Last year, water use became a serious issue in Parker and several other North Texas counties, when it was learned that ground water levels are dropping in the Trinity and Pawluxy aquifers. It has gotten so bad that some residents are reporting that their water wells are drying up.
The Texas Commission on Enviornmental Quality thinks the issue is critical enough that they recently included Parker county in a "priority" area with 13 other counties. They threatened state action if the counties didn't create water districts to regulate water use.
Phil King, the Republican representative from Parker county, has taken action - sort of. He is sponsoring a bill to create a water district that would include Parker, Wise, Montague and Hood counties. This would be a step in the right direction if it didn't exclude some of the worst water use offenders from regulation.
Under King's proposal, the oil & gas industry could continue to waste millions of gallons of ground water while the residents and other businesses in these counties would be subject to water use regulations. It shows how powerful the oil & gas industry is in Texas. King's legislative aide, Clinton Quisenberry, said the measure would not pass in the legislature if oil & gas interests were included in the water monitoring.
This is a serious matter. Many parts of Texas are starting to experience water problems, and with the greenhouse effect starting to cause global climactic changes, the problem will only get worse. According to the U.N. report released yesterday, Texas will be subject to increasingly hotter summers, with longer & more severe droughts.
With the rapid growth of business and population, it will not be long before Texas as a whole faces a critical water shortage. Sadly, our Republican state government, having sold out to the oil & gas industry and other corporate interests, is doing little to solve the water problems of our state.
We must find new sources of water. But we must also regulate the use of the water we currently have. Allowing corporate interests of any kind to waste our precious water resources, while regulating the water use of citizens and small businesses, cannot be tolerated.
EVERYONE should be subject to water regulation, including the oil & gas industry.
The Texas Commission on Enviornmental Quality thinks the issue is critical enough that they recently included Parker county in a "priority" area with 13 other counties. They threatened state action if the counties didn't create water districts to regulate water use.
Phil King, the Republican representative from Parker county, has taken action - sort of. He is sponsoring a bill to create a water district that would include Parker, Wise, Montague and Hood counties. This would be a step in the right direction if it didn't exclude some of the worst water use offenders from regulation.
Under King's proposal, the oil & gas industry could continue to waste millions of gallons of ground water while the residents and other businesses in these counties would be subject to water use regulations. It shows how powerful the oil & gas industry is in Texas. King's legislative aide, Clinton Quisenberry, said the measure would not pass in the legislature if oil & gas interests were included in the water monitoring.
This is a serious matter. Many parts of Texas are starting to experience water problems, and with the greenhouse effect starting to cause global climactic changes, the problem will only get worse. According to the U.N. report released yesterday, Texas will be subject to increasingly hotter summers, with longer & more severe droughts.
With the rapid growth of business and population, it will not be long before Texas as a whole faces a critical water shortage. Sadly, our Republican state government, having sold out to the oil & gas industry and other corporate interests, is doing little to solve the water problems of our state.
We must find new sources of water. But we must also regulate the use of the water we currently have. Allowing corporate interests of any kind to waste our precious water resources, while regulating the water use of citizens and small businesses, cannot be tolerated.
EVERYONE should be subject to water regulation, including the oil & gas industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment
ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. And neither will racist,homophobic, or misogynistic comments. I do not mind if you disagree, but make your case in a decent manner.