Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Dallas Morning News

All these years, and they are still reporting news. 

They are interested in what's happening with Tarrant County water.  WHERE is YOUR paper?

We noticed some familiar names in the article.  Do YOU? 

The article mentions the Tarrant Regional Water District supplies water to 1.7 million.  With all the Trinity River Vision distractions, we thought they might have forgot.

Which would you rather have, a water supply or more development?

Arlington vote on permanent water restrictions on hold, at least for now

A top official at the Tarrant Regional Water District said consumption has to go down among its largest customers.

“We do need everyone to come up to that conservation level [so] that we can delay construction of a new project,” said Linda Christie, the water district’s community and government relations director. “They’ll have to come up with a way to reach the conservation level that’s necessary.”

Christie wouldn’t speculate about how the water district might react if Arlington couldn’t or wouldn’t reduce its demand. She only said she was confident that the city — which uses about 18 percent of the district’s water — would find ways to conserve. The district supplies about 1.7 million people with water.

“We haven’t reached that bridge yet,” she said. “If we have to make a decision, we will.”

The goal, they said, was to delay the expensive and inevitable expansion of the water supply for a growing region.

Christie said the delay allows water suppliers to pay down their debt before having to spend millions or even billions for new pipelines and reservoirs.The city of Irving and the Tarrant water district have also faced major legal setbacks in their efforts to acquire new water supplies from Oklahoma.

“Even though we’re up here talking about it, it might not work,” Cluck said, summarizing the mayors’ consensus. “There could be a city council or two or three that would not support it.”

He said he was unaware there was significant opposition on the council until it was too late.

“I didn’t really pick up on that until the day of the meeting,” he said. “I was shocked, however, when we had a motion to approve it and couldn’t get a second.”

 Kelly Canon, an Arlington Tea Party activist who helped organize opposition Tuesday, said the mayors had already decided on these rules and held their news conference before consulting with their councils or the public. She said conservatives in Arlington have been fighting against efforts to “shove” smart meters, hike and bike trails and other projects “down our throats.”

Acknowledging that the water supply is a critical issue, Canon said she would favor an expanded tier system that would charge more for larger water users. She said that would raise more money to expand supply, while giving customers an incentive to save water.

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