My views on “Losing Ground”

For the past week or so, in my class, we have been discussing over a series of articles on the MySA.com website called “Losing Ground”! These articles inform its readers on a law written for developers that has cost the city millions of dollars, and the protection of the regions water supply! The law is called “Vested Rights” and it stops the city from putting any kind of new restrictions on real estate that developers have plans for. Yeah I know it seems like no big deal right, but the thing that is making many people upset is that some developers are building over the Edwards Aquifers recharge zones. Some times there are times when the developers are denied the vested rights that they were hoping for, but all they do is find away around it to get their way. For example in the article it stated that in 2001 the H.E. Butt Grocery Co. had plans to build a new store on Hildebrand Avenue. Although the company wanted to build the store in 2001 they found plans for that area filed close to a century before that! Even some people from the H.E.B company themselves said,” There wasn’t even H.E.B stores back then?” Finding those plans allowed the company to follow the ordinances in that time! Some times when the developers do get to build on the land they have to make sure that there is at lease some grasslands to allow the water to travel through the ground and in to the aquifer. Reading this article gave me a little more insight on how well the government really works and cares for the environment. In my opinion it seems that there will always be a way for people who have money to get what they want! Also from a presentation done in my class from a member of AGUA, Elisabeth Earnley, she lets all of us know that if we have some things to say against these actions that are taking place we should go and let city council hear our concerns. Even though there are meetings to go to the only time to attend them are during the day when every body is either at work or at school. I think that the articles on the website really do give a lot of information that people should know about. The only thing is that not too many people have any idea that these articles are even out. So I think that all of the information gathered should really be put out to the public eye. Allowing for others to know just how bad things are now before things get any worse for the aquifer!