A water war is coming to a head in the race for State Representative in Texas House District 17 (Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, Lee and a portion of Brazos counties). Independents are backing Democratic Pati Jacobs, and to defeat the Republican incumbent State Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt. Dear Editor:
Many people are turning their attention to the water war now fully underway in our area thanks to Aqua Water's terrific forum last Tuesday night in Smithville. Thousands of residents now know that EndOp, LLC a private corporation led by former Williamson County Commissioner, Frankie Limmer, is attempting to finalize a deal to take our groundwater to Hays County, potentially leaving us high and dry. Citizens can read more details at IndependentTexans.com – then click on "Kill the Trans-Texas Water Highway".
That said, there are thousands of residents who remain uninformed.
I politely asked our state representative for District 17 (Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, Lee and the westside of Brazos counties) Tim Kleinschmidt, who spoke at this forum, to debate his opponent rancher Pati Jacobs. We want to hold forums on this issue throughout our region so that more people can get informed. His response was "anywhere anytime." We are waiting. We are also wondering. What we heard from Mr. Kleinschmidt at this forum was the same thing we were told about the Trans-Texas Corridor. There's really not much we can do to stop it.
We are now — as politely as we can — asking publicly if the representative is compromised by the fact that he has leased his own water rights? Is his relationship to Gov. Rick Perry, who tried to force the Corridor on our region, keeping him from being independent enough to fight something in his own backyard that is clearly not in our interest?
Independent voters are not naive. We are starting to shop the ballot in this race. And we are waiting to hear from our representative.
Sincerely,
Linda Curtis