How I Feel in My Classes

Russian Class

Math Class

Political Science Class

Music Appreciation Class

English Class 

Every Class Ever!!!!

Rough Draft: Essay 1

You’ve probably never heard of it, most people haven’t. This West Texas town, San Angelo, “once known as “the oasis” of dry west Texas” now quickly becoming nothing more than a patch of dry dirt with a few buildings sitting on it. But that’s what happens when a city has only a year’s supply of water left. It’s called Stage 3 drought, the most severe stage the region has ever declared, in which “watering of lawns, golf courses and gardens, forbidding of fresh water use for swimming pools, and the closing of commercial car washes” are enforced. And while recent rains in the area seem promising of a demotion to Stage 2 status, the problem is nowhere near solved for long. There have been many ideas bandied around on how to fix this dilemma, one of those ideas is already in action, but it is the right idea or merely the cheapest?

The plans for the pipeline to the Hickory Aquifer, which is located about 60 miles away from San Angelo, have been slowing moving along for quite some time. However this plan has sparked much debate for the main reason that many residents feel that the Hickory Aquifer is an unsafe method of gaining the necessary water, while others argue that it is the only practical source.

Those for the project do their best to point out that the alternatives to the Hickory Aquifer are unconventional and unrealistically expensive to finance. For example the desalination of brackish groundwater, a salty water that has a lower salt concentration than seawater, which is abundant in Texas would likely produce “up to 16,050 acre-feet per year of water” however it has a “capital cost of $214 million.” Another example of alternative methods include: “reducing water loss from evaporation, since cities lose more reservoir water to the sun than to their residents” and “reuse projects”. The evaporation loss prevention plan has a capital cost of only $13 million, where the “reuse projects” which could “provide up to 12,490 acre-feet per year” of water would cost $131 million. The innovative plans are “unfunded, and it recommends that some sustainable financing system for it to be adopted.”

 Those against the project point out the snag in the Aquifer plan: the “radiation in that water is seven times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s approved limit”, and the treatment facility, to rid the water of the radiation, will absolutely not be ready by the time the pipeline project, set to be complete in mid 2013. Therefore a plan has been made to dilute the radiation by mixing the water into the popular lake, where there are not only all sorts of recreational water activities happening, but also plenty of wildlife, not limited to the native birds, fish, and nutria. That however isn’t the worst part, this “diluted” radiation would then be pumped into every residential home connected to the water line in the county, subjecting every resident to unknown amounts of potentially harmful radiation. However this is the plan that San Angelo’s leaders have designated for the community, because all of the water plans are unfunded by the federal government, leaving Texas twisting in the wind grasping at straws that have no safe water attached.

            As it is unlikely that the funding will come through for any other source besides the Hickory Aquifer, it seems the residents of San Angelo Texas will simply, and quite literally, suck it up. Without the funding for a better, safer means of obtaining water San Angelo has little choice but to continue with the plans for the Hickory Aquifer, no matter how detrimental it may prove to be at a later date. The arguments have reached stasis, in that those fighting against the project know that without some serious capital there is no way they can change the outcome of this project, they’ve agreed to disagree. The aquifer offers a solution. That is all. Nowhere did it say that it was a good solution. But then again I suppose beggars can’t be choosers, and San Angelo is begging for water.