Dear Governor Kemp,

You can stop Camden County’s proposed private spaceport from launching rockets over Cumberland Island National Seashore and the largest federally-protected Wilderness Area on the Eastern seaboard.

Cumberland Island has long been recognized as the ‘crown jewel’ of Georgia’s ‘Golden Isles’. Allowing the spaceport to become reality would, instead, make this irreplaceable treasure a ‘doormat’ to ‘Georgia’s gateway to space.’

The two (2017 and 2020) Georgia Southern ‘economic impact’ studies produced to support Spaceport Camden are riddled with methodological and logical errors: data can be used to learn something, or abused to sell something. These studies are, regretfully, the latter.

It’s unconscionable that Camden is currently paying lobbyists, consultants and public relations firms with taxpayer dollars, misleading the public to market Spaceport Camden.

Over the past five years, more than $8,000,000.00 has left the county to pay them. The economic experience of every other non-NASA spaceport in the country suggests those much-needed dollars were misspent. Worse, Camden is willing to throw the destruction of Cumberland Island into the bargain.

In 2019, a record-breaking number of endangered sea turtles made nests on the island’s shores. Cumberland is a major stopping point on the transatlantic migratory flyway, with more than 335 species of birds recorded; threatened and endangered species include Bald Eagles, Wood Storks, Wilson’s Plovers, and American Oystercatchers. Its surrounding waters are migration channels for whales and manatees and the epicenter of endangered North Atlantic Right Whale calving grounds.

Wilderness is unique among all other categories of U.S. protected lands — it retains an exalted, added layer of protection, classified as ‘self-willed’ land, specifically reserved, by statute, to have unequivocal precedence over incursions by technology, commerce and human misuse or manipulation – full-time, untrammeled, forever.

Spaceport Camden appropriates over 9,000 acres (more than 14 square miles) of protected wetlands and tidal marsh adjacent to the proposed launch site – plus 610 acres of upland on Cumberland Island – to be used as hazard buffer zones.

This is critically important because launch failures most often occur adjacent to the proposed launch site. The Launch Hazard Zone (LHZ) immediately surrounding the launch pad extends 74% of its area over Georgia’s inter-coastal tidal marsh: a delicate habitat and a primary economic force in our state’s economic success.

The larger Overflight Exclusion Zone (OEZ), will close 14 square miles of marsh and intercoastal waterway used by recreational fishermen, boaters, and commercial fishermen. FAA regulations require these safety zones to protect human life; in this instance, the marsh will be used as a buffer area — absorbing rocket failures occurring close to the launch pad. At all other spaceports, these ‘buffer zones’ exist on spaceport property, or over open ocean.

Spaceport Camden implies that closures will occur up to 12 times a year. However, nearly every launch in recent history has been rescheduled or postponed during final countdown – resulting in multiple closures for a single launch.

The Coastal Marshlands Protection Act (CMPA) is state law that protects the public trust tidal wetlands (Coastal Marshlands Protection Act, O.C.G.A. Section 12-5-280 et. seq.). Launch risk to Georgia’s tidal marshlands is clearly implicated under the Georgia Coastal Management Act (1997), which recognizes that damage to this critical economic and cultural resource is difficult, if not impossible, to mitigate in advance or repair after damage.
Governor Kemp, it is your responsibility to ensure enforcement of the Georgia Coastal Management Act (1997):

The General Assembly finds and declares that the coastal area of Georgia comprises a vital natural resource system. The General Assembly recognizes that the coastal area of Georgia is the habitat of many species of marine life and wildlife which must have clean waters and suitable habitat to survive. The General Assembly further finds that intensive research has revealed that activities affecting the coastal area may degrade water quality or damage coastal resources if not properly planned and managed.

The General Assembly further finds that the coastal area provides a natural recreation resource which has become vitally linked to the economy of Georgia’s coast and to that of the entire state. The General Assembly further finds that resources within this coastal area are costly, if not impossible, to reconstruct or rehabilitate once adversely affected by human related activities and it is important to conserve these resources for the present and future use and enjoyment of all citizens and visitors to this state.

The General Assembly further finds that the coastal area is a vital area of the state and that it is essential to maintain the health, safety, and welfare of all the citizens of the state. Therefore, the General Assembly declares that the management of the coastal area has more than local significance, is of equal importance to all citizens of the state, is of state-wide concern, and consequently is properly a matter for coordinated regulation under the police power of the state.

‘The General Assembly further finds and declares that activities and structures in the coastal area must be regulated to ensure that the values and functions of coastal waters and natural habitats are not impaired and to fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as public trustees of the coastal waters and habitats for succeeding generations.’

Important precedent would be set in Georgia that would negatively impact every American and every wilderness in the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). YOU can put a stop to it.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. As Governor of the great state of Georgia, you have the responsibility to stop rockets from launching over this federally-protected Wilderness Area and to steward Georgia’s unique coastal resources for present and future generations.

Thank you listening.

Sincerely,

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