SOS Preaching to the Choir | by GlennM
Below is my letter to the Save Our Springs (SOS) Alliance, whose mission is to protect the Edwards Aquifer that feeds Barton Springs in Austin (a local, natural pool). They sent out a DVD this spring, I'm assuming to get folks riled up about Advanced Micro Devices (AMD, a large local employer) moving into the area and to teach folks more about the aquifer. As a supporter that's not frothing at the mouth over AMD, the whole thing left me as cold as a polar bear plunge.
Here's some feedback I hope you can use to widen the audience for SOS issues. As background:
- I'm an SOS supporter.
- I don't actively use Barton Springs, but I've got friends that do.
- While I wouldn't want to lose Barton Springs, I'm more concerned about pollution in general in Austin.
While I learned a few things in the DVD, especially around the 1990 city council meeting, the rest could certainly be edited for time. After watching the intro piece and the part of the piece on AMD, it seemed like more time was spent talking about runoff paths that giving me information on why AMD moving to the site was bad. Maybe I've got a short attention span, but the things I want to know are:
- How will AMD's plans affect Barton Springs? I got to the parts about silt and pollution from traffic on SW parkway, and increased maintenance costs for SW parkway. But I'm still not sure how dangerous the silt is. Some graphics to pull it all together would help.
- What else besides Barton Springs will be affected by the AMD pollution? There was mention of clogged wells in the area, but how many people will this affect? What are the other concerns? I'd have liked to have heard more about the general pollution problems.
- You go on and on about the silt from the construction. But you don't say (or I got bored before you got to it) how this affects the water quality of the Springs. Would the silt get filtered out in the aquifer? Will it cause cloudy water in the Springs? Or will it cause some real damage?
In general, I think you're doing good work. But it seems to me like you could use some editors that maybe aren't so passionate about the cause to help you distill down the arguments. I know you're excited about all the details. But for someone that's an SOS supporter but whose passions are non-SOS related, it would help to have things tightened up a bit.
As a nitpick, I'd also have been happier if you'd used more eco-friendly DVD packaging instead of the standard plastic box.
I hope these comments are taken in the way they're intended, to help you broaden the appeal and effectiveness of the SOS Alliance.