{"id":179853,"date":"2026-02-25T16:37:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/179853\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T16:37:16","slug":"rocket-testing-near-edwards-aquifer-has-residents-concerned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/179853\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket testing near Edwards Aquifer has residents concerned"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TEXAS \u2014\u00a0Texas State University has a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.txst.edu\/university-statements\/context-clarification\/2026\/x-bow-agreement.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">partnership<\/a> with X-Bow Systems, an advanced solid rocket motor producer. Under this research agreement, a testing facility will be constructed to test X-Bow\u2019s technology. However, this is getting some pushback from water advocates in San Marcos.<\/p>\n<p>Solid rocket motor static testing, which is a performance-based test for rockets, will occur at the university\u2019s Freeman Ranch on the outskirts of San Marcos. The testing is situated over the Edwards Aquifer, and advocates are concerned this project could contaminate drinking water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there are contaminants from things like solid rocket motor testing, if it rains and those contaminants are on the ground, they\u2019re going to go straight into the aquifer,\u201d said Virginia Parker, the executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Texas State officials say protecting the aquifer is a \u201ctop priority.\u201d A partial statement from the university states, \u201cAll testing is conducted under carefully controlled conditions designed to prevent contamination, runoff, or environmental damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Static testing will be conducted, which means the solid rocket motors aren\u2019t launched. According to Texas State, it will be done on a specially designed concrete pad. However, Parker has concerns that wind or a failed test could cause particles to end up outside of that pad once construction is complete and testing begins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mitigation plan is not 100% clear to me and doesn\u2019t feel super protective with the risk of what is in these pellets,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n<p>Texas State officials say test failures are rare, but in that event, there are remediation protocols that include cleanup procedures to prevent environmental contamination. Despite these protocols, the San Marcos River Foundation is still concerned, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/move-solid-rocket-motor-testing-off-the-edwards-aquifer?recruiter=1014868316&amp;recruited_by_id=d7ca58f0-fb87-11e9-8174-6fc9d47e736b&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&amp;utm_medium=copylink&amp;share_id=MNfTHswW9t\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">asking<\/a> the involved entities to move the testing site out of the aquifer\u2019s zone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there is a pollutant that ends up in the aquifer, that destroys the water that we have,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014\u00a0Texas State University has a partnership with X-Bow Systems, an advanced solid rocket motor producer. Under this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1061,2160,132,1570,102,138,6364,223,1225,82,3621,27,29,28,1569,2053,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-179853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-app-public-safety","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-ctv","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-el-paso","14":"tag-geraldine-torrellas","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-public-safety","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-technology","19":"tag-texas","20":"tag-texas-headlines","21":"tag-texas-news","22":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}