When I went to the Grand Canyon, I was shocked how many people stand right on the edge of a 300 foot drop. In a lot of areas, there are no guard rails (nor should there be), but so many people are just fucking stupid.
I joked you could probably kill someone by startling them with an airhorn but honestly it might work.
I'm fairly certain that they lend to everyone, not just other tribes. The article makes it sound like the tribes out in the boonies need to do something to survive, and the US federal aid mandated in our treaties is hideously insufficient for their needs. Like, I think that what they're doing is bad because you shouldn't harm people, and you especially shouldn't harm people who are struggling. However, I can at least understand why they're doing it. I can also see that the society they're targeting shares responsibility for the situation. If the US had been continuously honoring the letter and spirit of the treaties we signed with the tribes, then the tribes would've have to resort to exploitative shit like casinos and predatory lending to make money. People will do whatever it takes to improve their situation, and it's a shame that the US has failed in this regard.
As an aside and for the sake of clarity, I think casinos are predatory and exploit people who don't understand their odds, but I'm not against their existence in general, or their existence on reservations. Native American folks can do what they want, it's their goddamned land, and the consenting adults who go to casinos have a responsibility to themselves. I only bring up casinos because of my perception of them and their presence on reservations.
(Also, fuck non-tribe people that use reservations as a way to skirt US regulations. I had no idea that non-tribe people used tribes as fronts for shitty lending operations. Again, kinda smells like something that could have been prevented with proper federal aid.)
Ars Technica - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)Information for Ars Technica:
> MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
> Wikipedia about this source
CNBC’s story on Starship’s launch operations in South Texas is factually inaccurate.
Starship’s water-cooled flame deflector system is critical equipment for SpaceX’s launch operations. It ensures flight safety and protects the launch site and surrounding area.
Also known as the deluge system, it applies clean, potable (drinking) water to the engine exhaust during static fire tests and launches to absorb the heat and vibration from the rocket engines firing. Similar equipment has long been used at launch sites across the United States – such as Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations in Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California – and across the globe.
SpaceX worked with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) throughout the build and test of the water deluge system at Starbase to identify a permit approach. TCEQ personnel were onsite at Starbase to observe the initial tests of the system in July 2023, and TCEQ’s website shows that SpaceX is covered by the Texas Multi-Sector General Permit.
When the EPA issued their Administrative Order in March 2024, it was done without an understanding of basic facts of the deluge system’s operation or acknowledgement that we were operating under the Texas Multi-Sector General Permit.
After we explained our operation to the EPA, they revised their position and allowed us to continue operating, but required us to obtain an Individual Permit from TCEQ, which will also allow us to expand deluge operations to the second pad. We’ve been diligently working on the permit with TCEQ, which was submitted on July 1st, 2024. TCEQ is expected to issue the draft Individual Permit and Agreed Compliance Order this week.
Throughout our ongoing coordination with both TCEQ and the EPA, we have explicitly asked if operation of the deluge system needed to stop and we were informed that operations could continue.
TCEQ and the EPA have allowed continued operations because the deluge system has always complied with common conditions set by an Individual Permit, and causes no harm to the environment. Specifically:
We only use potable (drinking) water in the system’s operation. At no time during the operation of the deluge system is the potable water used in an industrial process, nor is the water exposed to industrial processes before or during operation of the system.
The launch pad area is power-washed prior to activating the deluge system, with the power-washed water collected and hauled off.
The vast majority of the water used in each operation is vaporized by the rocket’s engines.
We send samples of the soil, air, and water around the pad to an independent, accredited laboratory after every use of the deluge system, which have consistently shown negligible traces of any contaminants. Importantly, while CNBC’s story claims there are “very large exceedances of the mercury” as part of the wastewater discharged at the site, all samples to-date have in fact shown either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.
Retention ponds capture excess water and are specially lined to prevent any mixing with local groundwater. Any water captured in these ponds, including water from rainfall events, is pumped out and hauled off.
Finally, some water does leave the area of the pad, mostly from water released prior to ignition and after engine shutdown or launch. To give you an idea of how much: a single use of the deluge system results in potable water equivalent to a rainfall of 0.004 inches across the area outside the pad which currently averages around 27 inches of rain per year.
With Starship, we’re revolutionizing humanity’s ability to access space with a fully reusable rocket that plays an integral role in multiple national priorities, including returning humans to the surface of the Moon. SpaceX and its thousands of employees work tirelessly to ensure the United States remains the world’s leader in space, and we remain committed to working with our local and federal partners to be good stewards of the environment.
while CNBC’s story claims there are “very large exceedances of the mercury” as part of the wastewater discharged at the site, all samples to-date have in fact shown either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.
I think this discrepancy may have been caused by a typo in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report.
If the TCEQ measured it, the EPA needs to double check their work. The typos in the report are a cause for concern, and the Texas agency needs to be put under scrutiny.
Interesting, glaring red flag and no one caught it, or cared, until someone made a stink about it. Credit where credit’s due, that’s what journalism does. This tells me there were zero eyes that cared on this entire permit process.
Any and all claims being made by SpaceX should be verified by an objective third party. We should never simply take a company at their word, but that is especially true of a company that has Elon Musk, a man known to disseminate falsehoods as its Chair, CEO, and CTO.
The cornerstone of all annual business ethics training so many drones (like me) have to endure every year: If you’re known for being dishonest, people will stop believing you. According to the training, they’ll also stop doing business with you, so maybe it’s a bit out of date.
Fuck Joanne, that asshole has been lawyer bullying UK citizens critical of her transphobia for years and I’m glad to see someone finally slap her ass with a lawsuit. I hope she gets taken to the cleaners.
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