Water and human minds are too precious to waste – especially
here in El Paso. Here are the scoops:
Center stage now on the conservation front is the Mayor’s
Blue Ribbon Committee on PSB Land Management. Some facts:
·
Tens of thousands of acres of City of El Paso
land is managed by the Public Service Board.
·
It is the PSB that determines when land is “inexpedient”
to the water utility and can be sold on the market for development, quarrying
or other uses.
·
Land has been deemed inexpedient because it is
not needed for utility infrastructure and conveyance, stormwater management, water harvesting or conservation or the like
and there is a market for the land – i.e., a developer or business wants the
land.
·
Historically the PSB has been slow to declare
land inexpedient and put it on the market.
Their additional concern has been
managing the scarcity of water.
Now comes a number of El Pasoans with City Council Rep.
Cortney Niland leading the charge saying that land should be sold more quickly
for development in order to spur economic growth. Sounds good – just one
problem. El Paso is running out of water. Estimates show that we are only 30
years away from having to import water which will be quite expensive and it is
not guaranteed that we will even be able to import when the time comes. More
and more local communities are beginning to prevent water from leaving their
locale because they face the same critical water shortages.
At the last Blue Ribbon Committee meeting, Niland (not a
member but in attendance) argued that the 30 year estimate for needing to
import water is a scare tactic.
She further suggested that all we need to do is drill more wells. Some
geological insight here will be helpful. El Paso draws water not just from the
Rio Grande in season but from two underwater “lakes” – the Hueco and the
Mesilla Bolsons. Those lakes are like bowls filled with water. Put a few straws
in the bowl and start sucking and the water table begins to drop. Put a bunch
more straws in the bowl, and you run out of water faster. But, some argue, the bolsons are recharged
with rain water and water from other sources seeping into the ground. Trouble
is – the recharge is now negative. Why? This summer gives all of us good
empirical evidence: prolonged drought and global
warming which will lead to more prolonged drought.
So, shouldn’t there be another reason to declare land
inexpedient and not just to sell it for development or industrial uses? More
and more – much more – City land should be set aside as preserved natural open
space in perpetuity. Why? Because we just don’t have the water and the climate
is heating up meaning we aren’t going to be getting the water to recharge the
bolsons and swell the Rio Grande. Besides, putting more land under conservation
easements as natural open space will only make land to be sold for development
more valuable because of supply and demand. As El Pasoans we stand to make more
money on our land.
The Blue Ribbon Committee voted at their last meeting to
recommend to City Council a new committee to determine whether land is
inexpedient. This committee would be composed of the Mayor as Chair, two City
Council representatives and two PSB representatives including the PSB Chair.
This committee would do in essence what the PSB now does but faster – sell land
for development . . . spur economic development at least until El Paso runs out
of water and we repeat the lesson of the Mayans and the Anasazis of Chaco
Canyon. This isn’t far-fetched and it isn’t a scare tactic.
One agrees that there needs to be better communication
between the City and the PSB. The Blue Ribbon Committee also voted to suggest
that the City’s CFO and Deputy City Manager in PSB financial meetings which
will foster better communication (except that DCM Bill Studer who sits on the
Blue Ribbon Committee didn’t seem at all thrilled with the additional work load
of PSB meetings as well). Certainly we want better communication but let’s not
be quick to change a relationship that has worked very well even if the process
has been more judicious and conservative which is really what is in the best
interest of El Paso. Unfortunately, the
PSB has employed the same reasoning as Niland and her backers would – sell land
for its marketability and profit to the City and not as a key policy to
conserve water by conserving land in perpetuity. Changing that policy (that
zeitgeist really) is what needs to happen not usurping land management from the
PSB.
So – two suggestions:
1. Make
setting land aside in its natural state forever the first reason for declaring
City land managed by the PSB inexpedient. Marketing should be only the second
reason.
2. Don’t
waste time on Blue Ribbon Committees based on economic development (and more
revenue for the City – their real intent as demonstrated by a Ted Houghton
motion). Form now a Task Force on long
range City planning as the City faces climate change, prolonged drought and
increasing water shortages. Those issues should be the critical concerns and
not speeding up land sales for the instant gratification of a few.
Upcoming elpasonaturally e-letters will discuss these issues
further. The primary issues – the issues that drive all others – is the growing
shortage of water and the control of that water. For now, read a letter
to Rep. Niland from one of El Paso’s most respected jurists, Justice David
Chew, who also served on City Council. Also watch Blue Gold – World Water Wars.
See free
water conservation movies on August 3 (tomorrow) and August 17 in
McKelligon Canyon at 8 p.m. sponsored by the FMSP. (The ads say $1 – but the
movies will be free.) Attend a seminar on rainfall capture at TecH20 on
August 18 beginning at 10:30 a.m. And go see the film Chaco on Sunday, August 19th, at 2 p.m. at the El Paso
Museum of Archaeology.
The sustainability of this home that we call “El Paso”
drastically depends on water. It also depends on an educated citizenry. Minds
must not be wasted and the El Paso Independent School District needs reform
now. The dereliction of each and every member of the Board of Directors of
EPISD has been well chronicled in the El Paso Times recently. Nixonian attempts
to hide, conduct audits in the dark, admissions of ignorance and ever-shifting
stories and excuses are the identifying qualities of the current Board of
Directors.
You don’t need to have a child or grandchild in the school
system. As citizens we all depend on having a well-educated citizenry for the
good of our “commonwealth” and community together. More of our tax money goes
to the district which manages a budget much larger than the City, County and
Airport combined.
Finally, probably one of the best restaurants from the Pecos
to the Pacific is Ardovino’s Desert
Crossing nestled beneath the west side of Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park,
NM. (Map) Their brunch menu is the envy of
the region. All this month (August) a portion of their proceeds from Sunday
brunch (10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.) will go to the Southwest Environmental Center. Be sure
you read SWEC’s Summer 2012 newsletter, the Mesquite
Grill.
Finally finally, there are some must see videos – blasts
from the past, old videos that Rick LoBello of the El Paso Zoo is preserving.
See In Memory of the Last
Wild Mexican Wolf shot on 8MM in the late 1970s and what may be the first
film with sound documentary of the Chihuahuan Desert – the 1982 Land of Lost Borders
narrated by Burgess Meredith. Although many of you may know Meredith as Mickey
in the Rocky movies, those of you who are older will recall that he was the Penguin on television’s
Batman.
