About a 15-minute drive from Sharpe's place, small traffic jams of homeowners and water haulers have formed in front of the bulk water collection center in downtown Dripping Springs
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From the Statesman
By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Recent photo of Lake Travis looking across
to where Johnny Fins should be/Localism.com
to where Johnny Fins should be/Localism.com
Read the whole story hereThe San Antonio Water System filed suit Monday against the Lower Colorado River Authority for $1.23 billion after the implosion of a massive water-sharing deal months ago.
The suit, filed in Travis County District Court, accuses the LCRA of a breach of contract that deprived San Antonio of water. The suit claims the river authority killed the project to keep water in its basin for lucrative power plant deals.
The LCRA denies the claims.
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By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The drought has gotten so bad in the Hill Country that when the twin grandchildren of Bob Sharpe visit his place near Nutty Brown Road, they have to take an outdoor "cowboy shower" by having grandmother Sue Sharpe dump water on them from a bucket.For three months, his well has been dry, so several times a day, Bob Sharpe steers his blue Chevy pickup to the nearby Cedar Valley Grocery, which gets its water from a Colorado River pipeline, to fill his 200-gallon plastic tank, plus a dozen emptied Newman's Own grape juice jugs strewn across the truck bed.
This drought marks the first time he has faced water problems, said Sharpe, who has lived on the property since 1981. He uses the hauled-in water for his vegetable garden, to flush toilets and do dishes, and to keep the lining of his swimming pool from drying out.
4 comments:
Perhaps the great people of San Antonio should be made aware that the single largest waster of water of the Edwards Aquifer is...ta da!...Aqua Texas. The Briscoe and H.B. Zachary families (big time campaign contributors to Rose and Wentworth) own vast lands over the Edwards Aquifer. They sell the water under their land (and more than likely their neighbors lands) to Aqua Texas and other for-profit water profiteers. Make no mistake these two families are raking in huge profits and loving this drought! Maybe this explains why Rose and Wentworth do nothing to represent and protect the interests of their constituents. They are too busy carrying the water for these water barons.
Aqua Texas must be extricated from our region. How very unfortunate it is that our valley somehow attracted these water snakes.
Most every water system around us is municipally owned and operated – profit is not their main motivation. AQUA MUST GO! They are wasting our water and sticking their customers with Draconian rates and below par service.
Woodcreek city council will need the support of everyone, especially Woodcreek residents, to lose these guys in 2011 when their service contract expires. Day by day, Aqua is expanding its presence around Woodcreek and Wimberley thereby tightening its grip and making their franchise all the more valuable and outside Woodcreek's reach to purchase and take over.
Why any self-respecting community would permit such obvious cunning and bullying is beyond my comprehension. Aqua should be held to account. And so should Rose and Wentworth if they are partners in enabling it all.
I agree. Get rid of Aqua Texas, and let everybody in Woodcreek drill their own well.
Ooh, ooh...Or NOT drill their own well, and live on rainwater catchment.
Anybody idiot enough to have bought into that situation deserves what they got.
Aqua -Texas is able to buy (take over) small municipal water suppliers because the owners can’t or won’t operate them properly. Most small town governments are too lazy, incompetent or corrupt to effectively serve utilities to their towns and villages. That coupled with daily changes in laws and regulations from above, make the scenario one of impossibility. Bottom line is that a corrupt and incompetent private company moves in and skins the people. Of course Aqua has the added benefit of having the TCEQ (their controlling govt. entity) in their pocket. I am told that Brent Reeh, area manager for Aqua-Texas Region 11 is married to Patty Reeh, Regional Director of the TCEQ Region 11. Where is the Attorney General of Texas on this one?
If they kick Aqua out, who's gonna run the thing? This my firends is a perfect conundrum.
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