Victory for the Neches River National Wildlife Reguge

The word is spreading now that the judge in the appeals case has ruled in favor of those pushing for land along the Anderson and Cherokee County banks of the Neches River to be allowed to become a national wildlife refuge, rather than be flooded to make Lake Fastrill for the City of Dallas. The City of Dallas and the Texas Water Development Board had sued to halt the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's efforts to set up the Neches River NWR, so that Lake Fastrill could be built to help meet Dallas' projected water needs mid-century. The first ruling had been in favor of the refuge, prompting the appeal. Groups such as the Conservation Fund, the Sierra Club, the Texas Conservation Alliance and the Friends of the Neches River all have lobbied public and political support for keeping the river and its bottomlands as they are, not flooded with lake water.

Word came down late last night that Judge Solis ruled in favor of the refuge. Watch the Herald-Press' Saturday edition for a story with local reaction.