Please sign this petition to Governor Greg Abbott, other statewide officials and San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor urging them to stop the Vista Ridge Water Project and to make growth pay for itself. Print out this petition on legal size paper here and on letter size paper here. We don’t have a target deadline for delivery to the Governor and others state officials, which includes your state legislators. We need your participation over the coming months to bring this into the next legislative session. [emailpetition id=”11″]
Scott Carlson of Brenham, Texas, “pleaded guilty in a Houston courtroom to stealing $2.4 million from two oil companies he’d worked for as a land man.” (San Antonio Express-News, Sunday, August 20, 2006, reprinted here at TTC News Archives.)
Around the time that Carlson received probation, he was door knocking in Burleson and Milam Counties. He had a check in one hand and a water lease in the other on behalf of his company Metropolitan Water Company, aka MetWater.
According to this same Express-News article, “Carlson sold the leases to Layne Water Development of Texas, a subsidiary of a Kansas company, which later sold them to Ross Cummings, an Austin real estate investor who formed a company called Blue Water Systems. Cummings, who in April 2004 paid $500,000 in bond money to free Carlson from jail, said he believed the leases gave landowners a fair shake.”
Do you think the vast majority of citizens in Burleson, Milam, Lee, Bastrop and Brazos
Ross Cummings, President, Blue Water Systems
counties, who rely on the same aquifer, got a “fair shake” when the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District granted Blue Water Systems a permit to pump 50,000 acre-feet of groundwater per year (over 44 million gallons per day) for Vista Ridge? What about the vast majority of citizens in Burleson and Milam who never signed a lease? Or what about communities who don’t want to be over-built in dry areas? And what about hundreds of landowners who will face eminent domain for this 142-mile pipeline? Did they get a “fair shake”, hmmm…Mr. Cummings?
Is it the job of the San Antonio real estate lobby to make San Antonio into the water warlords of central Texas? When San Antonio ratepayers finally learn the truth about their water rates and that this water is for developers outside their city, how do you think they’re gonna feel?
We’re going to get the answers on our Vista Ridge meetings tour, starting on August 18th at ground zero, Burleson County at the Caldwell Civic Center (6 pm to 8 pm). Then on to Elgin, Lockhart, San Marcos, Seguin, San Antonio, Bryan and more! See schedule here.Isn’t it time to ride these water hustlers outta town? Do this!
Sign this petition: ask Governor Abbott to stop Vista Ridge and to make growth pay for itself! Share it or print it out here and take it to folks.)
Come to a local meeting — schedule here and get a yard sign.
DONATE! We need money for room rentals, advertising, and large signs.We got to these dynamite followup comments as quick as we could, due today, to the Texas Water Development Board. Today’s new comments are here. Last week’s are here with the video of the hearing. PS We know this is a long email, but try to read the Express News piece we reference. It’s chock full of important and revealing information. PPS If you click on the map on this page, it opens to better more detailed map of Vista Ridge. We’re working on getting an even better one.