U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, announced Tuesday that he secured $1 million for a program intended to reduce pollution in the North Bosque watershed, upstream of Lake Waco, the latest in a series of earmarks for projects in McLennan County.

Under the program, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Natural Resources Conservation Service work with private landowners in the watershed to build water-filtering structures like lagoons or wetlands on their properties to cut down on pollutants getting into the North Bosque.

Waco officials, who put in the funding request to Edwards’ office, have attributed an earthy taste that sometimes flavors Lake Waco’s water to runoff from dairies far upstream along the river.

Americans for Prosperity kicked off a tour through Chet Edwards’ district Tuesday protesting congressional spending.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald, file

Increased nutrients in the lake when phosphorous levels are up lead to algae blooms, which in turn has been blamed for the smell, which is more common in summer months.

Waco City Manager Larry Groth praised the project and called water-quality improvement “most important” for the city, in a release issued by Edwards’ office.

In a phone interview, Edwards said the project’s goal of improving Waco’s water quality would have a long-term regional benefit.

“Protecting the water quality in Lake Waco is not just a quality-of-life issue,” he said. “It’s a job issue. We’re a convention city, and it hurts Waco if the water smells like algae.”

Waco has rights to water in Lake Waco, and a number of surrounding communities purchase water from the city for all or part of their water supplies.

The money was inserted into the Energy and Water Appropriations bill, passed late last week out of a spending subcommittee on which Edwards is vice chairman. It comes on top of a $100,000 earmark passed last year that started the water quality program.

Anti-spending tour

The same day Edwards announced the water quality funding, the conservative Americans for Prosperity group kicked off a tour through Edwards’ district protesting congressional spending.

About 40 people, many of them members of the Waco Tea Party, attended the noon event at Heritage Square.

Peggy Venable, director of AFP’s state chapter, addressed attendees, decrying what she described as the reckless spending habits of Congress.

“We’re sick and tired of congressional overspending,” she said before chastising Edwards for not signing several of the group’s pledges.

The pledges — which range from a promise not to raise taxes to a promise to oppose a cap-and-trade system for reducing carbon dioxide emissions — have become fashionable for Republican candidates. Edwards’ challenger, Bill Flores, R-Bryan, has signed several of them.

“My commitment is to representing the people of my district, and I have a policy of not signing pledges to outside groups whose funding sources are unknown to our voters,” Edwards said Tuesday.

He said he holds the view that federal deficits needs to be reined in. He touted his efforts to make pay-as-you-go budget rules permanent.

The congressman also pointed to a recently passed one-year budget resolution he supported that would lower spending in the short term — and to a level below the budget freeze recommended by the White House.

The AFP tour is lemon-themed and features a “soured on spending” motto as well as a vehicle decorated with pictures of lemons.

Events have been planned in Granbury, Cleburne, Bremond, Navasota and Bryan-College Station this month.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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