LETTERS

Editor,

So where did all this water come from? Have you seen the big pond sitting in a bowl mined into the residential golf course being constructed on the north side of town?

Is it rain run off from the hills above the construction site? Is it gray water piped in from the Presa? Or is it water mined out of our rapidly shrinking underground aquifer?

So who gave this real estate developer permission to do this? And what permission does he (developers are always caballeros) have to water all the grass he intends to grow on the golf course and on the lawns around all the big U.S. suburban-style homes he plans to build?

So what municipal fees will the golf course developer pay for this water use? Do any wealthy San Miguel real estate owners pay appropriate fees based on the big volumes of water they use?

And what about all the wealthy rancheros around San Miguel? Are they paying any similar big government fees for the constant watering of their fields?

Amazing how all real estate use decisions are about short-term wealth generation—to both private land owners and publicly elected people—and not about the big, rapid impacts on the environment and, now, to global warming.

Is there a public document we could look at that shows municipal or state approval of the water in this golf course? Was there any public discussion with the municipal council about the environmental sanity of this project?

Think there is any likelihood that, down the road, a top San Miguel or state politician will end up with a house on this golf course?

Or is all this just a big secret?

Jock Whitehouse.