1) Drought closes the Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold mine in Indonesia. The Ok Tedi mine in Papua, New Guinea has already closed due to lack of water. The Grasberg mine is feeling the same effects of El Ni�o. Until normal rains return, the mine will be in dire straits.
2) Gary Bradley takes bankruptcy. Bradley, the flamboyant developer of Circle C Ranch, whose bad debts have cost federal taxpayers more than $90 million, with legal bills and other obligations strangling his cash flow, will take refuge in Chapter 11.
3) Austin City Council moves to annex the Barton Creek PUD. It only makes sense. Circle C was first. Now, with Austin on a roll in the courtroom, the Barton Creek Public Utility District, long a source of irritation for the city, will be annexed shortly after the city wins a lawsuit overturning a law passed by the 1995 Texas Legislature allowing the PUD to escape annexation through the creation of a special water quality protection zone.
4) Texas Supreme Court sides with developers, overturns S.O.S. The GOP-dominated court will be swayed by that rascally barrister, Roy Minton, and will overturn the Save Our Springs Ordinance. The decision will send local environmentalists into paroxysms and the city legal department into a tailspin. The city council will react by passing a new ordinance with the same development restrictions that are found in S.O.S.
5) Sierra Blanca gets final state/Congressional approval. Waste will start being shipped to Sierra Blanca shortly after the approvals are finalized. Opponents of the dump, including Bill Addington, lock themselves to the gate at the site and are arrested. Wyoming gunslinger/barrister Gerry Spence rides into town to defend them.
This article appears in January 9 • 1998 and January 9 • 1998 (Cover).