Gov. Abbott sends words of hope to those opposed to Marvin Nichols

By News Staff

Mount Pleasant Tribune, February 25, 2023

Will DFW’s thirst flood the ‘Texas rainforest’? Inside the fight over Marvin Nichols Reservoir

By Jess Hardin

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, February 10, 2022

After parking his white Ford pickup truck in a pasture of knee-high grass, Jim Marshall trudges toward it: a post oak tree with branches so long they bend toward the ground and nearly meet the grass on either side.

Marshall shields his eyes from the afternoon sun and stops under the tree’s shade. He points to a hefty bough cradling a nest as big as an armchair. A family of bald eagles made its home here, in the middle of Marshall’s 917 acres.

He bends down and picks up an eagle feather.

Even though his 7-year-old granddaughter collects feathers, he doesn’t pocket it. It is illegal to possess or use the parts of the federally protected eagles.

If water planners in Dallas-Fort Worth get their wish, this massive oak will wither into skeletal driftwood in the middle of Marvin Nichols Lake.

Since the turn of the century, DFW water planners have been clear: North Texans are going to need a lot of water in the coming decades, and one way to get it is by building a reservoir about 150 miles away.

The project’s would-be sponsors — North Texas Municipal Water District, Tarrant Regional Water District and Upper Trinity Water Regional Water District — point to DFW’s explosive growth when explaining the need for Marvin Nichols.

“We’ve got 55,000 people moving to our service area every year. That equates to a nice-sized city. None of them are bringing their own water,” said Wayne Larson, director of communications at North Texas Municipal Water District.

Texas is split into 16 water regions. Each is required to devise a plan to meet its evolving water needs every five years. By 2070, the population of Region C, which includes Dallas-Fort Worth, is expected to surpass 14.6 million, according to the region’s 2021 water plan.

The water plan projects that, with current water supply, the region will have a shortage of more than 423 billion gallons per year by 2070.

Read the full article here.

Letters to the Editor — Water for a fake lagoon…

By Letters to the Editor

The Dallas Morning News, February 4, 2022

Water for a fake lagoon

Re: “’Ready to get it going’ — Anna lagoon may open this year, developer says,” Tuesday Metro & Business story.

I read with interest this story about the lagoon project in Anna. The story mentioned several other lagoon projects proposed for or under way for the area.

Did you know that there are 326,000 gallons in an acre foot of water? That is, an acre in an area one foot deep. I used a depth of 3 feet, though I can guess the new lagoon will be deeper, to calculate that the Anna lagoon would hold 2,249,400 gallons of treated water.

The rate of evaporation in the Texas summer would require a constant source to keep it replenished. Where would this water, and the fresh water in all the other lagoons in the area, come from?

This takes us to the controversy surrounding the Marvin Nichols reservoir in Northeast Texas. To quote an article from station KETR-FM (88.9): “The Marvin Nichols Reservoir remains a theoretical project that its proponents believe will solve the Dallas-Fort Worth’s water problems for what they hope would be forever. The lake being pitched … would deprive the timber industry that is vital to the economic well-being of many communities throughout the region.”

So, we will decimate a community and its economy so that folks can play in a fake lagoon.

Martha McSweeney, Larue