Water and Sewer Utilities

Because Summertime Ain't for Thinkin'

So. Your Water Rate's Probably Going Up By 5.7 Percent Next Year

First, the bad news. Next year, the city estimates that residential users will pay 5.7 percent more for water, according to City Manager Mary Suhm's latest budget briefing (page 35). Wilonsky told you it was coming, right after the city hiked rates last year, again more than five percent. The brief ... More >>

One-Man Lord of the Rings? Sounds Precious.

Pursuit of Shale Gas May Contaminate Water, Says UT Study, But It's Not Due to Fracking

The University of Texas Energy Institute cast a skeptical eye on the likelihood that the actual act of fracking could result in groundwater contamination. Particularly in the Barnett Shale, where aquifers sit thousands of feet above the shale rock, head researcher Dr. Chip Groat reasoned that the da ... More >>

City Council to Discuss How to Reconcile Developing the City With Conserving Our Water

City Hall's touting the Urban Reserve as an ideal development given our weather and water needs.​In one way, shape or form we've noted most of what the city council will discuss this afternoon during its briefing. But there's one briefing we've overlooked: Water Conservation and the Land Developme ... More >>

Addison's New Water Tower Is Also a Power Plant and An Art Project!

A Friend of Unfair Park dispatches this look at Addison's new water tower, which is presently making the rounds on Reddit. And, yes, those are wind turbines on top -- 10 total, each eight feet tall, the point of which is to operate the water tower and power the street lights on Arapaho. The city's ... More >>

Why Is Suhm Asking Council to Extend Watering Restrictions? "Water Sales," In Part.

​When Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm first told the council it was time, at long last, to enact twice-a-week watering restrictions, Dallas's six water-supply reservoirs were about 25 percent depleted. But last week's record rainfall, in addition to other recent wet-weather events, have helped fill ... More >>

A Week After They Found Pig Blood in the Trinity, Still So Very Many Questions

The back and forth between the city and Columbia Packing Pant on the January 19 river-of-pig-blood incident is fascinating on a bunch of levels. If nothing else, it would seem to raise urgent questions about the way industrial facilities all over Dallas pump waste into the city's sanitary sewer syst ... More >>

Study: In Drought Planning, Water Managers Should Look Further Back Than 1950s

Photo by Brandon Thibodeaux​As we near the end of 2011, let us now look back on the year (without much fondness) and take stock. We racked up one of driest years in recorded history (more on that in a moment). The livestock and agricultural industries took a shuddering blow that, when the fina ... More >>

Why is Drought-Hit Dallas Selling Water?

Um ... because someone at City Hall is smart. Dang.

Irving Needs More of Dallas's Water. And So Does the North Texas Municipal Water District.

​Speaking of Dallas's water supply ...I was on US 380 yesterday, headed to Cattleman's Cafe in Blue Ridge for chicken-fried steak, when, driving toward Farmersville, I espied what's left of Lake Lavon, down some 13 feet due to the drought. "It's stunning," in the words of North Texas Municipal Wat ... More >>

Mary Suhm to Recommend Council Implement Stage 1 Watering Restrictions on December 12

Click to enlarge this chart from the drought update that will be discussed by the Dallas City Council on Wednesday.​On November 2, City Manager Mary Suhm told Unfair Park that the city would initiate Stage 1 water restrictions sooner than later; but exactly when, she would not say, only that the c ... More >>

University of Texas Fracking Study: No Evidence That It Contaminates Groundwater

​The University of Texas released the preliminary results today of that comprehensive study on the controversial natural gas producing process known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), drawing no link between it and claims of groundwater contamination. "While there have been casing/cement ... More >>

Poster of the Week: Beirut at the Prophet Bar on November 1

​ There are three very specific reasons why this poster designed by former DC9 contributor Lance Lester works so well. And they are? location, location, location.

What Do "Voluntary" Mean? It Means Dallas Wants Us to Cut Back on Yard Watering. Now.

Dew, the city's water-conservation mascot, is no Perry the Pipe.​Last week, you may recall, I asked Frank Librio, Dallas City Hall spokesman, if Dallas had any plans to follow its neighbors' leads and clamp down on water use. To which he responded: "The lakes are currently 84% full and we continue ... More >>

Your Water Bill's Going Up This Year. And the Year After That. And the ... Well, You Get It.

Click to embiggen ... or just go to Page 29 in this budget briefing.​I mention this in the comments below, but the 5.91 percent increase in our Dallas Water Utilities bill comin' this fall won't be the last one any time soon. Matter of fact, per this morning's council briefing, this is but the fir ... More >>

Stars Align On Stage

Service Employees International Union's Texas Coordinator on "The Truth About Tom Leppert"

From an SEIU newletter​Really. Who knew?Who knew that Ron Natinsky's early-morning jab at Mike Rawlings over his union endorsements would become The Issue of the Day? Surely not Tom Leppert, who wound up having his spokesman comment on the matter once Rawlings made it clear that, hey, he didn't do ... More >>

Have Horton, Will Travel

How's the Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund's $27-Mil Investment in Arizona Working Out?

This is right about where the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System invested $27 million four years ago.​Speaking of the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System, which is investing $200 million in the looooong-in-the-works Museum Tower in the Arts District, I was reminded that way back in '06, t ... More >>

The City Wins For the Second Time, This Time on Appeal, in Actual Case of the Mondays

​Steven Michael was hired in April 2007 as an Environmental Inspector III for the city of Dallas Water Utilities Department, at which point he told his immediate supervisor, Yilam Zerihun, that he had a disability that didn't allow him to lift anything heavier than 20 pounds. Michael, who employme ... More >>

Less Than Two Years After Redo Began on White Rock Lake Spillway, an Official Dedication

​As you no doubt recall, the rains of March '06 wreaked havoc upon the White Rock Lake Spillway -- retaining walls collapsed, and huge hunks of land were swallowed by the storms. Which is why, in August '08, the city council agreed to spend $16,748,070 to not only repair the damage, but upgrade th ... More >>

Liveblogging the Council Briefing During Which They're Discussing Hiking Your Water Bill

If you've never met the director of Dallas Water Utilities, here she is: Jody Puckett​Walked into today's city council briefing a couple minutes late to catch Tennell Atkins talking about how Dallas needs "classy," and then they gave a long and lengthily introduced award to Wal-Mart wherein everyb ... More >>

Ann Margolin on Why She Opposes Mary Suhm's Proposed Water Rate Increase

District 13 council member Ann Margolin​At last, another council member with a blog: Ann Margolin, who's penned a little sumpin-sumpin about the budget by way of an invite to one her town hall meetings. Specifically, Margolin writes, she's opposed to the increase in water and stormwater fees as pr ... More >>

Feline Love

Out in West Texas, Harold Simmons Is Burying Hudson River Carcinogens

Ever wondered what's at the bottom of New York's Hudson River? Andrews, a small West Texas town 350 miles west of Dallas, is about to find out.Last month, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved an application to allow the disposal of low-level radioactive waste in a site just outside ... More >>

Laughin' At Cho

Podesta's Peeps Suggest Ways to Fix Dallas's "Dangerous Chemical Facilities"

The loading dock at Petra Chemical's Dallas facility on Storey Lane Only yesterday, Politico.com suggested that the think tank Center for American Progress would become a major player within Barack Obama's White House. After all, it was founded and is headed by former Clinton chief of staff and c ... More >>

Last Night: Silver Jews At Hailey's Club

Stories To Teach

Quixote Sings

That is Not the Smell of Money, Tim

That Trinity Thing You Doo-Doo

Eeek, the Facts!

The city council fears mice in corners whispering truth

Asphalt Jungle

Understaffed and overworked, public works inspectors prowl the streets for potholes

Death on tap

Cryptosporidium kills AIDS victims in Dallas. Who will the pathogen claim next?

Bo? Hell no!

Chicken king Bo Pilgrim wants to bring a new plant and new jobs to East Texas. But East Texans say they want no more of his filthy business.