MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas-Trees that support the timber industry in Northeast Texas will be in jeopardy if ongoing water plans continue, according to Delores McCright, biologist.
McCright, a retired longtime biology instructor from Texarkana College, attended the Sulphur River Basin Authority meeting Tuesday afternoon in Mount Pleasant and decided to attend the Region D Water Planning Group so she could speak to them during their Wednesday meeting.
"When I was at the SRBA meeting yesterday, there was somebody there talking about the pipelines," McCright said. "The pipelines evidently have already been planned to pump the water out of Region D already. Did I miss something here? What has happened? It is like some people that are supposed to be in charge of natural resources have rolled over, and I don't know, have done nothing."
She told members of the Region D that she did not think statistics included in the Sulphur Basin group presentation of "Revised Patman and Nichols Yield Modeling Memorandum," at SRBA's Tuesday meeting were accurate.
"As a biologist, I can tell you some of the statistics (presented) have not included the great amount of water that our trees need every single day," McCright said. "If we start shipping large amounts of water from a big hole in the ground out of there and don't give the trees enough time to take up the water they need so they can do their processes and grow and reproduce, our economy in Region D is going to collapse. We will not have the trees that we have had in the past with the 45 to 50 inches of rain we get annually if 80 percent or so is shipped out of here. That is common sense."
The 80 percent McCright mentioned is pursuant to the 2013 funding agreement approved by SRBA and five Metroplex water entities. To date, SRBA has received $5 million from the entities. This agreement specifies that SRBA will give 80 percent of any new water yield out of the basin to those entities.
McCright also told the members of Region D, who represent 19 Northeast Texas counties, including Bowie, that she did not think SRBA was complying with Texas open meeting laws that require information being discussed to be available to the public before the group meets to take action on issues.
"I am alarmed. I admit yesterday in the meeting, I wanted to scream," McCright said. "There was not a paper I saw for us to sign up to get up and speak, and they just passed over the public comment (portion). I'm scared about our state and how things are being run with water entities. And how did it get so dysfunctional so that people cannot speak freely and be heard and something is done about it? Does anyone want to tell me what is going on?"
George Frost, vice chairman of Region D, told McCright that he agreed exactly with what she was saying because he had also experienced more than a decade's worth of frustrations when seeking information from the SRBA. These frustrations include the Joint Commission on Program and Development committee, an informal group whose meetings are not open to the public but where decisions on issues involving SRBA and their funding partners are negotiated. Critics, including Frost, say the JCPD group was created to allow SRBA to circumvent open-meeting law.
"From 2001 to 2008, I went to every SRBA meeting (that) there was," Frost said. "Some of the members of the JCPD committee would go to meetings in Dallas and make decisions without any input from anyone or any group knowing what is going on. They would do that with the idea that only one member of SRBA and one member of the JCPD committee did not make a quorum. I filed an attorney general opinion about them a long time ago."
After the meeting, Frost said in 2003 the SRBA held invitation-only meetings.
"It is the elite people over the common people," Frost said.
McCright said if water is withheld from trees for a decade or so then red oaks and white oaks die. After that, trees that require fewer amounts of water will die slowly.
"If you bottleneck (the water) and put it in some kind of basin and ship the water out, the trees are going to realize they are in drought, and we will not have enough trees for the logging industries and the paper industries to make a living. This will happen in a couple decades I'm a tree hugger, but I sleep beside a paper maker every night. I believe in growing trees for our economy and I love trees, but they can be cut down and used, and they should be. And we can replant them, but they need water."
McCright, who was referring to her husband who works for International Paper, asked members of Region D if there would be any way for SRBA meetings and Region D meetings to be held the same day of the month so stakeholders could more easily attend to find out what was going on regionally with water.
No Region D member responded to McCright when she asked the question during the meeting, but after the meeting, Walt Sears, Region D executive administrator, said the groups operate independently as SRBA covers the basin and Region D covers regional issues. Also, SRBA meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 1 p.m. at the Mount Pleasant Civic Center, and Region D sometimes does not meet monthly unless it is nearing the end of a planning cycle, said Linda Price, chairwoman of Region D.
McCright also brought up SRBA being reviewed by the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. Sarah Kinkle, review director, as well as others who work for the commission, were in Mount Pleasant Tuesday to discuss how SRBA operates with stakeholders. This included members of the group along with some who are affected by the decisions made by SRBA. River authorities such as SRBA have never been reviewed by this commission,which reports back to the state about how effectively Texas government agencies are performing.
Prior to Bill 523, passed by the legislature in May 2015, authorities such as SRBA could be abolished by the commission if they were found to be nonfunctional. However, it is still possible that state legislators will decide to take action regarding the commission's report, which will be published online on May 1, Sears said.
In other business, Temple McKinnon, a project manager from the Texas Water Development Board, told members that after seven years of working with Region D, she will now work on planning at the state level. Ron Ellis, who has much experience with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality, will now be Region D's project manager.
Also Tuesday, Region D named its officers for the year. These include Price as chairwoman; Frost as vice chairman; Bill Kirby as secretary; JoAnn Duman and Bob Staton as at-large members; David Nabors as Liaison GMA 8 and Region C; Staton as Region I Liaison; and Price as Liaison GMA 11.
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