‘We're a democracy': Residents fight to be heard on SpaceX

For the family of Brooke Broussard and others, a potential SpaceX deal threatens a generational way of life in Vermilion Parish, without them having been allowed a voice in the process. When Wayne Miller, assistant chief of the Pecan Island Volunteer Fire Department, spotted survey crews taking soil samples in the area on Aug. 10, he suspected they might be testing the strength of the marshland to determine the best spot to build an aerospace facility. And finally, he had somewhere beyond the front porch to take his concerns — StopSpaceX. The group was formed in early August, after months of increasingly believable rumors that aerospace company SpaceX is planning to build a facility in the marsh near Pecan Island. Every evening for a week, local residents like Miller aired their grievances and shared information on the StopSpaceX video calls — a direct response to the near-complete silence from elected officials on the matter, which has left many local residents feeling left out of the conversation and decisions that could shape their home for generations to come. 'I don't think they understand that residents want to be part of these talks too,' says Brennon 'Bruno' Sagrera, a ninth-generation Island local and fifth-generation rice and crawfish farmer. 'We're a democracy.' No agenda The Zoom sessions came together fast. 'There wasn't a real agenda beyond opening a room,' says Brooke Broussard, a founding member with family on Pecan Island, 'because nobody — no community leader, no public official — was providing one.' Sagrera estimated 20 to 30 people joined each call, many of them already connected by family or decades of community ties. 'It gave us a chance to connect, share what's going on, share our concerns, and process it together,' he says. A handful of neighbors sharing knowledge, with a former federal civil engineer and multigenerational residents bringing technical and historical context to the sessions. Brooke Broussard's father Martin and uncle Johnny sit on a porch in Pecan Island, part of a lifestyle she's worried is threatened by industrial development. Photo courtesy of Brooke Broussard The group became a place to vent, but also to figure out what could be done to prevent the worst possible outcomes. One of the group's targets: a proposed Federal Aviation Administration rule that would allow the secretary of transportation to waive a broad swath of environmental laws to the benefit of aerospace companies. The comment period for the proposal is currently underway and ends August 31. The proposed rule, along with new state laws that insulate such companies from lawsuits related to damages their facilities may cause, alarmed the future neighbors of a potential Vermilion Parish SpaceX site. 'They can come down here…drop a rocket on your house, contaminate the water and be exempt from liability,' Miller sums up some of their concerns. COLUMN: What may happen if SpaceX invades Pecan Island Let's say the reports are true, and SpaceX does build a new launch facility in Vermilion Parish. What kind of an impact might this actually have? Those concerns are, at least in part, rooted in the area's history with the oil and gas industry. Many on the calls remember being told as children not to drink the tap water because of pollution dating back to the oil boom. 'We attracted that industry with similar promises,' says Sagrera. 'And we ended up with one of the fastest-eroding coasts in the world and some of the highest cancer rates in the world.' The wealth, he points out, didn't last long. 'It was extracted from our community and our land, and it didn't last for generations.' Sagrera is careful not to frame the group's position as entirely opposed to the project. 'I wouldn't say we necessarily have a 'stop SpaceX movement',' he hedges. 'In reality, it's just a handful of concerned residents.' The farmer says he for one would be open to a SpaceX facility in the area, if it creates a significant number of jobs and comes with a commitment to environmental protection, maybe even restoration. 'That would be a sacrifice I think would benefit future generations,' Sagrera says. 'But they haven't made any promises like that.' A veil of silence In fact, Pecan residents haven't heard much of anything about the potential project, at least from official sources. This might be in part because of a strategy by Louisiana Economic Development, the state economic development agency, of requiring elected officials to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to receive information on major projects, such as a prospective rocket launch site, or the very real and currently-under-construction Meta data center in Richland Parish. State Rep. Jacob Landry (R-Erath), whose district borders the area, signed an NDA with LED in February. 'LED wishes to provide certain information in connection with a prospective company's business interests,' the purpose section of that NDA states, requiring Landry to keep any information he receives related to 'the opportunity' confidential. The old Pecan Island school, seen here in 2015, was recently purchased by UL Lafayette to serve as a center for research of coastal restoration and environmental changes affecting the region. Photo courtesy of Brooke Broussard State Senator Bob Hensgens, whose district includes Pecan Island, has told The Current that he was approached to sign such an NDA in April, but declined out of transparency concerns. He had previously signed what LED described as a 'general NDA,' containing the same language as that signed by Landry, but said he forgot about it and asked for it to be rescinded prior to a recent community event, in order to be able to freely discuss what he knew about the rumored project, which was little. Hensgens has told The Current that he believes his declining to sign the second NDA is the reason he's been kept in the dark. Could Louisiana 'Cajunize' the space industry? With legal obstacles out of the way, SpaceX could be setting up shop in Vermilion Parish. State Sen. Bob Hensgens is bullish about what's to come. LED has argued that NDAs are necessary to keep Louisiana competitive. Broussard, lamenting the lack of oversight from local leaders, sees it differently: 'They're drunk on dollar signs.' In response to a previous request by The Current, the agency would not confirm or deny the existence of a 'prospective project' in Vermilion Parish. That secrecy, and the NDAs in particular, have incensed some Louisianans, including Sagrera. 'With all this secrecy, no one in the community has had real information shared with us,' he says. 'I don't understand how it's legal that our elected officials are barred by NDAs from sharing information with constituents about a project that will affect our community forever.' The Holiday Playgirls perform at the annual Pecan Island Wild Game Cookoff in March 2024. Photo courtesy of Brooke Broussard Unprepared Miller, the assistant fire chief, is also worried about the short-term effects of large-scale industrial construction. Having served 25 years with the volunteer fire department, which currently counts 12 members, he doesn't think Pecan Island's infrastructure could handle a project the scale of the rumored SpaceX facility. 'Absolutely not,' he says, without hesitation. He doesn't have to look far for a cautionary tale, he points out. 'Look at Cameron Parish. There's so many car wrecks on the roads right now that they can hardly keep up.' The neighboring parish is currently home to multiple large-scale construction sites as part of an expansion of liquified natural gas terminals. Just last Saturday, two days before Miller describes having seen crews collect soil samples near Pecan Island, a crash between a truck and a bus carrying industrial workers in Cameron Parish injured dozens, according to local news reports. Miller says local first responders need information in order to properly prepare — and time to do so. Last time the department ordered a fire truck, he notes, it took over 11 months for it to come in. 'We need to know what capacity they're going to come and deal with. That's one of the things that would be nice to know before all of this happens.' 'It's personal' StopSpaceX's nightly video calls have stopped for now, but the group's push for protections and transparency hasn't. 'This isn't a partisan or environmental-activist group, it's just community members worried about what's happening,' says Sagrera. But both Sagrera and Broussard say they hope that someone, an environmental law group for example, could use the judicial system to force the company to prepare and make public an environmental impact statement. 'That would give time to understand the impacts and catch mistakes before they happen,' Sagrera says. And, 'if they're going to come here and do this, at least follow the rules.' For Broussard and others, the experience of being left in the dark about something so potentially consequential to their generational way of life has been painful. 'The hardest part has been the grief, sorrow, anger, the feeling of helplessness,' she says. 'It's personal for everybody.' As SpaceX rumors circulate, so do worries of losing generational land Industry has a history of running roughshod over environmental and residents' concerns along the Gulf. Some worry the marsh near Pecan Island may be next. The people behind StopSpaceX don't think they will actually stop the company from setting up shop in their backyard if it so desires. What they want is to lessen the negative impacts it may have on the community. 'I understand it's probably going to go through,' Sagrera says. But, 'I want my son, and his kids, his grandkids, and their grandkids, to be able to be here for another 10 generations,' Sagrera said. Regardless of where their efforts lead, for Broussard, they've already achieved something. On their Zoom calls, people who hadn't spoken in decades reconnected. And when officials elected to represent them agreed to keep mum, they found ways to inform themselves. 'What we have done is convince people that speaking up isn't futile, and build community,' Broussard says. And she's not done. 'I've got, as I put it, war drums beating in my heart — because my family is at stake.'