Water is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges Texas
faces in the future. One of the biggest
challenges Milam County faces in the future is surviving Texas’s unquenchable
thirst for water. I know you have seen
the old westerns where the cattle have been on the drive for several days
without water and the cowboys try not to let them smell the water, but the
cattle do and the stampede is on. Well
folks the stampede is on and looks like Milam County could get trampled.
The latest development in Texas’s water plan for the future
is the Gause Off-Channel Reservoir. The
planned reservoir would cover over 4,300 acres of Milam County. Within the planned footprint of the reservoir
is Pin Oak Cemetery, the historic El Camino Real de los Tejas trail, many Native
American campsites and possible burial grounds and several hundred acres of
agricultural land that have been in the same family for over 100 years.
What we see happening is the few being sacrificed for the
many. Basically rural Texas is being
sacrificed for the voracity of the urban areas of the state. Of course it is all in the name of progress
and great for the economic development of the state. Not Milam County’s economic development
because our water, and looks like maybe our land, will be controlled by Austin,
Houston, San Antonio and other large cities across the state.
Recent reports in the local media have indicated that the
reservoir might be voted down in an upcoming Brazos River Authority
meeting. While that is the hope for all
of us in Milam County the reality is that the state needs water and the rural
counties that have water will be sacrificed for the numbers because that is
where the votes are.
I truly feel sorry for our state representatives. Both our State Representative and Senator
have their majority of voters outside the Milam County line. I have blogged before about rural versus
urban issues, and it is not necessarily about what is right but rather where
the votes are. Politics is politics and
it's all about the votes and where the voters are. With just under 15,000 registered voters in
Milam County we do not stand a chance.
There is a Texas music band The McKay Brothers that have a
song out titled "The Disappearing Texas." For those of us that have been around for the
last fifty years or so the lyrics ring so true. "There's a disappearing Texas, vanishing
but not completely gone, yeah there's a disappearing, so let's leave what there
is left of it alone…" Just a matter
of time and what we knew and know as Texas will vanish never to return, and all
in the name of progress.
