Stop the project
While I stay home, trying to not catch The Plague, two things are driving me a little nuts right now. No, not having to eat my own cooking every day, and no, not even our national health crisis, but a couple of things, both having to do with development overreach. And I think these are some very bad ideas.
One is the full speed ahead plans of the regional transportation planning board, CAMPO, which has a plan, which just came to my attention, to put brand new roads, and to widen a whole lot of country roads throughout Hays
County. This will not only ruin land and water sources, but will bring more dense, urban style development into our hills and valleys, putting our aquifers at risk.
This push is linked to another project I see as unsustainable development: The ongoing Permian Highway natural gas pipeline plowing right across Hays County, in a time of zero growth in that industry. Oil and gas are both plummeting, and yet, the pipeline project continues to rip through our lands, our aquifers and our homes. They are intent on building a pipeline to carry oil and gas nobody wants to buy.
They do it because they can. They do it because they think they must.
I say stop because it is a bad idea. Stop because you are ruining our land and risking our water. Stop, because your business model is flawed, and based on flawed data. Stop, because whether or not the law allows it, you really do not have the right to destroy our lands or our water.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
The way I see it is that both of these projects were planned in a different economy. The only reason they are not being reconsidered is that they have been funded, and unless they forge ahead with these projects now, they will not be able to.
But, they continue, unabated, in spite of changing circumstances.
We need to reassess our local, regional and national priorities, and stop projects that will not use money wisely, and will not make our lives, post-Covid-19, better.
What occurs to me is that both of these projects are based on outdated data. Old driving data, and older housing data, old ways of looking at energy needs.
It is hard to stop things once they get going, but we need to stop them, because if we allow these bad ideas to change, or ruin, our lands and lives, that will be forever.
Susan Cook
Driftwood
Help petfinder
The organization that I want to support is Petfinder because that is where I got my puppy, Sophie. This site is very important to me because that’s not only where I got my puppy but that is where Dogs/Puppy and Kittens/Cats get adopted and find a forever home. It costs a lot of money to run and operate a site and to work with other shelters, so what I am asking is that you ask the people of Hays County to donate their time and resources to their local shelter.
Kian Marek
Fifth Grade,
Carpenter Hill
