"The 50 foot pine tree will remain in the Plaza"

Click on image to enlarge.

Those were the words from an official City of El Paso press release dated yesterday.

Read Diana Washington Valdez's story, San Jacinto Plaza reopening delayed until May, in this morning's El Paso Times. Yesterday afternoon she called me for a comment. That is when I learned about the press release. I chose to wait to do a post about the story until this morning after the Times had published. It was her story and so many of us are so glad that she has stayed on top of it (along with many other "stories" from City Hall.)

No doubt elpasonaturally's online petition helped to save the tree. (It is now clear that the City had no intention of saving the tree in the first place and was going to use "damage" as an excuse.) 

What really saved the tree was the fact that elpasonaturally and then the Times brought to light that the tree was on the "chopping block". (Sadly, the pun is intended.) This resulted in the City Manager, Tommy Gonzalez, decrying the fact that the story had come to public attention followed by a concerted effort to cya the entire affair.

Of course, there is more than just the saving of El Pasoan's beloved Holiday Christmas tree. elpasonaturally learned and posted that the Plaza's California palms had not been salvaged but disposed in a landfill. More revelations about the failure by the Department of Engineering to follow city guidelines and policies keep coming to light. Clicking on the link to the "Policy and Standards Manual for the Care of Trees and Shrubs in the City of El Paso" on the new City web site still results in a 404 Error. If you want to read the manual or download a copy, go HERE. Otherwise it will probably be deleted from memory. So much for the strategic goal to "Promote Transparent and Consistent Communication Among All Members of the Community".

By the way, the public didn't even participate in developing those strategic goals. Or does "all members of the community" refer just to a tight-knit City Hall group?

Opposition to Fracking Grows

Click to enlarge. Map from NewsOK

Reno, Texas has taken steps to ban fracking by "limiting disposal well activity to operators who can prove the injections won't cause earthquakes," reports Emily Schmall of the Associated Press. The oil and gas industry pumps waste water from fracking deep underground supposedly to prevent contamination of the water table. 

Schmall's updated article was republished in various places online and in major newspapers such as the Washington Times and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In its issue today (Monday, December 1, 2014) the El Paso Times buried the article on page 4 of Borderland. I have yet to find a link to it on the El Paso Times online. (On its front page, the El Paso Times major headline was "Fans Remember Icon 'Chespirito'". The front page had nothing about opposition to and dangers of fracking across the country now that the threat of fracking is just a few miles beyond Hueco Tanks.)

Reno, a town between Paris, Texas and Texarkana has experienced hundreds of earthquakes just in the past year. A Magnitude 4.2 earthquake rattled Medford, Oklahoma yesterday following on the heels of two other earthquakes in the region - some felt in neighboring Kansas. The cause? Fracking.  Read or listen to an NPR interview about Oklahoma quakes and fracking.

No wonder Reno and communities across the country are fighting fracking including conservative Denton, Texas.

And thanks to the El Paso, Times front page story by Diana Washington Valdez yesterday (Sunday, November 30, 2014) and Robbie Gray's El Paso Inc. story on the first page of the "Your Money" section, signers of our online petition jumped overnight from 138 supporters to 551 and during this morning to 658! (Sorry no EP Times link yet to Valdez's Sunday story but one to her Saturday story.) Both Valdez and Gray mentioned elpasonaturally's Change.org petition.

Growing opposition to fracking is certainly a silver lining as are falling oil prices worldwide. Just don't ever expect the Texas Railroad Commission, the Texas Land Office or the University of Texas to ever be enviromentally moral and responsible - at least while the current oligarchy rules the Lone Star State.