WaterWorld
May 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 am
While the day turned on rumors and rumors of rumors of a challenge to the Speaker, some lawmakers were, you know, actually making law. To that end the omnibus water bill, SB 3, passed to third reading this fair evening. Dozens upon dozens of amendments flew fast and furious as legislators tried to hitch a ride on the H20 express. Some 65 of them stuck to the bill.
A conference committee will now have the unenviable task of picking through the rubble. The consensus conservation and environmental flows provisions at the core of SB 3 appear to remain intact, much to the relief presumably of the folks who have been working to get them passed for years. As a result Texas should now finally move towards developing a system of setting aside some water for our rivers, bays, and estuaries. Check back in five years - or during the next severe drought - to see if it makes a real difference.
Tonight, the most severe dissension revolved around, predictably, the proposed new reservoirs. What the House suffered was a classic rural vs. urban dispute (or more specifically, Northeast Texas vs. the Metroplex) with Rep. Stephen Frost (D-Atlanta) knocking Dallas-Fort Worth and the ‘burbs around for wanting to submerge the woods to keep the golf courses green.
“It’s difficult for people in my area of the state to understand why we need to flood our property so another region can continue to be wasteful,” said the diminutive, but clearly standing-tall Frost. Frost was speaking on his (successful) proposal to prevent construction of the Marvin Nichols reservoir if the Dallas-Fort Worth region won’t bring its water consumption down to 200 gallons per day per person. As it stands now, the Big D uses an offensive 264 gallons per day per person. No other major city in the state is even close to that. The state average is 167 gallons.
“I’m not going to call it water hogs, but that’s what it is,” said Rep. Craig Eiland (R-Galveston).
By the end of the evening sources reported that a tentative compromise had been reached between the factions. Reportedly East Texas interests will have two of the five seats at the House conference committee table - likely Frost and Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton. In exchange Frost pulled down a pending point of order that could have wiped out SB 3 and all the goodies that lied within.
Anti-reservoir opponents managed to keep the loathed Marvin Nichols and Lake Fastrill out of the House version of SB 3. Also, clever property-owner protections, engineered by Rep. Robby Cook, remain in the bill. They place major financial burdens on would-be dam-builders in the hallowed name of property rights. But the Senate version of SB 3 is much less favorable to these anti-reservoir concerns and only time will tell - precious little of it - what will emerge for the Governor to sign But if this session is any indication, the dams for Dallas program is only going to happen over the strenuous objections of some pretty damn determined East Texans.
May 25th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
[…] needed to override the House version of SB 3. East Texas reps, led by Stephen Frost (D-Atlanta), succeeded earlier this week in keeping Lake Fastrill, Marvin Nichols, and Bedias out of the bill while taking […]