Last night Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty won approval from the CAMPO Board (the Austin metro transportation board) to fast-track dumping 30,000 more cars on Mopac and loads more pollution into the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer. The
vote switched out $8.6 million in federal funds for state funds, with
the goal of dodging more stringent federal environmental review
standards. Thank yous go to Austin City Council members Chris Riley and Bill Spelman for voting against the scheme.
Council
member Riley's questions forced Daugherty and lame-duck Travis County
Judge Sam Biscoe to admit they are trying to lock in the "aquifer toll
road" before a new Travis County judge and county commissioner take
office next January. Biscoe stated there was an
"agreement" for Travis County to contribute $15 million, Hays County $5
million, and another $80 million or so coming from toll-backed
debt-financing by the CTRMA, our local toll road authority. Most interestingly, the county commissioner's court has never voted on such an "agreement." Read more at the Austin Statesman.
Please take a minute to send an email to our local officials urging them to oppose this aquifer paving and Mopac gridlock scheme. Limited transportation dollars should be spent solving transportation problems, not making them worse.
Common se
nse prevails in San Antonio, as San Antonio Water system staff stepped away from
proposals by private water marketers to pipe water from distant
aquifers in favor of a local, affordable and incremental approach of
drawing more brackish groundwater from southern Bexar County for
desalination. Thanks go to SAWS President Robert Puente for the move.
nse prevails in San Antonio, as San Antonio Water system staff stepped away from
proposals by private water marketers to pipe water from distant
aquifers in favor of a local, affordable and incremental approach of
drawing more brackish groundwater from southern Bexar County for
desalination. Thanks go to SAWS President Robert Puente for the move.
Environmental,
civic, and other groups, including SOS Alliance, actively opposed one
of the proposals - to pipe up to 50,000 acre-feet per year of
groundwater from Kinney and Val Verde counties. That proposal would have directly threatened San Felipe Springs in Del Rio, and Las Moras and Pinto springs in Kinney County. One
of the other nixed proposals, from Spanish construction giant Abengoa
and their local subsidiary, BlueWaterTx, would have piped groundwater
all the way from Lee County, east of Austin, to San Antonio. Austin's water utility also has been secretly negotiating with BlueWaterTx to buy supplemental water for Austin. Building a water efficient economy remains only affordable, reliable, and environmental responsible choice for
meeting our water needs. cheapest, most reliable
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