What's Happening?

I have no idea what's going on with that darned gravel pit mine thing. The latest gossip includes these gems:

• Two never-before-known-about species (one plant and one animal) have been discovered along the banks of the river at the edge of the property in question. This could put a stop to the whole smelly business if it's true.
• TXI continually failed to meet some city requirement. Now it's said the city's standards are being lowered so that TXI automatically passes.
• My attempts at getting historical societies involved may have gotten us somewhere.
• A second cemetery is said to lie somewhere within the property.
• The city denied Houses for Urban Development's access to the property, but is looking to pass TXI's. We're hoping to get HUD just as upset about this as we are.

I don't know if any of those things are true. There was a local meeting last night- just the neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity. I didn't go, but my neighbor is going to report back to me with what he learned.

On a separate note...
I recently learned that all the new houses will be getting whole-house water softening systems at no additional cost.
WHAT THE HOO-HA!!?
There are presently only three streets in our neighborhood, a total of 100 houses. The projection plan for the neighborhood includes 500 houses. (The first three streets also happen to be the ones closest to the TXI mine.)

When we first moved in we noticed the water was weird. The dishwasher can't get anything clean, everything is coated in white gunk. The shower's sliding glass doors look horrible. We has had a water softening company come out and test our water. From what I can remember, "normal" water is around a 6 or 7 on the scale, hard is an 8-10. The water in my house tests at a 17. SEVENTEEN!
There are a few different types of water softening systems. One of them softens the water as it comes out of the spout. This still allows the minerals to deposit themselves in your pipes, eventually building up to the point of major plumbing problems. The ideal system is a whole-house water softener. It cleans all the water that enters your home. This system costs about $6,000.
And it's the kind of system now being installed in all the new houses- for free.

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So the general consensus amongst me and my 99 neighboring houses is that we're being majorly gypped. We get to have a gravel-mine eyesore, breath in the destructive garbage produced by the mine, and drink water with visible contaminates. Hooray!

If anyone knows any lawyers willing to look into any rights we may have, PLEASE let me know.

There's still a possibility that TXI will be denied and we won't have to worry about any of that. And once we get a water-softening system our water situation will be fine. I love my house, I just want the rest of this stuff to runs its course. BLAH!