The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

A hot topic in our community right now is the city's interest in selling some water to a metroplex city (hereafter known as MC). Our city has the water rights to a fairly large reservoir, and they have been negotiating a water study with MC with the possibility of selling to them.

As of this writing, there is no proposal to sell water -- the city only entered into an agreement with MC whereby MC would provide the bulk of the funding for a study on the feasibility of selling. Yet every Bubba in town is downright panicky and screaming, "Our water is gold, you'll drain the lake, all you are interested in is the money!"

Most of the letters to the editor, and even a newspaper reporter in one article, have referred to selling our water rights. That is incorrect. The city is not considering selling water rights -- they are considering selling water. Big difference!

One lady said, " . . .the city is wanting to sell our water to MC only for the possibility of putting money into their pockets." Well, duh! Of course the city wants to sell the water for money! What other reason would there be to sell it? I bet this lady, if she works, goes to work only for the possibility of putting money into her pocket. Does she really think that the professionals who have come up with this idea don't know as much as she does about the capacity of the lake and whether this is a feasible option? Does she really think they sat around the table and said, "We don't care if we have no water in ten years -- let's get the money!" And all the Bubbas seem to think the money is going into someone's personal pocketbook. The city needs that money for infrastructure. The reservoir can be running over (as it currently is), but if the city doesn't have an adequate delivery system, all that "liquid gold" out there isn't going to be worth spit.

This lady further questions why the council should be allowed to "make decisions for us." That's the way the system works, Honey! It's a form of what this country set up more than 200 years ago. It's called representative government. You elect a representative, and if you don't like the decisions he makes, you elect another one the next time around. Methinks you show your ignorance a tad! She bemoans the fact that the citizens who live close to the lake moved there because of the lake, and "if the lake goes away, will they go away?" Number 1, the citizens who live close to the lake aren't citizens of the city, so they really have no say in the matter. Number 2, who said the lake was going away? As I understand the proposal, if the city agrees to sell water, the contract will include caps and drought provisions.

There was one Bubba who wrote in. He lived out in the county and was upset that county citizens haven't been included in the decision making process since the county water system buys water from the city. He's calling his lawyer! That's real logical. Say this Bubba has a pecan tree in his yard, and his neighbor buys 10 pounds of pecans from him every year. Bubba decides he wants to cut down his tree. But his neighbor says, "I'm calling my lawyer, because I buy pecans off that tree, and I should have some say in what happens to it." Bubba might think a little differently on the issue then!

One guy said he went out in his boat and "measured" the depth of the lake. I'm sure that was real accurate. Another calculated how much per gallon the city would receive for the water. He must be either Einstein or clairvoyant or both, because there has been no decision made on how much MC would be allowed to buy and at what price.

And the city officials and professional consultants who spent years in education and who do these types of studies for a living aren't adequate to bring a recommendation. Oh no! We have a Citizen Task Force appointed consisting of housewives, bakers, diaper producers, soup makers, etc. Aside from the one engineer and a retired utilities director on the committee, these people aren't qualified to make any kind of decision about selling water!

At any rate, all the city proposed was a study, and you would think MC had already sucked up every drop of water out there. These people need to get a grip and maybe read the story of "Chicken Little" again!