Big Bend Gazette :: letters to the editor (June 2009)

As you may or may not know the legislation (HB 3335) that was passed by the Senate which created an amendment to create Lajitas Municipal District was killed by the House last night at 11:59 p.m. The Senate bill contained an amendment related to a ground water study in another county that received a great deal of opposition. While the sponsor was willing to remove that amendment it was too late. At least 7 house members filed objections to hearing the final passage of the bill by the house which in effect killed the bill and all its amendments.

While this is very disappointing for us we are going forward.

In the next few weeks we will file with TCEQ relevant documents for creation of Lajitas Municipal District, while TCEQ can only grant certain powers and authorities and this would be a stripped down version of the district we can at least create the district and then once the legislature is in session again go back to them to expand the powers and authorities of the district.

Edwin W. Leslie, CHA
President & CEO
Lajitas Resort & Spa

The Big Bend is known for many folks who march to their own drummer. One such was Elizabeth McBride who left this life this past week. We celebrate Elizabeth and give thanks for all she taught us. Rest in peace, friend.

Dallas Baxter
Alpine

Since water is more important than oil or gas I have followed the claims and counter claims over HB 811 with great interest. A recent article in The Texas Observer addressed the issue in regards to the Trinity Aquifer in the Hill Country. The article talks about projected ground water deficits on a statewide basis and " If the aquifers decline, they take the springs, seeps, streams, rivers, and lakes with them." The myth that ground water exists in discrete unconnected pockets with no connection to surface water dies hard.

Referring to ground water districts the article states that "The districts are supposed to be all that stands in the way of the rule of capture, the unique Texas law that essentially says you can pump as much water as you like, your neighbor’s well or stream be damned. If you can pump it, it’s yours."

We have a choice in West Texas. Are we going to let the public be damned philosophy prevail while commercial interests take our groundwater as Clayton Williams proposes for Midland, and as an oil and gas services firm proposes for 864,000 gallons of Brewster County water? Or are we going to conserve our groundwater for the benefit of all our citizens?

It is extremely short sighted and wrong for the community of Alpine to seek to perpetuate it's exemption from the rules. The more Alpine takes the less there will be for those who depend on their own wells and natural sources of water. It will also mean less interest in, or pressure to more efficiently use our limited supplies of water. By the time operators like Williams and the oil and gas industry sink their deeper and larger wells even Alpine's wells may start to have problems. We need strong regulations on the pumping of ground water that will preserve and protect one of our most precious resources. If we have to pay for it so be it. Even clean air is no longer free.

Roger Siglin
Alpine

I would like to thank the Sul Ross Search Committee on a job well done. You have kept the Alpine Community in the dark on your search for a new university president.

To the search Committee Chairman Trish Pollard: thank you for spending a few days in Alpine only to speak with a local civic group; but, for not allowing those citizens that perhaps don’t belong to a specific group have an input into the decisions made by your committee. I’m sure you kept a select few in the loop of information.

I suppose after the committee decides who the new president will be and is hired by the Regents then we as a community maybe allowed to a question or two.

So thank you Board of Regents for the transparence you promised the Alpine Community and for those many updates you so diligently kept on the university’s web page. You have succeeded in keeping a community that helps fund a state public school uninformed.

Clarence Russeau
Alpine

I’ve mostly been watching the economic chaos, with all manner of monetary-policy foolishness at work and the TPTB doing their best to bankrupt the country. Sulking on my porch, clutching my guns and Bible. But, that’s how it is when you’re a right-wing extremist. Hope all’s well in your world.

Okay, my rant to the editor:

It’s been settled by Congress as to our carrying concealed handguns in national parks. The usual suspects have been decrying the incredible hazards thereof. This in turns raises some questions on my part.

The great and sovereign state of Texas has determined that the public is in no way endangered by my having a permit to carry a concealed handgun. Therefore, there must be some causal relationship between national parks and nutzoidal behavior, if I am indeed a hazard to those without any means of their own defense.

The question, then, is: Is there something in the air of a national park which would drive me over the edge? Or, in the water? It can’t be the scenery, as I live within sight of Big Bend National Park and look at it on a daily basis. Somebody please explain why I might suddenly change from a friendly Clark Kent into an irrational and vicious version of Superman?

I seek enlightenment.

Art Eatman
Terlingua

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who supported my campaign for the ward 5 Alpine City Council seat. It was humbling to speak with so many folks who agreed that Alpine citizens can indeed determine a better future for our town. All of the volunteer time, money, advice and assistance I received were a reminder of the spirit that makes Alpine unique.

The future is knocking on our door right now, and we as a community must decide how we will answer.

Alpine has unique resources, from our unspoiled small town charm, to our solar and wind energy potential, to our academic institutions and more. We are at a crossroads where the groundwork can be laid for new ideas and possibilities that will benefit our entire community for decades to come.

I hope that our new and returning city council members and the committee searching for the next Sul Ross president will consider these possibilities in making their decisions. It’s not unreasonable to see Alpine as a renewable energy research hub in the future, or a town where electric and natural gas vehicles are the norm. Nor is it improbable to think that our kids could graduate from high school with practical expertise in renewable energy systems or other trades to their credit.

Our community spirit demands that we talk to our decision makers and allow them to see the problems they’re asked to solve and the opportunities before them from many different perspectives. We can chart a future that uplifts our entire community and create broad prosperity, but we must recognize that the effort required falls to citizens as well as their officials.

Alpine’s future is worth the effort.

Peter A. Smyke
Alpine