Edward C. Fritz Papers, 1950s-2008

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About the Collection

Edward C. "Ned" Fritz (1916-2008) was a Dallas lawyer whose dynamic environmental activism earned him the title, "father of Texas conservation." The Edward C. Fritz Papers digital collection contains documents and photographs that record the 1970s debate over the canalization of the Trinity River, one of the many environmental causes for which Fritz campaigned.

These items highlight the events surrounding the Trinity River Project debate, spanning the period from 1966, when Fritz was on the Texas Committee for a Balanced Water Plan steering committee, to 1979, when the Army Corps of Engineers' report deemed the canal economically non-viable. The digital collection includes community organization newsletters, campaign material, photographs, slides, maps, legal documents, reports, press releases, government documents, and political advertisements.

From the foundation of Dallas in the 1840s, entrepreneurs aspired to put a barge transportation system on the Trinity River as a cheaper alternative to rail. The Trinity River Project was championed by Texas businesses and politicians in the 1960s and '70s. With backing from the federal government, they proposed a package of flood control, water supply, and recreational enhancements to residents in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The plan proposed reconstructing 552 miles of river into a 335-mile commercial waterway, stretching from Dallas/Fort Worth to the Gulf of Mexico. The large-scale dredging, damming, and restructuring of the riverbed was estimated to cost the federal government and local taxpayers over $1.25 billion.

Anticipating large-scale environmental destruction and rising property taxation — and critical of the vested interests of the businesses and landowners behind the project — Fritz and fellow opponents formed the Citizens' Organization for a Sound Trinity (COST). The group, toting the slogan "Our dollars; their ditch," rallied local residents to vote against the project when it went for bond election. On March 13, 1973, the majority of voters in seventeen counties around the Trinity River rejected the bond proposal. This decision denied local funding for the Trinity River Canal project and marked the end of its possibility.

Despite the outcome, Congress continued to appropriate funding for non-navigational aspects of the project and canal proponents attempted to advance plans for channelization throughout the 1970s. COST, and supporters, persevered. Finally, in 1979, a leaked Army Corps of Engineers' report revealed findings that a navigation channel of this kind on the Trinity River was not economically justified.

The online collection was digitized with funding from the Greater Western Library Association (GWLA) and also is part of the Western Waters Digital Library.