http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/KennethSchustereit/7658 No! "Cain't never did do nuthin' 'cause he didn't try!" The very wise words of Ola Pearl Haywood, born and raised in Talladega, Alabama and my maternal grandmother still ring true today! Stooped and confined to a wheelchair the last years of her life she insisted on washing dishes and doing whatever other work she could reach.   A member of the South Central Texas Water Advisory Council told me at Water Research Group's first meeting that stopping, then County Judge Helen Walker's appointed water conservation district, couldn't be done. While he complimented me on my research and presentation he said in trying to stop the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply Project, I would "ultimately fail!" That was seven years ago!   Mike Sizemore, then Chief of Staff for State Senator Kenneth Armbrister, looked at our presentation concerning the pitiful stewardship of the Guadalupe River by GBRA and said it didn't mean anything! We took that to mean that the suffering in the Lower Guadalupe Basin caused by GBRAs nonfeasance meant nothing to the arrogant bureaucrat!   When an elderly widow in Calhoun County was threatened with condemnation of her property for one fifth of what it was worth by the Navigation District I was told there was no way to stop it. The lady still has her property!   Even that little voice in the back of my mind telling me I couldn't lose weight never stopped! That was 78 pounds ago!   No matter where I look I run into people telling me "It can't be done!" They all should have spent some time with my very humble, hard working grandmother! My grandmother never read the American Law Journal, by West Publishing but she knew that, "...acquiescence is consent inferred from silence!"   There are two proven ways to mine uranium ore. One is strip, surface mining. The other is in situ leach. Both leave behind documented messes the taxpayer usually ends up cleaning up. I'm convinced the only reason we don't have another, safer, cleaner way is that no one has spent the time or the money to find it!   It seems the things we are told by our local,state and federal politicians and bureaucrats has little to do with truth! Take the TransTexas Corridor, alias the NAFTA Highway! They sold this unconstitutional clap-trap by telling people they were getting tough on drunk drivers. I mean who doesn't want to get tough on drunk drivers? Only they didn't stop there. They sold this by promising money to hospitals. Who doesn't want more money for hospitals? The problem starts with a little studied document called the Constitution. A man gets some traffic tickets. He is fined. He pays his fine.(Usually pretty exorbitant fines.) His insurance goes up and since insurance is mandatory in Texas he has suffered another penalty. Ok, maybe he deserves another penalty to get him to slow down but now the state decides that after he has paid his fine and his "debt to society", the state wants more. No! Read the Constitution. That is expressly forbidden! The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution says, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." "...nor excessive fines imposed..." Is it not excessive to fine someone who has already paid his fine? Take a look at the amounts provided for in HB 3588! This, along with the new tollways and the TransTexas Corridor was nothing less than a revenue scheme dreamed up by Rick Perry and a few of his corrupt friends. And it's not just Perry, the DPS has been selling your information for years. You say, "Aw, that's just your address and stuff!" Wrong! They will sell you criminal record, whether it's correct or not to anyone who forks over the bucks. Yup, that's right. That felony you were charged with 30 years ago but were never convicted of? Yup, the just sold that to some computer geek in New Jersey who is creating a database to sell to a Background Check Company. It's incorrect but who cares, it makes money. That's the corrupt state we live in folks and Governor Good Hair is just the latest installment in classy scam artists! Our lazy legislature didn't even read 3588 or consider it's implications before they voted for it! A good scam artist can sell these people anything!   Went to HEB the other day and bought a store brand can of onion rings. Got home and opened the can. It was exactly half full! WalMart and HEB both are cutting quantity and raising prices. I understand the need to raise prices with the cost of fuel but don't cut the quantity and leave it in the same sized packaging! That's cheating the customer!   What is economic development? Good roads, streets, drainage, infrastructure, employment, good schools...the list goes on! When does economic development become a bad thing? The Hill Country around San Antonio has been on a 40 year building binge! The once majestic area is quickly being paved over since development has increased exponentially! Someone once said,"...the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, while the destruction of something created by God is called development!"   So why should someone in Victoria, Goliad, Cuero or Gonzales be concerned about development in and around San Antonio? That development is creating impervious cover and increasing the runoff of rain creating flood event disasters and slowing the recharge of the Edwards Aquifer! The Lower Guadalupe Basin gets hurt and the lack of recharge of the Edwards causes San Antonio to need more water from elsewhere! Water to satisfy the need created by out of control development!   What is the solution? I can tell you what Bill West of GBRA will tell you! They need the Cuero 1&2 and Sandies Reservoirs to stop the flooding of the Lower Basin! He'll probably also want Lake Texana Phase II water to pump to San Antonio and Boerne! Now please keep in mind that this is the same Bill West who ran an ad in the Canyon Lake newspaper telling residents there that water conservation was needed. The same Bill West who, at the same time, told developers around Boerne not to let a lack of water stop their work!   What indeed will be the result of the same amount of rain we saw in '98 and '02 after eight or ten years of development in the San Antonio and Guadalupe River watersheds? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the City of Cuero would be history! Wouldn't it be sad if they were forced to support a project that would literally destroy Dewitt County?   F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "They smashed things up and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness!" Sounds much like what they have planned for Dewitt and Gonzales Counties! Like what they had planned for the Lower Basin with the GBRA pipeline. Like what they've already done to the Hill Country!   Government politicians and bureaucrats! They seem to believe they know what's best for all of us! They also seem willing to tell any lie to maneuver the voting public!   When I organized Water Research Group in '01 I was soon joined by Bill Richter of Victoria. A man of experience and understanding of legal and scientific terminology. He brought up something that I had never thought of. Why should water from Victoria be pumped 130 miles and 754 feet uphill to San Antonio for THEIR economic development when we should keep it here for OUR OWN economic development? After all, wasn't overdevelopment San Antonio's problem already? After a long nasty fight, joined by one of the wealthy landowners in the lower basin the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply Project seemed to be history. In fact, Bill West got up and said if the Exelon Nuclear Project is approved the LGWSP was history. Then recently he amended that and said it's not history until they get water for Boerne. Is there a new plan to take Lake Texana water and mix it with groundwater from Victoria, Goliad and Refugio Counties and give Bill his pipeline?   I often wondered, however, why the other wealthy landowners in the Lower Basin didn't join in the fray. I found out recently that most of those families were salivating at the thought of selling their water, and mine, to San Antonio! Now, when Victoria County has an opportunity to have a $6 billion nuclear project that will provide much needed jobs and economic development for this area, many of those same landowners oppose the project!   So let's carefully examine the motives here! The average working people in this area, and around the nation for that matter, are quickly being turned into the working poor by rising motor fuel and food costs! Rent, utilities and house payments are rising and we have an opportunity to have a huge local boost to the economy and the people who can most afford these rising costs oppose the project that would bring that boost! And those are the same people, for the most part, who were willing to sell their water, AND EVERYONE ELSE'S, to line their own pockets!   These people are grasping at every straw they can to oppose the nuclear project! They were willing to deplete the Chicot and Evangeline Aquifers and sell water from up to ten miles away and now they're worried about the environment! They know next to nothing about Generation III nuclear power. All they know is that they don't want it in their back yard! They were perfectly willing to pump my back yard dry to make a dollar but a project that will benefit a huge number of people, they oppose!   No, it does not look good for rural Texas! For the average working people who are quickly becoming the working poor! Newspaper reports say people are feeding their pets less because of hard times. Ag students riding horses to school and farm animals getting lower quality feed. Ten times the regular amount of garage sales and pawn shops helping people buy gas!   I predict, as far as water goes, this legislative session will be a bad one for water rights in Texas! As for the consumer/taxpayer? It looks bad there too!   The average working people, the taxpayer and homeowner is under attack. If not from being shortchanged at the grocery store, many are literally being taxed out of their homes and small businesses! Someone moves onto your block or down the country road and builds a home three times what other homes in the neighborhood are worth and suddenly your taxes double. Wilson and Calhoun Counties are just the latest where property values are doubling in many cases.   I'd suggest Rep. Geanie Morrison and Sen. Glenn Hegar introduce the "Homestead Protection Act of 2009." Three main provisions; first to prohibit the state comptroller's from pressuring county appraisal districts to raise property valuations. Second, to prohibit appraisal districts from raising valuations just because someone sells neighboring property for more than it's really worth. Third, prohibiting long-time residents and homeowners from having their taxes driven up by a neighbor or neighbors who over-build for the neighborhood! Morrison's office number is 361 5720196 and Hegar's number is 512 4630118   I had an interesting conversation with a young man named Travis Prater with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality(TCEQ). He said that in 2004 the definition of a Public Water System had changed to include churches, dance halls, country stores and just about any entity, public or private, that served, in any way, more than 25 people per week. He said that a person with a "D" Water Treatment license would have to test the water each week and keep a logbook. The license holder would have to pay $111.00 every three years plus the cost of a 20 hour course. A chlorinator would have to be installed at the well head as would a water meter. Records of how much water was treated and how much chlorine was used would have to be kept. I asked this young man if this was a codified statute or just an agency rule and if not who authored the enabling legislation. He had no clue.   I also posed a question; "since TCEQ has a 100% failure rate at protecting Texas landowners from uranium miners, how is it they feel they should be trusted with this new responsibility?" The young man somehow did not appreciate the biting sarcasm of the question! Since there has been no serious problem with the wells at churches and community centers in rural areas poisoning their congregants and customers this new encroachment of "big brother" taking control is unnecessary! Morrison and Hegar? Bless their pea pickin' hearts they're still clueless! This will only raise the cost of building in rural Texas and increase the state's bureaucracy! TCEQ is building quite a kingdom to lord over their serfdom!   We have numbers! We need to fight hard and loud! We have to at least try! "Cain't never did do nuthin' 'cause he didn't try!" An old Texas Ranger said once, "There ain't no stoppin' a man who knows he's right and keeps on comin'!" Ya hear that, Travis?     No! "Cain't never did do nuthin' 'cause he didn't try!" The very wise words of Ola Pearl Haywood, born and raised in Talladega, Alabama and my maternal grandmother still ring true today! Stooped and confined to a wheelchair the last years of her life she insisted on washing dishes and doing whatever other work she could reach.   A member of the South Central Texas Water Advisory Council told me at Water Research Group's first meeting that stopping, then County Judge Helen Walker's appointed water conservation district, couldn't be done. While he complimented me on my research and presentation he said in trying to stop the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply Project, I would "ultimately fail!" That was seven years ago!   Mike Sizemore, then Chief of Staff for State Senator Kenneth Armbrister, looked at our presentation concerning the pitiful stewardship of the Guadalupe River by GBRA and said it didn't mean anything! We took that to mean that the suffering in the Lower Guadalupe Basin caused by GBRAs nonfeasance meant nothing to the arrogant bureaucrat!   When an elderly widow in Calhoun County was threatened with condemnation of her property for one fifth of what it was worth by the Navigation District I was told there was no way to stop it. The lady still has her property!   Even that little voice in the back of my mind telling me I couldn't lose weight never stopped! That was 78 pounds ago!   No matter where I look I run into people telling me "It can't be done!" They all should have spent some time with my very humble, hard working grandmother! My grandmother never read the American Law Journal, by West Publishing but she knew that, "...acquiescence is consent inferred from silence!"   There are two proven ways to mine uranium ore. One is strip, surface mining. The other is in situ leach. Both leave behind documented messes the taxpayer usually ends up cleaning up. I'm convinced the only reason we don't have another, safer, cleaner way is that no one has spent the time or the money to find it!   It seems the things we are told by our local,state and federal politicians and bureaucrats has little to do with truth! Take the TransTexas Corridor, alias the NAFTA Highway! They sold this unconstitutional clap-trap by telling people they were getting tough on drunk drivers. I mean who doesn't want to get tough on drunk drivers? Only they didn't stop there. They sold this by promising money to hospitals. Who doesn't want more money for hospitals? The problem starts with a little studied document called the Constitution. A man gets some traffic tickets. He is fined. He pays his fine.(Usually pretty exorbitant fines.) His insurance goes up and since insurance is mandatory in Texas he has suffered another penalty. Ok, maybe he deserves another penalty to get him to slow down but now the state decides that after he has paid his fine and his "debt to society", the state wants more. No! Read the Constitution. That is expressly forbidden! The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution says, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." "...nor excessive fines imposed..." Is it not excessive to fine someone who has already paid his fine? Take a look at the amounts provided for in HB 3588! This, along with the new tollways and the TransTexas Corridor was nothing less than a revenue scheme dreamed up by Rick Perry and a few of his corrupt friends. And it's not just Perry, the DPS has been selling your information for years. You say, "Aw, that's just your address and stuff!" Wrong! They will sell you criminal record, whether it's correct or not to anyone who forks over the bucks. Yup, that's right. That felony you were charged with 30 years ago but were never convicted of? Yup, the just sold that to some computer geek in New Jersey who is creating a database to sell to a Background Check Company. It's incorrect but who cares, it makes money. That's the corrupt state we live in folks and Governor Good Hair is just the latest installment in classy scam artists! Our lazy legislature didn't even read 3588 or consider it's implications before they voted for it! A good scam artist can sell these people anything!   Went to HEB the other day and bought a store brand can of onion rings. Got home and opened the can. It was exactly half full! WalMart and HEB both are cutting quantity and raising prices. I understand the need to raise prices with the cost of fuel but don't cut the quantity and leave it in the same sized packaging! That's cheating the customer!   What is economic development? Good roads, streets, drainage, infrastructure, employment, good schools...the list goes on! When does economic development become a bad thing? The Hill Country around San Antonio has been on a 40 year building binge! The once majestic area is quickly being paved over since development has increased exponentially! Someone once said,"...the destruction of something created by humans is called vandalism, while the destruction of something created by God is called development!"   So why should someone in Victoria, Goliad, Cuero or Gonzales be concerned about development in and around San Antonio? That development is creating impervious cover and increasing the runoff of rain creating flood event disasters and slowing the recharge of the Edwards Aquifer! The Lower Guadalupe Basin gets hurt and the lack of recharge of the Edwards causes San Antonio to need more water from elsewhere! Water to satisfy the need created by out of control development!   What is the solution? I can tell you what Bill West of GBRA will tell you! They need the Cuero 1&2 and Sandies Reservoirs to stop the flooding of the Lower Basin! He'll probably also want Lake Texana Phase II water to pump to San Antonio and Boerne! Now please keep in mind that this is the same Bill West who ran an ad in the Canyon Lake newspaper telling residents there that water conservation was needed. The same Bill West who, at the same time, told developers around Boerne not to let a lack of water stop their work!   What indeed will be the result of the same amount of rain we saw in '98 and '02 after eight or ten years of development in the San Antonio and Guadalupe River watersheds? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the City of Cuero would be history! Wouldn't it be sad if they were forced to support a project that would literally destroy Dewitt County?   F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "They smashed things up and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness!" Sounds much like what they have planned for Dewitt and Gonzales Counties! Like what they had planned for the Lower Basin with the GBRA pipeline. Like what they've already done to the Hill Country!   Government politicians and bureaucrats! They seem to believe they know what's best for all of us! They also seem willing to tell any lie to maneuver the voting public!   When I organized Water Research Group in '01 I was soon joined by Bill Richter of Victoria. A man of experience and understanding of legal and scientific terminology. He brought up something that I had never thought of. Why should water from Victoria be pumped 130 miles and 754 feet uphill to San Antonio for THEIR economic development when we should keep it here for OUR OWN economic development? After all, wasn't overdevelopment San Antonio's problem already? After a long nasty fight, joined by one of the wealthy landowners in the lower basin the Lower Guadalupe Water Supply Project seemed to be history. In fact, Bill West got up and said if the Exelon Nuclear Project is approved the LGWSP was history. Then recently he amended that and said it's not history until they get water for Boerne. Is there a new plan to take Lake Texana water and mix it with groundwater from Victoria, Goliad and Refugio Counties and give Bill his pipeline?   I often wondered, however, why the other wealthy landowners in the Lower Basin didn't join in the fray. I found out recently that most of those families were salivating at the thought of selling their water, and mine, to San Antonio! Now, when Victoria County has an opportunity to have a $6 billion nuclear project that will provide much needed jobs and economic development for this area, many of those same landowners oppose the project!   So let's carefully examine the motives here! The average working people in this area, and around the nation for that matter, are quickly being turned into the working poor by rising motor fuel and food costs! Rent, utilities and house payments are rising and we have an opportunity to have a huge local boost to the economy and the people who can most afford these rising costs oppose the project that would bring that boost! And those are the same people, for the most part, who were willing to sell their water, AND EVERYONE ELSE'S, to line their own pockets!   These people are grasping at every straw they can to oppose the nuclear project! They were willing to deplete the Chicot and Evangeline Aquifers and sell water from up to ten miles away and now they're worried about the environment! They know next to nothing about Generation III nuclear power. All they know is that they don't want it in their back yard! They were perfectly willing to pump my back yard dry to make a dollar but a project that will benefit a huge number of people, they oppose!   No, it does not look good for rural Texas! For the average working people who are quickly becoming the working poor! Newspaper reports say people are feeding their pets less because of hard times. Ag students riding horses to school and farm animals getting lower quality feed. Ten times the regular amount of garage sales and pawn shops helping people buy gas!   I predict, as far as water goes, this legislative session will be a bad one for water rights in Texas! As for the consumer/taxpayer? It looks bad there too!   The average working people, the taxpayer and homeowner is under attack. If not from being shortchanged at the grocery store, many are literally being taxed out of their homes and small businesses! Someone moves onto your block or down the country road and builds a home three times what other homes in the neighborhood are worth and suddenly your taxes double. Wilson and Calhoun Counties are just the latest where property values are doubling in many cases.   I'd suggest Rep. Geanie Morrison and Sen. Glenn Hegar introduce the "Homestead Protection Act of 2009." Three main provisions; first to prohibit the state comptroller's from pressuring county appraisal districts to raise property valuations. Second, to prohibit appraisal districts from raising valuations just because someone sells neighboring property for more than it's really worth. Third, prohibiting long-time residents and homeowners from having their taxes driven up by a neighbor or neighbors who over-build for the neighborhood! Morrison's office number is 361 5720196 and Hegar's number is 512 4630118   I had an interesting conversation with a young man named Travis Prater with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality(TCEQ). He said that in 2004 the definition of a Public Water System had changed to include churches, dance halls, country stores and just about any entity, public or private, that served, in any way, more than 25 people per week. He said that a person with a "D" Water Treatment license would have to test the water each week and keep a logbook. The license holder would have to pay $111.00 every three years plus the cost of a 20 hour course. A chlorinator would have to be installed at the well head as would a water meter. Records of how much water was treated and how much chlorine was used would have to be kept. I asked this young man if this was a codified statute or just an agency rule and if not who authored the enabling legislation. He had no clue.   I also posed a question; "since TCEQ has a 100% failure rate at protecting Texas landowners from uranium miners, how is it they feel they should be trusted with this new responsibility?" The young man somehow did not appreciate the biting sarcasm of the question! Since there has been no serious problem with the wells at churches and community centers in rural areas poisoning their congregants and customers this new encroachment of "big brother" taking control is unnecessary! Morrison and Hegar? Bless their pea pickin' hearts they're still clueless! This will only raise the cost of building in rural Texas and increase the state's bureaucracy! TCEQ is building quite a kingdom to lord over their serfdom!   We have numbers! We need to fight hard and loud! We have to at least try! "Cain't never did do nuthin' 'cause he didn't try!" An old Texas Ranger said once, "There ain't no stoppin' a man who knows he's right and keeps on comin'!" Ya hear that, Travis?     en-us Kenneth, I must say that once upon a time I thought you were a nut job, but as I have gotten older and educated by my elders ( which all of us should do.....another thread all to itself)  I can only thank you for your quest to protect our local environment for us, our children and grandchildren,... GIVE EM HELL..... and in the words of my generation....YOU GO BOY !!!!!!!! PS.. I am amazed how many comments are made about political scandals but no one is willing to comment about our environment which in my opinion will affect us long after any political scandal is over. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/KennethSchustereit/7658/#c_52915 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/KennethSchustereit/7658/#c_52915 Kenneth, I must say that once upon a time I thought you were a nut job, but as I have gotten older and educated by my elders ( which all of us should do.....another thread all to itself)  I can only thank you for your quest to protect our local environment for us, our children and grandchildren,... GIVE EM HELL..... and in the words of my generation....YOU GO BOY !!!!!!!! PS.. I am amazed how many comments are made about political scandals but no one is willing to comment about our environment which in my opinion will affect us long after any political scandal is over. Holy Cow Batman, thanks! Trust me, there are still those who think I'm a nut job. However, when I start asking hard questions they roll over and shut up. Two local and one nationally known lawyers are trolling for clients to oppose a nuclear project they know almost nothing about. They do this while a local chemical plant has a TCEQ permit to dump 20 tons of toxic polluted process water in the river per year. The same plant pumps toxic polluted hazardous waste into the ground 24/265! And all the time giving locals the impression their bio-remediation project is eating up their waste with bacteria! I've done the research and the chemical plant does far more damage in six months than the nuke plant will in 1000 years. TCEQ is a pollution justification agency filled with petty, blind bureaucrats who care more for income to the agency than taking care of Texas! They have partially approved the permit to mine uranium in Goliad despite the company's dismal record and the damage already done. http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/KennethSchustereit/7658/#c_52934 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/KennethSchustereit/7658/#c_52934 Holy Cow Batman, thanks! Trust me, there are still those who think I'm a nut job. However, when I start asking hard questions they roll over and shut up. Two local and one nationally known lawyers are trolling for clients to oppose a nuclear project they know almost nothing about. They do this while a local chemical plant has a TCEQ permit to dump 20 tons of toxic polluted process water in the river per year. The same plant pumps toxic polluted hazardous waste into the ground 24/265! And all the time giving locals the impression their bio-remediation project is eating up their waste with bacteria! I've done the research and the chemical plant does far more damage in six months than the nuke plant will in 1000 years. TCEQ is a pollution justification agency filled with petty, blind bureaucrats who care more for income to the agency than taking care of Texas! They have partially approved the permit to mine uranium in Goliad despite the company's dismal record and the damage already done.