Elected officials and representatives of communities on Lake Travis got together Tuesday to begin hatching a strategy to protect the lake that touches their communities. The attendees discussed long-term goals and short-term goals for the group they’ve named the Lake Travis Community Coalition.
The short-term goal the group was most concerned with was ensuring surrounding communities are not able to dump effluent into the lake. This was the motivation for the Village of Volente to hire lobbyist Sandra Haverlah, who headed the meeting and has been in charge of forming the coalition. State Rep. Donna Howard said she was happy to see all the communities that had come together to try and protect the lake.
“Rather than a voice here and a voice there, hopefully you can have critical mass and have a greater voice in coming to the legislature and asking for those things that will help protect water in our area,” Howard said.
Haverlah said the group’s immediate goals were to keep an eye on what comes out of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality meeting June 30 when the commissioners announce the revisions to water quality standards. She said before the next meeting she would like to see the coalition launch a website and create an e-mail list to get more organized.
Rep. Valinda Bolton emphasized that while these issues can be politically charged, groups in the region can band together to protect the lake without partisanship haunting their efforts.
“If you get the mayor of Austin and the mayor of Lakeway agreeing on anything, then that’s pretty significant and I think that speaks to people realize that this is an issue much broader than partisanship,” Bolton said.