Monday, February 22, 2021

The story of New Deal water for Texas, told in images


Above: Part of the 2013 infrastructure report card for Texas, from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Drinking water infrastructure received a "D-" letter grade. The Lone Star State has been warned for many years that its infrastructure is substandard. Is it any wonder then, that millions of Texans have lost their water supply over the past few days? Image used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: The New Deal showed that infrastructure doesn't have to be crummy. Here is a graphic showing new, large-scale drinking water projects in Texas, and across the nation, funded by the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933-1939. Image from America Builds: The Record of PWA, 1939.


Above: In the 1930s, the PWA funded the construction of the Buchanan Dam in central Texas. Today, this New Deal dam still provides electricity, drinking water, flood control, and recreation opportunities to many Texans. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.


Above: The Buchanan Dam, as it appears today. Image from Google Earth, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: A town hall gathering in St. Augustine, Texas, called to discuss ways to raise funds to continue the local work of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), April, 1939. Typically, locals had to raise 20% of the money for their proposed projects before the WPA provided the other 80%. The Texans above had good reason to want more WPA work. For example, WPA laborers installed 655 miles of new water lines in Texas from 1935-1943. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Today, as Texans struggle with their toxic stew of limited government (e.g., lack of infrastructure investment) and private sector sociopathy (e.g., sky-high, predatory utility bills), it is useful to remember the New Deal's investment in Texas, 1933-1943. Maybe future generations of Texans--uninterested in being abused--will opt for, and revive the latter.

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