Chief Justice Chew Takes Niland to Task

Few living El Pasoans have earned more respect for their service to community and country, their integrity and their wisdom than Chief Justice David Wellington Chew, Chief Justice, Senior Status, and former City Council Representative, District 2. You can read his biography and an announcement of his receipt of the prestigious Trailblazer Award. David's father was also a prominent community servant and El Paso has named one of its Senior Centers after him. David's sisters, Linda and Patricia, are also highly respected judges in El Paso.


Upon hearing about Rep. Cortney Niland's desire to speed-up land sales in El Paso, Justice Chew wrote her the following letter:

July 20, 2012

The Hon. Cortney Niland,
City Representative District 8
2 Civic Center Plaza, 12^th Floor
El Paso, TX 79902

Dear Representative Niland:

The El Paso Times recently quoted you as saying that estimates that the water supply for the City of El Paso will be severely strained as soon as 30 years from now [sic] are “scare tactics.” Chris Roberts, (2012, July 17). “Rep seeks to speed up PSB land-use process.” El Paso Times. pp. A1,A5.

If you said that, then I am personally disappointed in your position, and take great exception. 

May I remind you that El Paso is the driest major city in Texas, lying in the Trans-Pecos region of the Chihuahuan Desert, and it has faced water problems and drought throughout it’s history.  And while El Paso is in a perpetual drought, Texas, including El Paso, and much of the rest of the United States is confronted with the beginning of almost certainly the worst drought of the century.  We will see the depletion if not the drying up completely of the only surface water source that El Paso has --  the waters of Rio Grande from the reservoir at Elephant Butte.  Indeed, one only has to drive by, as I did this past weekend, and look out onto the much larger but nearly empty Lakes Falcon and Amistad, the reservoirs that serve the lower Rio Grande, to know that the drought in West Texas has begun. 

I am proud to have been a member of the 1991 El Paso City Council, which at the urging of the EPWU/PSB, enacted the earliest and most comprehensive water conservation measures in the state.  Then too, there were critics saying that “scare tactics” were used to enact "draconian" measures; but the unequivocal fact is that the Water Conservation Ordinance and subsequent water conservation and expansion measures taken by the EPWU/PSB since 1991 have preserved and enhanced the ground waters of the Mesilla and Hueco Bolsons, which provide the majority of the water to El Paso and are its lifeblood. 

It also seems to me that your and others’ criticism of the PSB are likely based on “Potemkim numbers,” groundless estimates of property tax revenues and job creation,  numerical facades so often created by proponents of unregulated economic growth for short term profit.  Without water, the prospect of economic growth in El Paso is simply dust.

I thank you for your service to the City of El Paso.    

With best personal regards,

David Wellington Chew,
Chief Justice, Senior Status, and former City Representative, District 2

Also in response to Niland, 2010 Conservation Award recipient and environmental activist, Judy Ackerman, wrote elpasonaturally the following:

"Representative Niland and the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on the City's relationship with the PSB’s land management want to speed up selling City owned land for development.  STOP IT!  Hurry-up development got us Crazy Cat, widely cited as a huge mistake and eyesore.  Hurry-up development got us eastside sprawl with no parks, but plenty of traffic jams. 

"Remember that taxes generated from sprawl do NOT cover the cost of maintaining the streets, water, sewer, police, lighting, etc.  Sprawl development must be subsidized by existing taxpayers.

"El Paso has just been through the Master Planning Process with world renowned Dover Kohl.  Now is the time for carefully thought out, planned, sustainable, low impact, smart growth development.  Take your time and do it right.  “NO!”, to hurry-up development."