www.whyville.net Jan 10, 2003 Weekly Issue


Save Our Aquifer

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Save Our Aquifer


Eve611
Guest Writer

I'm writing this over the Edwards aquifer of Texas. Many of you won't care about this article, but for the people of south central Texas this is a big deal. I'm writing about the issue of the recharge zone construction. (For those of you who don't know, the recharge zone is where water comes into the aquifer. And an aquifer is a chain of underground caverns holding water).

A lumber company owns part of the recharge zone land outside of San Antonio. They decided they wanted to make a PGA village there so golf tournaments could be held there, etc. Sounds good? Well, the only problem is that golf courses use a lot of insecticides and water. With the course being right over the recharge zone, the insecticides could go right through the ground and into our water. Our water would be polluted and unsafe to drink. Good-bye faucets, hello bottled water! So a group called "Save our Aquifer" stood up and said no way. The lumber company had no problem with that and decided they would build houses.

Before I go further with the story, I'll share the problem with building houses over the recharge zone: the community has no control over what the people in their homes do. So there was a pollution problem there, too. "Save our Aquifer" realized that right after the vote was agreed on. They went back to the golf course committee and said they could build there, as long as they used insecticides that were proven safe and went by the aquifer regulations.

Right now the votes are being cast. I still don't like either side of the case: Houses or a golf course. We're talking about lives here. How do you know the insecticides that are safe are safe 100% of the time?

Still unhappy with the lumber company,
Eve611

 

 

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