News & Updates
TPW Commission Adopts Amended Deer Movement Rules
After extensive public testimony, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission recently approved an amended set of regulations for artificial movement of deer by permit as part of the state’s chronic wasting disease (CWD) management plan. Adopted provisions are the result...
Sprawl Costs Americans $107 Billion a Year, Says Study
Urban sprawl isn't a new phenomenon. But new analysis from City Observatory has finally quantified the cost of building cities that make us travel farther between the places where we live, work, and play. They call it the "Sprawl Tax." Based on numbers from a 2015...
STEVE NELLE: Misunderstood mesquite
A great deal of myth, misinformation and folklore surrounds mesquite ? the most common and most unpopular tree in West Texas. For decades, this attractive native tree has been maligned, abused and misunderstood. Yet mesquite survives and thrives, even in the midst of...
Rising Water Level Lifts Spirit of Residents, Local Businesses
More than four years ago, many Lakehills residents traded in their jet skis and boats for 4-wheelers and ATVs, said Kristin Eliason, who lives in the Brushy Creek subdivision next to Medina Lake. In a drought-ridden area like Medina Lake, there was no use for water...
Nestlé Just Suffered a Major Defeat as Community Blocks Water Privatization
Hydrogeologist and spokesperson for Nestlé Waters North America, Eric Andreus, announced at a monthly township meeting in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, last week that Nestlé had given up on its plans to pump 73 million gallons of water per year from the town’s local...
Landowners Win Six Cases Over Compensation Claims Against Pipeline Company
A special commission appointed by District Judge Roy Ferguson to settle compensation claims in eminent domain lawsuits tied to the Trans-Pecos Pipeline has sided with landowners and against the pipeline company – Energy Transfer – in six of seven cases. The...
Texas Supreme Court: Accommodation Doctrine Applies to Groundwater
On May 27, 2016, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Coyote Lake Ranch, LLC v. City of Lubbock. Many Texas agricultural and water law attorneys were in Lubbock attending the State Bar of Texas Agricultural Law Continuing Legal Education Seminar. As soon as...
USGS Map Reveals Long-Term Changes in America’s Groundwater Quality
Chloride and nitrate concentrations are rising and arsenic levels are holding steady or falling. Those are two of the conclusions from a U.S. Geological Survey assessment of changes in the nation’s groundwater quality in the last two decades. The federal science...
Q&A with Tim Loftus
Trib+Water interview with Tim Loftus: Tim Loftus is a faculty member in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. He also serves as chair in water conservation at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. Loftus’s research focuses on water...