Back in August 2023 I shared the national rankings by U.S. News & World Report of the Best U.S. States to Reside based upon eight metrics. My home state of Texas ranked only #35th overall among all 50-states; a ranking that is quite low based upon many rural, arrogant, and biased Texan attitudes here. And as most of you know well, the rural parts of Texas are heavily dominated by MAGA Republican politics. By the way, as a side note and not so coincidental, our Texas 21st Congressional District in the federal House of Representatives is led by (R) Chip Roy who is also the policy chairman of the radical House Freedom Caucus in Washington D.C.

This past Wednesday we received in the mail along with our Kerrville Utilities bill (water & sewage) for the month of December, a letter of disclosure, or as the City of Kerrville worded it, a letter of “Transparency.” This is what it said:

Now, returning to Texas’ national ranking of the “best” states to reside in the U.S., our ranking overall was 35th. But in the category of environmental protections, enforcement, and health-safety we sadly rank a lowly #40. In other words, our environmental care and protection, even for public health and safety, is in all honesty cow-manure! Why do we seem to NOT care for public health and safety and environmental protections? I’ll give you two guesses.

Mom and I live inside the unaffected area toward the top of that map. However, my sister lives down near the Kerr County Municipal Airport (red arrow), the area in yellow that IS contaminated. Granted, a running average of 0.010 mg/L of TTHM, which is equal to 80-parts per billion is nothing to be too seriously alarmed about, right? But here’s my three questions:

1. When could anyone wholeheartedly trust the MAGA Republicans, especially those who rule all the rural areas of Texas?
2. Are they divulging ALL the actual data in a correct, unbiased, transparent amount? And…
3. If all of Kerrville’s water supply comes from only two sources—the Edwards-Trinity Plateau Aquifer and the Guadalupe River, and BOTH are contaminated to some degree now or in the near future, then how will the rest of our water sources be exempt or unaffected?

Did you read the part of the Q&A second page about “What causes high TTHM levels“? It states:

Heavy rainfall can often introduce large amounts of organic matter, including grass and leaves, into the river water. When this organic matter reacts with chlorine during the disinfection process, it creates TTHMs. Additionally, when drought conditions and extreme high [hot] temperatures exist, the water becomes warmer than usual and requires more chlorine be used for disinfection.

— City of kerrville to its water consumers, jan. 10, 2024

The Hill Country of Texas and Kerrville over the last 2-years has experienced all of these climate events listed, except the extended heavy rainfalls, although these last two weeks we have had a steady flow of rainfall for about 12 out of the last 16 days/nights.

There has been another recent climate event contributing to our water contamination: high winds. And the high wind-gusts blow all sorts of pollutants and organic matter into our river which eventually reaches our underground aquifer. High winds also dry out already drought-ridden conditions. Examine these four tables below…

So for the past 4-5 days myself and Mom have suffered horribly from high levels of pollen, cedar, and other air-contaminates. I guess we may be dealing with water contamination soon enough as well. Yes, it is glaringly clear why Texas ranks at #40 out of 50-states in the nation for (poor) environmental health and safety. Surprise surprise.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always – Be Environmentally Responsible!

The Professor’s Convatorium © 2023 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0