Tonight I attended a meeting, “What is a Ground Water Conservation District,” sponsored by the Wise County office of the Cooperative Extension. Dr. Bruce Lesikar, an Extension ag engineer, discussed the Upper Trinity Ground Water Conservation District (UTGCD) that will be on the ballot in November and that has been crafted to Wise County residents’ best advantage versus the standard Chapter 36 Ground Water Conservation District that we will be force into and which will give us considerably less control. It was clear that most Wise County residents still don’t understand so I’m going to type the following very slowly:
1. Vote for the Upper Trinity Ground Water Conservation District that will be on November’s ballot and that groups us with Hood, Parker and Montague Counties.
OR
2. Let the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) form a GCD for us where we will be lumped in with about 11 counties including the Metroplex Counties.
Wise County has been identified as a Priority Groundwater Management Area.
Better to have some control and the added benefits provided by the Upper Trinity Ground Water Conservation District.
I was sickened by the attitude of some of the attendees. They are all for regulating their neighbor’s water but not theirs. The people who sat next to me and who own a large ranch on the north side of 455 just east of 730 but who shall remain nameless, have a well that pumps 50 gallons of water per minute to fill up their pond. They are concerned they might have to give that up. In the meantime, their neighbor’s wells go dry. Tensions are high and the potential for people to hurt each other is great.
We are all going to have to learn to conserve.
I will provide more details regarding the GCD at a later time.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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Saw a piece on BBC America today about how the cost of wheat has gone up 20% in the last year, in part because of Bush’s insistence that we start moving towards biofuels. What kind of world do these people live in? Do they not understand that this just puts greater strain on our land and water resources? But, you see, that way, they can provide people the comfortable illusion that we can continue to use (and waste!) huge amounts of energy…we just get it somewhere beside oil.
I still run into people all the time who think even the mildest conservation members are some kind of a liberal plot…and people like my neighbor, who two years ago, during stringent water restrictions due to the drought, had no problem with his kids running a hose for hours during their pool party.
Incredible, just incredible.
Thanks, Sharon, for all your efforts1
I was sitting right next to the people with the 50 gallon per barrel well that is used to fill their large stock pond. I almost decked them and they knew that I was not a fan.
They aren’t the only ones though. There is a guy right up 730 from me who does the same.