The Friday Videos: Megadroughts Projected for American West and "Cool Water"

Today is a double feature. First a video by NASA about megadroughts. And the second - a Hank Williams song sung by Marty Robbins.




All the talk now about droughts and water scarcity and fracking and ground water, etc. reminds me of this old song:

Chuy Reyes Is Silent about Voting Rights Denial on Water

"A megadrought would present a major risk to water resources in the American West, which are distributed through a complex series of local, state and regional water-sharing agreements and laws. Virtually every drop of water flowing in the American West is legally claimed, sometimes by several users and the demand is expected to increase as population grows."


Senator José Rodriguez' egregious mistake in working with El Paso County Water Improvement District's Chuy Reyes to deny voting rights to citizen on water issues will cost us - probably for a generation or more.

Read NY Times opinion piece, Hundred-Year Forecast: Drought, by scientists, Christopher R. Schwalm, Christopher A. Williams and Kevin Schaefer.

In May I asked the Water Improvement District for copies of the following records:

1. 2008 List of Eligible Voters: provide name, address, owner number of each eligible voter at EPWID in 2008;
2. 2012 List of Eligible Voters: provide name, address, owner number of each eligible voter at EPWID as of April 2012.
3. 2012 Registered Voters: provide name, address, voter number and owner number of registered voters at EPWID as of May 1, 2012;
4. Letters, Instructions, Certificates to Eligible, Registered Voters: please provide a copy of all letters, instructions, certificates or other information that EPWID has mailed to eligible or registered voters in 2012.
5. Lobbyists, Attorneys Fees: please send a copy of all lobbyists and attorney fees statements together with amounts paid by EPWID to lobbyists or attorneys from January 2010 to present.

Without commenting now on items 4 and 5, the two lists of eligible voters revealed that one list (significantly smaller than the other) revealed the qualified voters for the May 12, 2012 election while the other list includes voters disqualified by the Rodriguez/Chuy Reyes effort.

Instructions for voting also made voting very difficult. With looming megadrought, who controls the water from the river? Not El Pasoans but a select few elite, privileged voters.

Subsequent questions by email to Chuy Reyes (July 8 and August 2) have gone unanswered although Mr. Reyes acknowledged by email receiving the questions in an email dated July 8, 2012.