Downtown District

A Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes an excellent point.  Downtown Fort Worth isn't a congressional district.  It's part of one.  Don't show up in the rest of the district asking for our money to dump into our river.  Pay attention. 

Seeking attention

The Sunday article about Rep. Kay Granger gave much information about her international activities. I wish she would do as much in her own district, which is not just Fort Worth. The Tarrant County portion of her district, before redistricting, has 14 percent of the area and 79 percent of the population.

If you go by her own claim for appropriations in 2010, 61 percent was spent in Fort Worth and 4 percent in Parker County, with the rest being national or regional. Most of the Parker County spending went to a company that does business outside the county. Wise County got nothing. I got appropriations information from her website but can no longer find that link.

Granger does come to Parker County to raise money. With 86 percent of the area and 21 percent of the population, Parker and Wise counties would like to have more than 4 percent of the attention.

-- Darrel Behrens, Aledo

"Texas math" and water

Incoming from Parker County...Alpha Particles in YOUR water.  The map above shows the water source, which is now surrounded by gas drilling.  (Multiple wells per red dot).

People come here daily searching Parker County water.  That should be the first sign.  The second is when the agency supposed to be regulating it uses "Texas Math" to determine the danger.

Several Parker County residents received the TCEQ form letter this week telling them their water contains radiation.  They say it's not dangerous.  If the math is fuzzy, and with their history, do YOU believe them? 

By the way, those mailers don't go to everyone. At the bottom of the TCEQ form letter it states -

"Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools and businesses).

Feel better?

KHOU did a story on this last year.  

KHOU: “Do you think the ‘Average Joe’ knows there's radiation in the water?”
GOODALL: “Well I can't speak for the ‘Average Joe’ but I know that we sent out mailers.”

Texas officials charged with protecting the environment and public health have for years made arbitrary subtractions to the measured levels of radiation delivered by water utilities across the state, according to a series of investigative reports out of Houston.

Those subtractions, based on the test results' margin of error, made all the difference for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ): without the reduction, demonstrated levels of dangerous radiation would have been in excess of federal limits for years.

This was being done in direct contravention of an order by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which told state regulators in 2000 to stop subtracting the margin of error.

Wonder what the margin of error is in Parker County water?

Thank YOU!

To PFC Austin Staggs for making the ultimate sacrafice for our freedom.  And for those who rode and stood guard over his family and service Saturday.

Texas Lonestar salutes you all.

Where does YOUR water come from?

If you live around here, the Trinity Aquifer.  What happens if that gets contaminated? 

You can bet the first thing that will happen is "someone" will deny any involvement.

Read the latest on the Parker County water contamination EPA dealings in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

How much was YOUR royalty check this month?

In the next two months, the order says, Range must identify any "gas flow pathways to the Trinity Aquifer," eliminate those flows if possible and conduct remediation if the aquifer has been harmed.