Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Tarrant Regional Water District's 2013 Annual Propaganda Report

I think it was a week ago I opened my mailbox to discover the eagerly anticipated Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's 2014 Spring Update.

And now, this Easter morning, I opened my mailbox to find the equally eagerly anticipated Tarrant Regional Water District Annual Report 2013.

Four months into 2014 and we're getting the eagerly anticipated TRWD 2013 Annual Report?

I eagerly anticipated that this particular report would be a bonanza of propaganda. The first paragraph let me know I would not be disappointed...

"Thank you for taking the time to read the 2013 TRWD Board Report. Our board and district staff have been working diligently over the last year to ensure the Water District's service area has ample water to sustain its rapid growth, strong levees and dams to protect us from devastating floods and excellent recreational facilities that promote a healthy, active lifestyle."

Reading through the entire propaganda piece I read nothing about what the TRWD Board has done to protect the people of Haltom City from that town's creeks when they go into devastating killer flash flood mode.

There is no mention in the TRWD Annual Report regarding the Board thwarting the efforts of fellow TRWD Board Member Mary Kelleher's attempts to examine TRWD records and documents.

I have long opined that I wish someone would examine the TRWD records and documents that cover the TRWD Board's decision to hire Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger's son, J.D., to be the Executive Director of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle. J.D. went from being an assistant prosecutor to running a construction project, with his only qualification seeming to be that his mother is Kay Granger.

Yes, I now understand that nepotism is an accepted part of doing public business the Fort Worth Way, but it still sort of galls me.

Speaking of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, (and who isn't?) part of that boondoggle is taking down the levees that have kept a large part of the Central Fort Worth zone safe from floods for well over half a century. The levees were built to contain the Trinity River after a massive flood wreaked havoc in the early 1950s.

Currently three bridges are scheduled to be built over an unbuilt bypass channel through which future floods may flow, thus allowing the removal of the levees which have done the job assigned to them for decades.

In the page in the TRWD 2013 Annual Report about Flood Control, like I already said, there is no mention made of anything being done to mitigate the Haltom City flood threat, but almost half the Report's Flood Control page was taken up by that which you see below.


The text explaining the above photo says, "LaGrave Field in Fort Worth, after massive flooding tested the floodway levees in the 1950s."

Huh? And the point here is? What?

I am assuming this is a photo of the flood which resulted in the building of the massive levees one sees now by LaGrave Field.

So, really, what information is being imparted by including this photo and its accompanying text in this TRWD 2013 Annual Report?

Another page in the TRWD 2013 Annual Report is titled Reverse Litter.

You have likely already seen the billboards touting the TRWD's new anti-litter plan, those being those billboards asking people to make the pledge to pick up ten pieces of litter each Tuesday.

Yes, that sounds like a very effective anti-litter plan, likely to appeal to those who actually don't litter. A more effective anti-litter plan might be to induce the litterers to cease with their littering ways. I understand in some states one can get fined for driving down a road with a pickup full of litter with a trail of litter flying from ones truck bed.

How much did this slick, full color 12 page report cost the taxpayers to publish and mail, I can't help but wonder? Only about half the publication is actual propaganda verbiage, the other half  is photos and graphics.

How come no mention was made in the TRWD 2013 Annual Report regarding the lawsuit the TRWD lost whilst trying to get water from Oklahoma? That particular TRWD bit of business was a supreme bit of embarrassment in 2013. And yet no mention in the Annual Report.....

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