Navigating the Water Crisis
I’m writing in response to the “Who’s Wasting Our Water” cover story [August 2024]. While the articles were well written and comprehensive, I believe you failed to thoroughly investigate desalinization. There is no such thing as a water shortage on Earth. The challenge lies in making the water we have suitable for consumption in areas where water is scarce, and desalinization technology offers a promising potential solution, particularly for Texas, with its access to the Gulf of Mexico.
Furthermore, I believe that expanding nuclear power generation could create excess power to operate desalinization plants and pump fresh water inland. By combining technologies in both the energy and water sectors, Texas has the potential to lead the way in sustainable water management.
James Greene, Georgetown
I disagree with your statement that residents with a well have “little financial incentive to cut back on water usage.” I have a well, and while I don’t have a monthly water bill, I do have the ever-present concern that I could run out of water. The financial ramifications of that would be very significant.
Whether you have a well or water from a public source, we all draw from the same water table or aquifer.
Natalie Bean, Boerne
Protect the Capitol Workers
I read “Dome of Silence: Sexual Harassment in the Texas Senate” [August 2024], and it seems that the fox is guarding the henhouse in the Senate. In 2024 it’s still “he said, she said” when it comes to sexual harassment complaints.
An external reporting process needs to be implemented to guarantee safety, along with a thorough investigation of all such complaints. The Texas Department of Public Safety protects the Capitol, and that agency would be the most prepared to handle issues of this kind. Those working in the Capitol deserve nothing less.
Mindy Sue Cohen, Pflugerville
Texas Wasn’t the Only Inspiration for Central Park
Thank you for the article on Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., “How the Designer of Central Park Was Inspired by Texas” [August 26, 2024, texasmonthly.com]. However, the story didn’t mention perhaps the most important inspiration for Central Park: Birkenhead Park, near Liverpool, England, which Olmsted visited in 1850 and wrote about in his 1852 book, Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England.
Birkenhead is significant as a design influence, particularly because of its picturesque qualities but more fundamentally and consequentially as a public space open to all. By the time Olmsted reached Texas, in 1853, the idea of democratic open space was becoming entrenched in his mind and would ultimately be a hallmark of his landscape architecture practice.
Nord Wennerstrom, Washington, D.C.
Editors’ note: Wennerstrom serves as communications director for the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a Washington, D.C.–based education and advocacy nonprofit.
