Environmental groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the Trump administration from transferring more than 700 acres of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge to SpaceX in Texas, arguing the swap would worsen environmental damage from the company’s expanding rocket operations.
The proposed exchange, approved this month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, would transfer 683 acres that SpaceX owns elsewhere for federal land inside the 103,000-acre refuge, which spans four counties along the Texas-Mexico border. The land SpaceX would acquire sits closer to the company’s Starship launchpad near Starbase, Texas, according to maps cited in the lawsuit.
Laiken Jordahl, a spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit alongside other environmental groups, said the exchange would be the first time the U.S. government has swapped land in the area with SpaceX.
The lawsuit asks a federal court in Washington to halt the exchange. “Rather than exercising its enforcement authority to protect the refuge from SpaceX’s activities and to require mitigation to address the harm SpaceX has caused, the [Fish and Wildlife Service] seeks to give SpaceX over 700 acres within the refuge,” the lawsuit states.
A spokesperson for the Fish and Wildlife Service said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.
Earlier this month, the agency issued a final environmental assessment that determined the exchange would not significantly affect the area. The assessment said the acquisition would represent a “net conservation benefit” and provide “substantial long-term conservation value and improving landscape-scale habitat connectivity across refuges in south Texas.”
SpaceX did not return an email seeking comment.
The lawsuit comes as the company is preparing to go public, positioning founder Elon Musk on track to become the world’s first trillionaire. SpaceX first broke ground in Texas more than a decade ago and has expanded rapidly. Last year, SpaceX employees voted to incorporate their own local government called Starbase.
Opponents of the land swap have long criticized the company’s growing footprint in the region, citing lost access to beaches and safety concerns over exploding rockets. The lawsuit did not address those specific complaints but argued the land transfer would compound existing environmental risks.