Marvin Nichols Reservoir is a disaster waiting to happen.

I am personally embarrassed that I let such a far-reaching and colossal issue as this slip up on me and have not better informed the readers of this newspaper about it.

But, you see, therein lies one of the main problems of the proposed reservoir that would flood more than 72,000 acres of farms, ranches and forest in Northeast Texas.

The Sulphur River Basin Authority, the obscure entity which is administering the project, has done a horrendous public relations job on selling this project.

There are good reasons.

We will be selling 80 percent of our water to a water-guzzling Dallas-Fort Worth area which is notorious for its wasteful appetite of what promises to be this area's most precious resource over the next half-century.

In the process, as mentioned, we will flood 72,000 acres of land and another 163,000 to 640,000 acres would be necessary to mitigate the federally listed Priority 1 bottomland forest.

Although there seems to be no definitive maps of the mitigating land, opponents say some of it will come out of Cass County.

There are other implications to Cass County.

Opponents say Marvin Nichols Lake would destroy about 30 percent of the remaining bottomland hardwood habitat above Lake Wright Patman. The loss of such an immense amount of water purifying wetlands could degrade the water quality in Lake Wright Patman and pollute the water in our wells.

What about International Paper?

Opponents say Marvin Nichols could eliminate many jobs in farming, ranching, logging and other areas due to the land taken for the lake. Also badly hurt would be the people who provide goods and services for the jobs that would be lost, such as feed and seed stores, farm and tractor supply stores, along with the pulpwood supply for International Paper.

Marvin Nichols could force IP to purchase water from the lake to maintain the required water-flow in the Sulphur River below Lake Wright Patman Dam.

It's not exactly something that we run around Cass County saying publicly, folks, but things are already "somewhat tenuous" at IP, to say the least.

I'm reading studies that say this proposed $1.7 billion monstrosity could soar to $5.1 billion before all is said and done. That alone should make East Texans pick up the phone and tell their elected officials, "No thanks."

The incredible economic boon to all of East Texas that proponents are trying to serve up to us is pure speculation. Ask the folks over at Cooper Lake. Some of those who heard similar pie-in-the-sky predictions over there were at a forum in De Kalb last Saturday night.

"All we got was one bait shop and a lot of cocaine dealers," said one man from the Cooper Lake area.

Another valid point is that some 235,000 acres would be removed from our tax rolls. Where would our schools and counties make up that revenue? Look at Queen City Independent School District struggling from the downsizing at International Paper already.

Hey, I haven't even touched on the environmental issues or the fish and wildlife habitat implications.

State Rep. Barry Telford, D-DeKalb, couldn't be in a worse spot.

Barry has dug in with both feet maintaining he is looking down the road for Northeast Texas water rights and that he will not be able to compete with the interests in the urban areas when they come after our water rights later.

He even took this stand last weekend in a crowd of people in his hometown who by a show of hands showed they were 100 percent against the reservoir.

Having said all that, what do you think happens when you "follow the money" on this proposal?

As you can imagine, a proposal of this magnitude requires a lot of planning and studies. I didn't have to look very far to find that almost $1.5 million has gone to an engineering firm in Mount Pleasant whose name is Bucher, Willis & Ratliff.

Does one of those names ring a bell?

The Ratliff in that name is the son of our district's senator and our lieutenant-governor, Bill Ratliff.

In a meeting of the SRBA, officials said that they thought Lt. Gov. Ratliff could fast-forward the project by some five years when it comes to the permitting process.

And today I wake up and read that the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, in an effort to stem the overwhelming tide of public reaction to the proposal, comes out in full support of the construction of Marvin Nichols Reservoir.

"Make no mistake about this, this lake is going to be built ... because the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is going to be way short of water within 20 years," said Chamber President Robert E. "Swede" Lee. "There is nobody that can stop this reservoir; the only question is, are we going to back the Sulphur River Basin Authority?"

Isn't that wonderful? Just as we are starting to get good public discussion of the reservoir, our elected officials are telling us it's a "done deal".

I'm sorry, was the vote taken and we didn't know about it? We need to go to the polls on March 12 and resoundingly kick some incumbent tail out of office.

This is totally unacceptable, and in Cass County we will not sell out as the Texarkana Chamber has.

We've already got one "done deal" on our hands in Cass County with the government trying to have their way with us on about 30 million tires. [There was a large write-up in the Dallas News recently on this pile of 30,000,000 tires outside Atlanta! Just hope and pray that they don't catch fire, folks! R.]

As you see, our community will not roll over and die while the special interest groups line our politicians' pocket with campaign contributions.

I encourage the Atlanta Area Chamber of Commerce to come out publicly in opposition to this reservoir. Let's send out a strong message that we don't appreciate being told about "done deals" just as the nightmare is beginning to unfold in front of our eyes.