Tuesday, December 17, 2013

And the largest water boondoggle in the U.S. is...

What else? The Trinity River Vision.

We didn't read the article (you can here on the FW Biz Press) we read Clyde's take on it and the title.

That's all we needed to know.

Jack Z Smith got it part right. The IPL project is BIG, EXPENSIVE, and pumps a lot of water to Dallas and Tarrant counties in the distant future - or does it? Maybe Mr. Smith should go to Washington (DC) as he seems to like big everything and a lot of spending, your money of course. Apparently Mr Smith hasn't read TRWD's own documents. A couple of salient quotes therefrom would seem to say that Dallas would indeed get a lot of water at our expense but that the $2.3B pipeline would only provide water to Fort Worth in emergencies, and then only if Dallas didn't need the water. From the TRWD IPL study:" Therefore, the study recommended that TRWD tap into Lake Palestine only for maintenance activities when part of TWRD’s (sic) supply is off line or under emergency conditions (such as a pump station failure), when Dallas does not have a need for that water." Somehow that doesn't sound like water flowing from Fort Worth taps.

And then there's this quote from the IPL study: "It was not deemed practical for TRWD to use Lake Palestine except for in extreme emergencies or to compensate for the unavailability of water due to infrastructure failure or maintenance. Lake Palestine is further away than Cedar Creek and Richland-Chambers and is more expensive to pump. Under severe drought conditions which would warrant TRWD needing that water, it is almost certain that Dallas would need it too, and likely at full capacity (this was confirmed with modeling). Hence, TRWD utilizing the water would increase the risk of shortages for Dallas. Therefore, it is recommended that TRWD not plan to use Lake Palestine unless one of its own sources is cut off or restricted."

Golly, Mr Smith, that almost sounds like we'll help foot a billion plus dollar pipeline and get nary a drop of water for our very, very, big financial investment. Not to worry though, for every cloud there's a silver lining. Maybe ours is that at least while we finance water for Dallas we'll get the Trinity River Vision for about the same price! Can you say Restaurant, Ice Rink, Drive in movie, Wake-board park, and Kay and JD Granger's pipe dream?

Write this on your bathroom wall: When it's yellow, let it mellow; when it's brown, flush it down.

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