Welcome to the 4th
posting of So, What’s the Rest of the Story
There is a European folk tale
entitled Henny Penny, known in the U.S. as Chicken Little. It is about a chicken who believes the sky is
falling. Most of us knew it
as children. Today I am going to discuss
the local version of Chicken Little played by Navigation District Chairman
Malcolm Dieckow.
Chairman Dieckow has been trumpeting
“Little Bay is dying” for months now. He
reached fever pitch in June when he hired an Austin Public Relations firm who
put on a seriously flawed, one might say intentionally flawed story line,
regarding Little Bay last month at the Salt Water Pavilion. Publicly Malcolm has said that was his
sponsored meeting and not that of the Navigation District proper. But it was the Navigation District who paid
for it. Malcolm and the PR firm
represented among other things, that 2.5 million gallons of treated sewage is
being dumped into Little Bay on a daily basis.
Remember, the sky is falling! In
fact, the average treated water produced daily by the facility is
800,000 gallons and Rockport Country Club purchases and uses 500,000 gallons of
that amount for golf course irrigation.
So, what’s the rest of the
story? The EPA has tracked water quality
in Aransas and Little Bay and has posted the results online for at least 4
years. Here is the link: https://www/epa.gov/waterdata-20-beach-advisory-and-closing-online-notification. Water is tested in different locations, twice
weekly in Little Bay and in Aransas Bay.
The results speak for themselves.
There are no violations, no warnings, no citations – nothing! Yes, there are contaminants listed; all
water has some contaminates, but nothing beyond negligible. Satisfy yourself, results go back to 2018. There is a reason that Rockport Beach Park is
Texas’ only Blue Wave Beach. The
Rockport Pilot posts several photos of children and adults enjoying Little Bay,
the Blue Wave Beach Park and Aransas Bay twice weekly. A 10-year-old girl from Duncanville pictured
holding a 20-pound black drum she caught in Little Bay. Kayakers skimming the water while fishing and
catching. Children playing in the waters
enjoying themselves. All while the
Chicken squawks.
The Navigation District’s Audited Financial
Statements contain an interesting claim made by management – that its assets of
the beach park and the boat launches are THE sources of tourism in
Aransas County. If they are, why is
Malcolm running the risk of poisoning the minds of locals and tourists alike by
screaming the sky is falling/Little Bay is dying? It’s an old fashion power grab. Allow me to drive this point home: the Navigation District does not have
jurisdiction over water quality – period.
The Water Code does not give them any water quality authority. Yet they do battle with the City of Rockport constantly - making commitments and then immediately breaking them.
The District seeks to have the
Legislature designate Aransas County as MS4.
That would require a change in the law, lowering the MS4 population
requirement of 100,000+ to 25,000.
Little Bay is just a means to an end.
Malcolm and Commissioner Tommy Moore have said more than once that they
seek to control a permitting process. A
permitting process that would require their approval before another road,
another roof-top, another subdivision would be allowed in Aransas County. So, how do you get the Legislature to change
the law? Scream from the rooftops that
the Sky is Falling – Little Bay is Dying and you scare the local citizenry into
demanding the law be changed. If another serious rain event occurs while Malcolm is screaming about the sky falling, it would be my recommendation that the churches, businesses and families affected by the flooding immediately seek redress in Court.
Next post I will delve into the
history of Little Bay and the Beach park dating back to 1958.
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