What Water Shortage - Part 2

As if to prove our point, the Star-Telegram has an article about water this morning.  Is it about the concerns for our water supply?  Nope, it's a another propaganda piece from none other than Bill Hanna, telling you it's safe to swim in the river.

Even though there have been many reports that the Trinity River in Tarrant County is the most polluted portion of the river, and the article itself points out that a certain percentage of the water testing has been over its limit of pollutants, it's still safe.  It would be funny, if it weren't so serious.

Someone ask Bill Hanna how much of a kick back he gets from the Tarrant Regional Water District and the Trinity River Vision Authority.  Inquiring minds want to know.

Andrew Sansom, the guy who said it's safe also says, "The biggest issues today in water quality are what we call nonpoint sources -- those are parking lots, highways runoff and agricultural sources -- things that are not coming from a pipe," Sansom said. "When it storms, everything just washes into the river or streams and we don't have an adequate means of protecting it."  He also said it should be tested weekly.

On the Clear Fork, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's 2010 Integrated Report showed an average of 116 E. coli colonies per 100 milliliters -- just below the state standard of 126 colonies per 100 milliliters. That was based on 67 samples.


In defending water recreation in the Trinity, city leaders and the water district have said most high bacteria events are triggered by floods or heavy storm-water runoff.

Under the old federal standards, if 25 percent of the samples exceeded the 126 level, that could also trigger regulatory action, Sullivan said. A study for the TCEQ estimated eight in 1,000 swimmers would get sick at the 126 level.

Over a nine-year-period, the City of Fort Worth's monthly sampling at Beach Street found 27 samples out of 120 that exceeded the 126 standard. At its Fourth Street sampling station, 23 out of 120 exceeded it. In the water district's quarterly samples at Beach Street, four of the 34 samples exceeded the state standard, and at Fourth Street, three out of 34 samples were above the 126 threshold.