News Tidbits from Texas
Rain! We've been blessed with it recently - March closed out with a new record - 8.96 inches which eclipsed the 1992 mark of 6.12. The drought is perhaps not yet ended, but it is soggy out there now and the weeds have responded accordingly!
After 90 days and over five million dollars the huge compost fire near Helotes ( a town just northwest of here) was extinguished last week. Located over the aquifer recharge zone, efforts to put it out were contaminating area wells. The smoke caused frequent closures of several elementary & middle schools and one high school. Some families in the immediate area had to evacuate their homes. The pile of dirt, brush and splintered trees had accumulated over a number of years as bulldozers scraped large sections of native terrain for housing subdivisions. The pile was eighty feet high and covered nearly four acres. The blaze began Christmas Day - whether arson or spontaneous combustion has not been determined. Now the law suits begin.
On March 22nd TxDoT signed the first contract of the massive Trans-Texas Corridor - the project (boondoggle, IMO!) that will smother Texas with a network of toll roads. The first section of 40 miles is Texas 130 running from south of Austin to Seguin. The contract was issued to Zachry Corp in conjuntion with the Spanish firm Cintra. Completion is forecast for 2012. These firms will have complete control for fifty years. The next contract to be signed soon is Texas 121 running north from Dallas. In response to vociferous ( but obviously helpless) protests from the public, a moratorium bill was introduced in the legislature that would put off the balance of the project for two years. The bill is not expected to make it out of committee this session.
After 90 days and over five million dollars the huge compost fire near Helotes ( a town just northwest of here) was extinguished last week. Located over the aquifer recharge zone, efforts to put it out were contaminating area wells. The smoke caused frequent closures of several elementary & middle schools and one high school. Some families in the immediate area had to evacuate their homes. The pile of dirt, brush and splintered trees had accumulated over a number of years as bulldozers scraped large sections of native terrain for housing subdivisions. The pile was eighty feet high and covered nearly four acres. The blaze began Christmas Day - whether arson or spontaneous combustion has not been determined. Now the law suits begin.
On March 22nd TxDoT signed the first contract of the massive Trans-Texas Corridor - the project (boondoggle, IMO!) that will smother Texas with a network of toll roads. The first section of 40 miles is Texas 130 running from south of Austin to Seguin. The contract was issued to Zachry Corp in conjuntion with the Spanish firm Cintra. Completion is forecast for 2012. These firms will have complete control for fifty years. The next contract to be signed soon is Texas 121 running north from Dallas. In response to vociferous ( but obviously helpless) protests from the public, a moratorium bill was introduced in the legislature that would put off the balance of the project for two years. The bill is not expected to make it out of committee this session.
posted by Yuska at
10:39 AM
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