Beeville out of water in two years

[TexasTowelie]

BEEVILLE — City Council members got an earful from Beeville residents and businessmen Tuesday night when they listened to public comment regarding the proposed $15.3 million bond issue that will be decided by voters on May 11.

The comments ranged from support to dismay that the council did not have a more solid idea of the scope of a project intended to solve the city’s anticipated water supply problems.

<<<snip>>>

At that point, City Manager Deborah Ballí explained that the council needed to act quickly. She said that drilling wells into the Evangeline and Jasper aquifers and building a reverse osmosis plant, as is being proposed by the city in the bond election, would take about 18 months.

The city could be out of water in two years, Ballí said. Although Beeville had not been given formal notice of the two-year situation, she had been told that several times recently at a regional water supply planning group in Corpus Christi.

More at http://mysoutex.com/view/full_story_landing/22365663/article-Ball%C3%AD--City-out-of-water-in-two-years?instance=landing_2nd_news_lead_story .

[edgineered]

1. Time to watch 'The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao' nt

[TexasTowelie]

2. This may also affect Alice and Mathis.

Mayor Santiago “Jimbo” Martinez assured those at the meeting that a 28 cent per $100 valuation increase in property taxes would be a worst case scenario. He was fairly certain that other methods of funding the repayment of the bonds could substantially reduce the need for higher taxes.

The mayor and city manager reminded those at the meeting that the city was seeking legislative permission to use as much as $400,000 a year in hotel and motel occupancy taxes to pay the anticipated $800,000 annual debt service.

The city let the old wells that used to supply the city with water had fallen in disrepair. The pipeline that takes in water from Lake Corpus Christi also has sprung leaks and needs as much as $4.2 million for repairs. Lake Corpus Christi is at 15.8% capacity.

[kestrel91316]

3. City water supplies are a commie plot. Let unfettered free market capitalism solve the

problem. If people don't have money, they don't get water. Simple, just, and fair.

[mbperrin]

4. Uh, that's the Gulf of Mexico right there, Beeville.

Nice little wind-powered desal plant, a few miles of pipeline, and your straw is firmly in the 70% of the planet that's water.

Not possible to run out there.

Now get to it.

[susanr516]

5. It would be much cheaper to build a desal plant in the area

Most of the local water wells are brackish, too salty to drink, but not nearly as bad as the Gulf.

[mbperrin]

8. I guess I don't understand why anyone thinks they are out of water, then.

Is someone there wanting to give it to a private company so that locals can pay 10 times too much?

[susanr516]

9. We're certainly almost out of potable water

Our current crisis is the result of local governments consistently choosing the cheapest option available at the time. Long story, but after a severe drought in the 80s, the CC mayor, Mary Rhodes, fought tooth and nail to get a pipeline built from Lake Texana to Corpus Christi. Several small towns in the area opted to buy water from Corpus Christi because it was cheaper than maintaining their municipal water wells. There have been many discussions in the past about building groundwater desal plants, but the response was always, "We already have the Lake Texana pipeline!" Now, even with the Lake Texana pipeline, we're running out of drinking water. Like the old saying, we're penny-wise but pound-foolish around here.

[mbperrin]

10. Out here in Odessa, they're trying to scare us into allowing someone like

Clayton Williams to buy all the fresh water rights around and then buy from him.

Typical cronyism for around here.

We pay the highest water bill anywhere, I think, already.

Oh well.

[TexasTowelie]

11. For people that are interested:

Here is the site for the Nueces River Authority that tracks lake levels for all three lakes that provide water to Corpus Christi.

http://www.nueces-ra.org/CP/CITY/day.php

[Ilsa]

6. Does anyone know where the drilling/fracking

companies are getting their millions of gallons of water to use in fracking? What impact has their water usage had on the region?

[LeftInTX]

7. If the drought continues until May 11th, the measure should pass

If there is suddenly a storm, then the anti-tax people might make a stink.

We would have this in San Antonio. The city would spend several years researching a project (during a drought) and by the time the election occurred the drought would be over and the water project would get voted down.

It got so bad that the city finally added a water supply project fee to the water bills. Now the projects get done without a lot of fanfare, because many water projects no longer appear on the ballots.