is time for the officials up in Austin to get involved.
★UPDATE★
I am aware the city does not have jurisdiction over Boca Chica Beach and State Highway 4. However, if city officials see SpaceX is operating relatively unchecked out at Boca Chica, they should use their position as city leaders to influence county leaders and administrators to act.
I am not blaming the city commissioners or the mayor for not enforcing the law — I am aware they're not in charge of what happens at Boca Chica. I am simply asking city leaders look into what has been happening out at the beach and help hold SpaceX to account. Pleading ignorance doesn't look good on elected officials who simply try to pass the buck.
After interacting with Mayor Trey Mendez via his Facebook page, he did confirm SpaceX officials had responded to the district attorney's letter, albeit past the deadline to reply set by DA Saenz. Reporter Erik De La Garza of the Courthouse News Service details SpaceX's reply to the district attorney. You can read the article here:
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