The Proposed Spaceport Camden
December 2021 Update: Federal Aviation Administration issues Launch Site Operators Liscense, but several hurdles still remain for Spaceport Camden.
Camden County is seeking economic development by building a facility to launch rockets from the site of an abandoned munitions plant, owned by Dow Chemical, in a rural location four miles west of Cumberland Island National Seashore. The proposed project is known as Spaceport Camden.
The Georgia Conservancy continues to have serious concerns regarding the proposed Spaceport Camden due to potential environmental impacts and the process through which the project is being considered. Because of these continued concerns, many of which have remained unaddressed, our organization is in opposition to the continuance of the proposed Spaceport Camden project, both in its planning and development.
In December 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its Record of Decision (ROD), approving a Launch Site Operator License for Camden County, which licenses the County to operate Spaceport Camden for five years with 12 annual vertical launches. The ROD was issued following the June 2021 release of the FAA’s long-awaited final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed Spaceport Camden launch site license.
The ROD does not license individual launches; those must be reviewed and evaluated separately before and any rocket can be launched. Per the ROD: “The Launch Site Operator License would only authorize the County to operate Spaceport Camden. This license does not authorize FAA-licensed launches. A vehicle operator would be required to obtain a separate Vehicle Operator License from the FAA to launch from Spaceport Camden. As part of the Vehicle Operator License evaluation process, the FAA conducts a policy review, payload review, environmental review, financial determination, and safety review.”
Click here to read the FAA’s December 2021 Record of Decision
The FAA schedule for the issuance of their final EIS and final ROD had been delayed several times. The delay in the issuance of the EIS and ROD was in part due to a January 2020 application revision submitted by Camden County seeking to change Spaceport Camden from a medium-lift rocket facility to one that launches small-lift rockets. The public, however, was not been given the opportunity by the FAA before the issuance of the final EIS to comment on these proposed changes as they relate to potential impacts to the environment, public resources, and private property.
The FAA EIS was generally favorable towards approval of this project and puts off for later consideration the potential impacts to Cumberland Island, Little Cumberland Island, the surrounding salt marsh, and the Intracoastal waterway. Additionally, it does not adequately address our many concerns about this project and the process through which it has been considered.
Earlier in 2021, the Coastal Resources Division (CRD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources put out a notice for public comment for a Coastal Consistency Certification for the Launch Site Operators License (LSOL) application from the Camden County Board of Commissioners. As one of the final steps mandated by the EIS process, CRD reviews the project to ensure that it is consistent with state environmental statutes.
Our concerns, which were sent to CRD, are related to the coastal program elements under their purview and included:
Potential environmental impacts to the surrounding salt marsh and Satilla River estuary, including compliance of this project with the Georgia Coastal Marshland Protection Act.
Disruptions of use of the waterways during and before launches, including parts of St. Andrews Sound and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Limiting the use of public property (Cumberland Island National Seashore) and private property (Little Cumberland Island) during and before launches.
Background of the Proposed Spaceport Camden
The landscape setting on which the proposed Spaceport Camden sits is east of I-95 and borders the Saint Andrews Sound, a dynamic body of water that touches several islands, including Cumberland Island, Little Cumberland Island, Jekyll Island, and Raccoon Key, and one which contains the extensive and high-functioning estuary of the Satilla River. Many threatened, endangered and/or protected species are found in and around the property, including bald eagles, wood storks, indigo snakes, striped newts, and gopher tortoises.
Map Courtesy of Southern Environmental Law Center (Click To ENlarge)
Several years ago, Camden County seized upon this unique opportunity to redevelop the abandoned site as a privatized satellite launch site. This unique enterprise (a spaceport) has been undertaken by the county as an economic development opportunity that would provide jobs and diversify the county's employment base. Building a spaceport, though, is an uncommon proposition, which makes it very important for Camden County and the Federal Aviation Administration to explain to the citizens of Camden County, as well as all others who may be impacted by the facility, what to expect from the project. While this is certainly a project never undertaken in the state of Georgia, there are other spaceports that have been built in recent years across the United States from which lessons must be drawn.
The feasibility of such an enterprise is a concern but is beyond the ability of the Georgia Conservancy to fully analyze, therefore, in keeping with our mission, we have chosen to use our resources to analyze environmental impacts from rocket-related operations at the landscape scale and to address issues related to property rights, both public (State of Georgia and U.S. Department of the Interior) and private.
During the scoping phase of the EIS in January of 2016, the Georgia Conservancy submitted comments related to the Spaceport Camden project. The next step, a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Spaceport Camden, was issued in March 2018 for comment. The draft EIS was to address the environmental concerns through the FAA framework of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Unfortunately, the cumbersome NEPA draft EIS, which was paid for by Camden County as part of the three-step site licensing for a facility to launch medium-lift rockets (250 feet tall with boosters that weigh up to 1,500,000 pounds) failed to address these concerns and left us with more questions than answers. Click here to read our comments for the FAA’s 2018 draft Environmental Impact Statement.
The Spaceport Camden site has detailed information and site characterization related to industrial waste pollution from previous uses of this location, therefore Georgia Conservancy remains focused primarily on the offsite impacts posed by the proposed spaceport to the surrounding landscape (St. Andrews Sound, Cumberland Island, etc.).
Environmental Impacts
Spaceport Camden is unique in that the launch trajectory will go over both private property and a National Seashore and Wilderness Area, and is in close proximity to the Kings Bay Submarine Base. Because of this, the National Park Service and the U.S. Navy issued a list of concerns during the scoping period for the draft EIS. NPS concerns, as well as those of the Georgia Conservancy, were primarily centered on impacts to the park experience and operations, along with impacts to the complex ecology of the island environment, as rockets from Spaceport Camden will be launched directly over Cumberland Island National Seashore. While the draft EIS comments on potential impacts to the experience of wilderness visitors from lighting and noise associated with spaceport facility operations and launches, it failed to adequately address tower and facility lighting issues that will impact the nesting of federally-threatened loggerhead sea turtles and federally-endangered leatherback sea turtles (Endangered Species Act). For these species, there could be additional impacts from night launches during nesting season.
Furthermore, the draft EIS did not adequately detail the impacts that catastrophic events and launch disasters may have upon the ecological integrity of nearby ecosystems, including Cumberland National Seashore and Wilderness. We recommended that the FAA further study and provide a detailed report on worst-case scenarios as they relate to failed launches, crashes, in-air, and on-ground explosions and errant rockets, and the impacts that such scenarios would have upon nearby landscapes and waterways, including barrier islands, salt marshes, mainland uplands, rivers, estuaries, and nearshore ocean. They have failed to provide these reports. The draft EIS did not take serious the effect that potential disasters pose to the surrounding areas.
Property Rights - Public & Private
It is important to note that NEPA and the framework of requirements of the EIS did not deal with property rights and feasibility issues, which are primary concerns in regards to the Spaceport Camden project. From the draft EIS we learned that there will be up to twelve launches per year requiring the closure of locations within Cumberland Island National Seashore, as well as the evacuation of campers, hikers and visitors. Notice of closures range from one month to as little as three days prior to launch. The draft EIS was unclear on how such closures and evacuations are to be handled and does not describe the impacts to National Seashore visitors or staff operations.
The project seems challenged by Wilderness Act issues related to the National Park lands under its launch trajectories - issues that have not been fully addressed. Separately, the issue of private property use (takings) related to the evacuation of property during launch operations has not been fully explained.
Additionally, the closure and security areas for launches will impact the public use and passage in portions of St. Andrews Sound and the Intracoastal Waterway.
Please continue to check back here for updates on the proposed Spaceport Camden.
For any questions regarding this matter, please contact Georgia Conservancy Coastal Director Charles McMillan at cmcmillan@gaconservancy.org
