Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane
One Part Grudge and Two Parts Grovel
RECEIVED Wed., Sept. 8, 2010
Dear Editor,
Mixing one part grudge with two parts grovel, Michael King pours a comforting but disorienting brew passed off as water wisdom [“Point Austin,” News, Sept. 3]. Of course he and the mayor are entitled to their opinions. They aren’t entitled to their own facts.
No, we haven’t heard it all before – key facts about Austin water use, water utility spending and misrepresentations, Water Treatment Plant No. 4, and the list of cheaper, less-harmful alternatives remain unreported, underreported, or misreported. The rate increases being forced upon Austin residents and businesses by the Austin Water Utility, starting in 2004 and continuing through 2015, will be an order of magnitude greater than the $3 or $4 per month that King quotes Mayor Leffingwell as buying us “water security.” WTP4 will account for about 40% of the increases. It will reduce, not increase, “water security,” sucking up hundreds of millions of dollars that should be invested in water efficiency, recycling, and fixing old broken pipes.
Faced with drastically reduced water sales, AWU is cutting tens of millions from the budget for fixing old pipes that lose billions of gallons every year while rushing to commit hundreds of millions for treatment capacity we don’t need. This backward prioritization has not been reported by the Chronicle or anyone else.
King paints the plant as a local version of the Obama jobs/stimulus projects that informed progressive Democrats should and do support. Wrong. Building things we don’t need has never been part of the stimulus plan. If the plant is a “jobs” program, perhaps you could tell us who gets the jobs, at what cost, and how many sustainable “green jobs” we lose in the trade-off. Labeling calls for fiscal responsibility and honest information as “anti-government,” King is drinking from a different source.
Mixing one part grudge with two parts grovel, Michael King pours a comforting but disorienting brew passed off as water wisdom [“Point Austin,” News, Sept. 3]. Of course he and the mayor are entitled to their opinions. They aren’t entitled to their own facts.
No, we haven’t heard it all before – key facts about Austin water use, water utility spending and misrepresentations, Water Treatment Plant No. 4, and the list of cheaper, less-harmful alternatives remain unreported, underreported, or misreported. The rate increases being forced upon Austin residents and businesses by the Austin Water Utility, starting in 2004 and continuing through 2015, will be an order of magnitude greater than the $3 or $4 per month that King quotes Mayor Leffingwell as buying us “water security.” WTP4 will account for about 40% of the increases. It will reduce, not increase, “water security,” sucking up hundreds of millions of dollars that should be invested in water efficiency, recycling, and fixing old broken pipes.
Faced with drastically reduced water sales, AWU is cutting tens of millions from the budget for fixing old pipes that lose billions of gallons every year while rushing to commit hundreds of millions for treatment capacity we don’t need. This backward prioritization has not been reported by the Chronicle or anyone else.
King paints the plant as a local version of the Obama jobs/stimulus projects that informed progressive Democrats should and do support. Wrong. Building things we don’t need has never been part of the stimulus plan. If the plant is a “jobs” program, perhaps you could tell us who gets the jobs, at what cost, and how many sustainable “green jobs” we lose in the trade-off. Labeling calls for fiscal responsibility and honest information as “anti-government,” King is drinking from a different source.
Sincerely,
Bill Bunch
Bill Bunch
