A new SpaceX facility will be built in Cameron County after commissioners gave their approval. 

Changes at Starbase are coming, and SpaceX is one step closer to building an air separator facility. It's where the company will create liquid oxygen for rockets.

SpaceX wants the plant to be across from the Starbase launch pad, and environmentalists aren't on board with the plans.

"It is environmentally damaging because they're building in an area that's never had an industry in it at all...it's going to require a lot of power in order to separate air from each other," South Texas Environmental Justice Network co-founder Dr. Christopher Basaldu said.

Basaldu was one of dozens of people to speak out against the SpaceX project during a Cameron County commissioners court meeting.

Commissioners voted three to one to allow the project to move forward.

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They approved a beachfront construction certificate and a dune protection permit. The SpaceX facility would cover 1.66 acres of developed area.

"I think the Cameron County commissioners were wrong to grant a construction certificate for the air separator unit; it's not necessary," Basaldu said.

Currently, around 200 trailers deliver liquid gas through the highway for every launch. That would end once the plant is built and in operation.

"What they're allowed to do right now, is just to move sand within that critical area that they marked in their application, and they are limited to the volume of sand that they are going to impact," Cameron County Resilience and Natural Resources Director Augusto Sanchez Gonzalez said.

Records show the facility will permanently impact 7,700 square feet of dune vegetation and 465 cubic yards of dunes. SpaceX's plan to lessen it shows the impact at 865 square feet of dune vegetation and 20 cubic yards of dunes.

Cameron County says they will monitor their project and the impact to the dunes, which are a natural defense against storm surge.

Gonzalez says SpaceX would need to follow certain regulations.

"There's mitigation requirements. Those fines that are going to be permanently impacted, they need to be rebuilt in the vicinity of the project," Gonzalez said.

County commissioners only approved the beachfront certificate and dune protection permit. A building permit will still need to be issued by Starbase city leaders.

Channel 5 News has reached out to Starbase city leaders for comment but have not heard back.