McGregor, Texas, is home to a SpaceX rocket engine testing site. Each engine test uses water cannons to manage heat and noise. That water comes from wells in the Trinity Aquifer.
Records reported by The Waco Bridge and the San Antonio Express-News tell a clear story. McGregor’s wells, which mainly serve SpaceX, were pumped about 128 million gallons over their permitted limits. That happened across three years. The local groundwater district cited the city and SpaceX each year.
This article sticks to what public records and named sources have established. It also flags what the record does not show.
What the records show
The overpumping grew fast. It rose from 6.7 million gallons in 2023 to 19.2 million in 2024. It then reached 102.5 million in 2025, according to the Express-News. That is roughly a fifteenfold increase from 2023 to 2025.
The district first used an incorrect formula. It later adjusted the amounts slightly lower. It said the corrections did not resolve the violation.
The Southern Trinity Groundwater Conservation District normally holds permit holders to their “historic use.” McGregor received a special permit in 2016 that let SpaceX exceed that level. The violations were for going past the limit of that special permit, plus the city’s municipal allowance.
City records obtained by the Express-News show SpaceX is the biggest water user at the site. It used 87.3 million gallons from June 2023 to June 2024. It used 82.2 million the following year. In the most recent year, it used 89.5 million gallons.
That is roughly double the next-largest user, Knauf Insulation, at 45.9 million gallons. Even so, the Express-News notes that SpaceX’s use is comparable to a town of 2,000 to 3,000 people. It is also less than some large industrial users, which consume billions of gallons yearly.
The district’s general manager, Scooter Radcliffe, told the Bridge that the groundwater in McGregor is mainly for SpaceX.
The test schedule explains some of the demand. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell told Texas lawmakers the company had run more than 7,000 engine tests at McGregor by September 2024. That is about seven a day. The Express-News estimates each test fire uses tens of thousands of gallons.
One limit on the numbers matters. The district assigned the violations jointly to the “City of McGregor/SpaceX.” The overage is measured against the city’s total allotments. So the records do not show how much of it SpaceX alone caused.
Who pays for the overpumping
McGregor owns the site and its wells and holds the permits. So the city, not SpaceX, took the penalty.
On Sept. 28, the City Council approved a settlement with the district. It avoids a possible court fight. The terms are:
- A one-time $50,000 payment due Nov. 1.
- A $1,250 quarterly payment for 25 years to fund a new monitoring system on the well SpaceX uses.
- A requirement that the city show reasonable efforts to find more water.
The total is at least $175,000. The district says it is the largest penalty it has issued.
City Manager Kevin Evans said the money will come from a sale of city property, not tax revenue. He also said SpaceX has already cut its groundwater use. SpaceX helped pay for the city’s new wastewater plant, which is meant to supply recycled water. Evans said technical problems have kept it from running at full capacity.
The city told the district it is adding infrastructure and seeking a new permit to cover demand. According to the Express-News, that application is on hold until the violations are settled. The city’s water utility also had four active state violations in June. One was for failing to provide water system operating records.
Penalties for overpumping elsewhere in Texas can be steep. The Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District fined a different company, Aqua Texas, $448,000 for pulling 89 million gallons over its limit. That case was still pending in federal court as of the Express-News’s update.
Resident Danny Campbell criticized the deal at the council meeting. He argued that SpaceX is not responsible for the legal costs or fees. No SpaceX representative spoke at the meeting. The company did not answer the Bridge’s requests for comment.
The mayor and Bluebonnet Water
McGregor’s plan to replace groundwater relies on surface water. The city plans a 16-inch connector to carry at least 500,000 gallons a day to its industrial park. The treated water would come from Lake Belton through an existing line run by Bluebonnet Water Supply Corporation.
The Bridge reports that Mayor Jim Lilley is listed as a general manager at Bluebonnet. Evans said the project would be paid for by taxes on businesses in the industrial park.
The reporting does not say the mayor acted improperly. It simply discloses that the mayor works for a utility that stands to supply replacement water. Readers can weigh that when they hear his views on the aquifer.
After the settlement vote, the mayor said the overpumping showed there is plenty of water in the aquifer. The district’s president disagreed.
What the aquifer can bear
District president Rodney Kroll said, “Our aquifer does not recharge.” He said water levels fall every year. He added that the supply could reach a point of no groundwater in as little as 50 years. That timeline is his estimate. I could not find an independent study confirming it.
Other sources support the core point about slow recharge:
- The Bridge reports that recharge in this part of the Trinity is measured in thousands of years.
- The district’s own management plan states there is no known recharge from precipitation to the Trinity in the district.
- The Bridge cites a Baylor University thesis. It found a localized drop of several feet in the McGregor area from 2018 to 2022.
- The Texas Almanac’s aquifer overview says heavy use of the Trinity near Dallas-Fort Worth and Waco has lowered water levels by 350 to more than 1,000 feet.
- The Bridge reports that state regulators determined the area faced critical groundwater shortages. That finding led to the district’s creation.
One caution matters here. The records do not show that this overage alone would drain the aquifer. The concern is cumulative. Where little water returns, every gallon pumped lowers the stored supply. Many users pumping over many years is what drives long-term decline.
Is this happening at other SpaceX sites?
I found no verified reports of SpaceX overdrawing groundwater at other facilities. McGregor is the documented case.
SpaceX does face other water-related issues in Texas. They are different in kind:
- Starbase wastewater: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality cited SpaceX for discharging deluge water without a permit. The agency reported four such discharges between March and July 2024. SpaceX paid a $3,750 penalty without admitting a violation. The EPA also found Clean Water Act violations. SpaceX says the system causes no harm.
- Starbase water demand: SpaceX told Brownsville commissioners it expects to need about 2 million gallons a day. That is 19.7 times what it bought from the city utility in fiscal 2025, the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal reports. Starbase buys from a municipal supplier. That is a demand story, not an overpumping one.
What to watch next
- The new monitoring system on the SpaceX well should produce better data.
- The city must show efforts to secure more water. The Lake Belton line is the main plan so far.
- The first $50,000 payment is due Nov. 1.
Questions worth asking local officials include these. How will water levels be reported publicly? Who pays if overpumping happens again? Will SpaceX share in the cost of replacement water?
Sources
- McGregor will pay a record $175K to settle SpaceX overpumping case, Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, Sept. 30, 2026
- SpaceX McGregor site overpumped aquifer for years, records show, Sam Shaw, The Waco Bridge, June 25, 2026
- SpaceX’s McGregor water use and overpumping violations, Brandon Lingle, San Antonio Express-News, June 26, 2026 (updated July 2)
- Southern Trinity Groundwater Conservation District Management Plan
- Aquifers of Texas, Texas Almanac
- How much water does SpaceX need to operate near Brownsville?, Rio Grande Valley Business Journal
- Texas Tribune coverage of the TCEQ penalty at Starbase, Dec. 18, 2024
- SpaceX wastewater violations (NPR), Oct. 10, 2024