If early voting tells us anything...

It tells us they bought YOU.  Hook, line and sinker. 

Did you go anywhere that you didn't see a politician or Nolan Ryan (!) spouting off about Prop 6?

If it was truly about water, would they really need to go that far?  Spend that much?  Wouldn't EVERYONE vote for a water bill about water?

We hope the politicians who just profited from buying you are good stewards of the funds and the water supply.  They've all done such good work with that in the past...

Hey, it worked for the Tarrant Regional Water District...

No response

No surprise.

This attorney wouldn't call the FW Weekly back.  WHY not?

Call and ask him.  Check on the status of YOUR First Amendment rights.

And back up a Texas Hero while you're at it. 

Is there an attorney in the house?

Read about TXSharon and Range Resources on the Fort Worth Weekly.com.  They have the digits.

Bursting their bubble

As soon as the Rolling Stone article hit the street, the standard responses from the industry started rolling in. 

We've seen it before. 

What's different about this "news"?  The Rolling Stone chose to answer back.  Point by point.  Read the entire article.  The closing is not to be missed.  Bravo.

Keep on rockin'.

The company entirely dodges the article’s central point: that Chesapeake is highly-leveraged firm operated by a corporate gambler who engaged in complex scheme to profit off the illusion that America has a virtually unlimited supply of cheap natural gas.
But when it came time to answer more substantial questions, all traces of transparency vanished. A quick example: I asked Chesapeake three times to provide me with a statistic for the total volume of dirty flowback water the company handled in the Marcellus Shale region last year. I got no answer.

Even more disturbing, when I asked McClendon directly if he or his company had contributed any money to presidential candidates or their PACs during the current campaign, he said flatly that they had not. This was curious to me, because McClendon has a long history of making campaign donations, and often encourages others in the industry to give to PACs as a way to make sure their voices are heard.   So I asked him again in email a few days later: The answer was still "no." A week later, a researcher at Rolling Stone discovered that Chesapeake had indeed contributed $250,000 to Rick Perry's campaign last fall. When I asked Kehs about this, he admitted it was true. Apparently McClendon operates in a world where a quarter million dollar campaign contribution can just slip one’s mind. 

Texas Vs. Oklahoma

Politex quoted an Associated Press article concerning the Tarrant Regional Water District and their lawsuit against Oklahoma to take their water.

The same Tarrant Regional Water District that is committing you to a billion dollar economic development project and just voted to give themselves another year in office.

Seems THE PEOPLE in Oklahoma may get to vote on what their state does with their water.  What a concept.

And what do you know?  The Fort Worth Way doesn't work across state lines.

Ellis, who is based in water-rich Southeastern Oklahoma has been one of the most vocal opponents of water sales to Texas and said the future of Oklahoma water should not be decided in private meetings between politicians and Texans.

Read more here: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/politex/2012/01/bill-would-give-oklahomans-the-right-to-vote-on-any-texas-water-sale.html#storylink=cpy

Water Boarding 3-2

Earlier we told you the Tarrant Regional Water District held a vote to give them themselves another year in office.

Wouldn't it be a conflict of interest for someone to vote on extending their own term?  You know, even in Fort Worth?

Kudos to Jim Lane and Hal Sparks for possibly making history on a TRWD vote.  Even the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noticed.

But the water board, which historically has been known for casting unanimous votes, was split on the issue.

Sparks said he felt like he made an agreement with voters to serve four years when he was elected and voted his conscience on the issue.

Does that mean the other board members don't have one?

All the newspapers...

Are finally talking about the Tim Love Woodshed deal, part of the Trinity River Vision.  (Which means more finger pointing and story changing).

The other restaurant owners in town are wishing the "news" would have done so sooner. (Kind of like the tubers of the Trinity Rockin the River events wish the "news" would have tested the water sooner).  What will all the businesses in Fort Worth say when the Trinity River Vision promotes their own over the current, established ones?

Check out the Fort Worth Business Press article.  Is it just us or do some of the answers given by J.D. Granger and Jim Lane sound different than the ones they gave in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram just a little over a week ago? Last week, neither J.D. or Love could remember WHO asked whom.  Read the latest below.  Jim Lane told the S-T that the Tarrant Regional Water District board voted on it...now it's clear, no one voted on it.

Lane compares the Trinity River Vision to Lockheed Martin and Alliance Airport.  Apples and oranges.

The Trinity River Vision is all taxpayer funded (that's YOU) and has nothing to do with defense (aside from "news" articles) or planes. Nice try though.

And someone please tell these boys, this ain't San Antonio. 

After behind-the-scenes negotiations, without public input or competitive bidding, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) has spent $970,000 of public money to build a restaurant near a popular trail head along the Trinity River. Along the way, the Water District signed a 10-year lease with celebrity chef Tim Love to run it, without a competitive bidding process.

The lease was drafted and approved by Ken Brummett, the water district’s general counsel, but not voted on by the district’s board.

TRVA Executive Director J.D. Granger, who helped search for a tenant for the restaurant, said Love proposed the profit-sharing lease rather than a standard rent agreement because fixed rents often cause problems for open-air, climate-sensitive venues.

The behind-the-scenes negotiations with Love and the terms of the lease, not to mention the lack of competitive bidding, aren’t doing much to change critics’ views that the water district is more interested in creating an economic windfall for downtown developers via the TRV than it is in doing its real job of finding new sources of water for a rapidly growing population, preserving current resources and managing flood control projects, says Clyde Picht, a former city councilman who ran for the water board opposing the Trinity River Vision plan.

___________________________________________

The Fort Worth Business Journal  "Water District takes heat over no-bid lease deal"article  also makes note of the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP) award winning documentary, Up a Creek. 

Texas Women

Have been kicking butt and taking names this week, literally.

The League of Women Voters in Tarrant County have been asking questions.

Teri Hall's TURF helped defeat Proposition 4.  (Too bad THE PEOPLE didn't read the other Props).

WHO issued a warning about Prop 2?  (Not just Texas Lone Star)  Debra Medina.

"Rather than providing solutions to the water needs facing Texas, the additional debt imposed on Texans by Prop 2 compounds the problem," warned Debra Medina, Founder, We Texans. "InfrastructureTexas.org put out information playing on voters' fears about the drought and wildfires. Many Texans believed this money was going to fund needed water projects with no cost to them. H204Texas PAC put out an email saying Prop 2 would cost the taxpayers NOTHING. But we know better and we'll be watching TWDB's every move to ensure taxpayers and Texans' water rights are protected."

And TXSharon's tapes from the gas drilling conference made CNBC.  She has "16 hours of tape".

Texas Women, you gotta love them.

Water is priceless

WHAT will it cost YOU?

A letter from a Fort Worth resident to the City Council.

We're on the edge of our seat, awaiting their response.

For years the Gas Drilling Industry has  assured you and me that drilling is perfectly safe and the aquifers are 100% protected from the industry contaminating them.

What if they are wrong?  

Fort Worth Mayor and City Council

There are very few aquifers in this area and if one or more is contaminated where do we get water to drink?  There is not an answer for that.  We don't have extra water sources and even the ones we have now are depleted to a dangerous low.  If an aquifer is contaminated, will the drilling company supply us with water to drink, bath and wash our cars?  That is not very likely, in fact they will stall and remind everyone that the gas drilling industry is protected by the U.S. Government, because they (the gas drilling industry) are exempt from the clean air and water act.  Right now our political leaders are taking risks with our water supply without a back-up plan with absolutely no alternate plan for the residents.

Back to my original question, what if the Industry is wrong?  It seems they are wrong more and more often and this isn't something that can be fixed.   Of course their response is always the same, well, there isn't any documented proof.  The industry says it wont happen.

The EPA has proof it has already happened. 

Human error occurs, mechanical things wear out and break, earthquakes happen, lightening and tornadoes happen, companies take short-cuts.  Things happen.

Once an aquifer is contaminated with drilling chemicals that contain cancer causing compounds the aquifer is destroyed.  There is no fix, there is no re-do and, I am sorry from politicians will not be acceptable.

There are three things that are absolute needs for humans, one is air, then water along with food, which also requires water and air.

There is only one water and there is no replacement..  We must protect it at all cost, because Water is priceless.

Remember Colorado?

We were forwarded a link to an article on Oilprice.com today, U.S. Government Confirms link between Earthquakes and Hydraulic Fracturing.

Mind you, they confirmed it in the 60s...

So what happens when the government says it is and the industry says it ain't?  WHO wins?

It ain't YOU.

We'll keep the readers comment attached, it was a pretty creative way of putting it.

(Oilprice) seems like an unlikely web site to be delivering the truth – but there it is – how ironic  … it takes a “quake” to send the message to Washington – that would have been the last thing I would have guessed a few years ago.  God help us if Rick “Secede” Perry gets anywhere near the White House. He will blame “Mother Earth” for not doing its patriotic duty and having the nerve to “burp” while being “water boarded”.

 

While polluting a local community’s water supply is a local tragedy barely heard inside the Beltway, an earthquake ranging from Oklahoma to Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Texas is an issue that might yet shake voters out of their torpor, and national elections are slightly less than a year away

Don't miss the article.  What do they say about history repeating itself? 

Is YOUR aquifer next?

Fracking chemicals found in Wyoming aquifer. 

Once you destroy an aquifer, how do you fix it?

Once you're out of water, what's next?

What's the plan?

Oh that's right, there ain't one.

Where's the water?  THEY don't know.

WHO is they? YOUR water planners. 

Read about the latest in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

An Austin judge's opinion is the latest wrinkle in the Metroplex's quest for a long-term water source.

State District Judge Gisela D. Triana issued a preliminary ruling last week signaling that a state agency will have to resolve a dispute between two regional water planning groups over whether to build the Marvin Nichols reservoir in Northeast Texas.

The Dallas-Fort Worth planning group has the reservoir in its long-term plans; the Northeast Texas group does not.

Siding with landowners, Triana said the Texas Water Development Board should mediate or resolve which plan is used in the state's master plan for meeting water needs for 50 years.

The Northeast Texas property owners want the Metroplex to explore other options for water. But the area has had setbacks in other initiatives.

Notably, last month the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from the Tarrant Regional Water District to rehear its lawsuit to obtain water from Oklahoma. That leaves the district to decide whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. It has until Jan 19 to decide.

"We want to know with far greater clarity what our options are by 2015," said Wayne Owen, Tarrant Regional's planning director.

Area water providers say they are open to the idea, but it will require an Army Corps of Engineers study that has not been fully funded.

WHAT water?

The Trinity River Vision (Distraction) has the Tarrant Regional Water District all tied up in Fort Worth.  Watch a couple of minutes of video from the Trinity River Talk that TRIP held this week. John Basham explains that Region C (that's us) is out of water.  What happens to a city that runs out of water?  What happens if that city is already in debt? What happens to the rest of the county?  WHO's next?

If there ain't no water, there ain't no jobs.

What does the "news" paper say?

Fort Worth road not getting repaired.

"Fort Worth remains way behind on road repairs"

But not to worry.  As of August 23, the Trinity River Vision was right on schedule.  And only a million more.

WHAT happened to the gamble that was taken with YOUR money?  WHAT will happen with the next one?  WHICH one is a priority to YOU?

Of that money, more than $32 million was first approved by voters about seven years ago.

Why wasn't the money spent? City officials say they hung onto tens of millions in an attempt to grab federal stimulus money -- yet didn't know what work, if any, would qualify. In the end, almost all those projects failed to pan out, leaving neighborhood streets and thoroughfares broken despite voter approval of bonds to pay to fix them.

The explanations go on: inadequate debt capacity, a slowdown in projects due to the recession and a lack of accountability within the Transportation & Public Works Department. And, city officials say, the staff didn't push hard enough to get the job done.

"Reports coming through management were lax. Accountability was a major issue. The focus was not there," Councilman Jungus Jordan said.

Another Twisted Tale....

Concerning water, dams, the Corp of Engineers, gas drillers, and city councils...

Hey, Fort Worth, do you see a pattern yet?

Wake up already. 

Check it out on the Westchester Gasette.

Chesapeake's Corn Valley Pad Site was administratively permitted by the City of Grand Prairie in the summer of 2010 with very little fanfare ~ even though it was clearly within the 3,000 foot Zone of Exclusion ~ as  defined by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ~ with their 1996 publication:  Texas Resource Management Plan and Record of Decision.  This publication defines the Rules going forward for oil and gas drilling activity near the dams and lakes under United States Army Corps of Engineers' jurisdiction.

Two Years Earlier: 2008

On July 15, 2008, Shale gas operator XTO said the following to Grand Prairie, TX City Council (during a Public Hearing about XTO's Lynn Unit):

"...The Corps of Engineers is aware of this activity based on an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management on this property."

~ Walter Dueease, XTO, July 15, 2008

$3,767,522

Marvin Nichols Reservoir

That's what the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is reporting the Tarrant Regional Water District lawsuit against Oklahoma cost the taxpayers.  Don't forget the $889,890 paid to 8 Oklahoma lobbyist.

Their back up plan?  They still claim the Marvin Nichols Reservoir.  Remember, folks that told you this lawsuit wouldn't work, also said Marvin Nichols wouldn't either.  Those people in that part of the state don't take kindly to the big city folk taking what they've worked their entire lives for. And they have environmental concerns.  It ain't Tarrant County.

But after a ruling Wednesday by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of Oklahoma, the district appears no closer to getting water from north of the Red River than it was when it started the costly legal battle in 2007.

Judging by the comments from district officials after the ruling, they may be thinking about changing course.

General Manager Jim Oliver said last week that the lawsuit was "only one possible path to an agreement -- and quite frankly -- not the preferred path in our view."

The district board is tentatively scheduled to meet next week to discuss the matter, but board member Hal Sparks said it's premature to say what the board might do.

Waging the lawsuit hasn't been cheap: The district has paid $3,767,522 in legal fees to two law firms and $889,890 to eight Oklahoma lobbyists. At the end of the case those costs will be shared with the other parties in the lawsuit: Dallas Water Utilities, North Texas Municipal Water District and the Upper Trinity Regional Water District.

If Oklahoma water isn't an option, it will likely speed up the use of water from the Sulphur River Basin in Northeast Texas. Among the possibilities are building the controversial Marvin Nichols reservoir or raising the level of Wright Patman Lake in Northeast Texas. A multiyear feasibility study of the basin with the Sulphur River Basin Authority is still being conducted.

"We're going through the permitting process right now with Lower Bois D'Arc reservoir," Hickman said. "We filed five years ago and still have several years to go. One as big as Marvin Nichols would be even more difficult."

And there's the uncertainty of political opposition.

When Dallas tried to build Lake Fastrill along the Neches River in East Texas, environmentalists rallied against it. They eventually won when the area was designated a national wildlife refuge. Now Dallas is re-evaluating its long-term water plan. But Dennis Qualls, a senior engineer with Dallas Water Utilities, said officials there know that anything that includes new reservoirs is far from a sure thing.

What now?

What happens when your plan to supply water for millions of people hinges on suing your neighboring state, and you lose?

Ask the Tarrant Regional Water District.
Ask them how much that cost YOU.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Tarrant Regional Water District suffered another blow in its lengthy legal battle to obtain water from Oklahoma on Wednesday as the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that has the little-known Red River Compact protects the Sooner State from any claims on its surface water.

"It's disappointing," said Tarrant Regional's General Manager Jim Oliver who said the water district will continue to explore its options. The water district could ask for a rehearing before the 10th Circuit, file a writ with the Supreme Court or simply accept the court's decision.

In its ruling, the 10th Circuit said "we hold that the Red River Compact insulates Oklahoma water statutes" from a legal challenge.

At the same time, the district sued the Oklahoma Water Resources Board and the Oklahoma Water Conservation Storage Commission to keep its permit applications from being dismissed while the matter was in court.

In July 2010, an Oklahoma federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, but the water district appealed the case to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

History Lesson

Read the Letter to the Editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

YOU can't afford not to.

Wasting water

Someone once said, "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!"

There is an extreme lack of drinking water throughout the world, and we in the U.S. are a wasteful water nation -- homes, lawns, industries, water parks etc. And yes, the Trinity River Vision costing millions that should be spent for water projects 10, 20 and more years coming!

Think ahead not for ourselves but our future children's children!

Not meaning to be biblical, but if the Earth once was destroyed by water could it be destroyed by a lack of water?

-- George J. Anthony, Fort Worth

Do YOUR job

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram makes a good point, we need a hero.  And a new Water District.

Cool, clear water

In his 1962 Farewell to the West Point Cadets, Gen. Douglas MacArthur sternly told them that their primary duty was to win their country's wars, that should they fail, the nation would be destroyed. To the board of the Tarrant Regional Water District, bullheadedly engaged in pursuing the moribund Trinity River Vision even while Texas is caught in the clutches of drought, I write in the vein of MacArthur's oration.

Through all the welter of change and development that has come to Fort Worth, your mandate stands out like a tenfold beacon in the night. It remains fixed, determined, inviolate -- it is to provide water.

Everything else is but corollary to this vital dedication. All other public purposes, all other public projects will find others for their accomplishment; but you are the ones who are charged with bringing cool, clear water with the sure knowledge that there is no substitute for water, and that if you fail, the city will be destroyed.

Superstar Gen. Douglas MacArthur. When cometh such another?

-- Don Woodard Sr., Fort Worth

Old News Bandwagon

For a couple of years we (and Durango) have been telling you about water being removed from the creeks and river for gas drilling purposes.  Now that we're in a drought, someone is finally paying attention.  Reminds us of local flooding issues, no one cares, till the rain starts again.

Odd how it all comes back to water.

Thanks to the Watchdog, Don Young, for getting the "news" involved. 

Check it out on CBSlocal.com

While many North Texans are being asked to conserve water during a statewide drought, three large pipelines are pulling millions of gallons of water out of the Trinity River in Fort Worth, near West Seventh Street.

Where are the pipelines taking the water? Follow them past raised sidewalk sections and roadway crossings and you will end up at a natural gas well located just outside of Trinity River Park, operated by Chesapeake Energy.

There are several more "quotes" and so called "facts" in the article, but they all made us want to say, BS. 

Congrats to TRIP!

Good example of what THE PEOPLE can do when they come together.  Read the message below from the Trinity River Improvement Partnership. 

Dear Friends of the Trinity River,

TRIP is pleased to announce that our documentary video project, Up A Creek, has been selected by the Neo-Relix Film Festival in Glen Rose, Texas. It will be shown as one of the featured programs at 2:00 Saturday, September 3rd, and at 12:00 Sunday September 4th.

Up A Creek is a story about the real dangers of flooding that exist in the Fort Worth area, and seeks to inform citizens about the misplaced priorities of our elected officials and their plans to spend close to one billion dollars of tax money to benefit the development community.

Our presentation begins with a heartbreaking, true story of flooding, tragedy, and a lack of local governmental foresight and accountability. Local critics of the Trinity River Vision Project then pick up the story and cover a wide-ranging series of topics, from eminent domain abuse to TIF financing districts, legislative manipulation, lack of local media scrutiny, where flood control is actually needed. It addresses the role of the Tarrant Regional Water District and where our local and federal tax dollars are going with this project. The video ends with a call to action, urging voters to educate themselves about the project and help TRIP to offer a more realistic alternative.

TRIP... Our Mission: Support public and civic organizations to achieve maximum balance in preserving property rights, the environment, flood control, and historical considerations, while achieving reasonable development and a clean and adequate water supply.

Please join us. Visit us at www.savethetrinityriver.org