Texas law requires that the water plans protect the state's agricultural, natural and water resources. This plan fails on every count.

An angle people don't always think of, is the economic and environmental damage the reservoir is already doing. Landowners don't know whether to build barns, fences, houses that might be inundated, whether to plant trees that might never be harvested. So they're not maximizing the economic use of the land. They don't know whether they'll be able to leave their family ranch to their children, so their children must try and plan their lives with a huge uncertainty. Some people have already clear-cut land because they're afraid they won't get the value of their trees if their land is condemned.

We are committed to stopping those particular projects. This was just a skirmish. The real war will be when they try to build one of these reservoirs.

These dams are not needed. The damage they would cause is not justified.

If the refuge is approved and land is placed in the refuge, then the reservoir cannot be built unless Congress passes a bill removing the land from the refuge system. This is because the state or local agencies involved can't condemn federal land. Once before, a Texas congressman (Ralph Hall) tried to remove a refuge from the refuge system so that a reservoir could be built on the site, and he met with widespread opposition, both in Texas and around the country. But it would be possible.

The real fight will come when they actually try to build one of these reservoirs. We lost today's skirmish.