News & Updates
Call for school grant applications ends May 2
For the sixth consecutive year, the Hill Country Alliance’s Rainwater Revival offers funds to help students learn about rainwater catchment and water conservation. As Texas Hill Country residents and businesses look for ways to conserve water, HCA's Rainwater Revival...
Texas Landowners Earn Lone Star Land Steward Awards for Conservation Efforts
Every year TPWD honors landowners from across the state with the Lone Star Land Steward Award for their contributions to natural resource conservation and management. This year seven winners, including long-time HCA Friends Steve Nelle and the Winklers at Winkler...
Highway 290 pipeline may be doing more harm than good, study suggests
The Highway 290 pipeline, which was intended to alleviate groundwater usage in Hays County, may be doing otherwise according to a recent study. The study, conducted by the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and published by hydrologist Douglas Wierman,...
Editorial: Flawed Vista Ridge project doesn’t make sense
In February 2014, San Antonio Water System CEO Robert Puente informed us that SAWS would not pursue the Abengoa Vista Ridge water supply project, or AVR, because the project was too risky. He was quoted as saying: “Groundwater law in Texas leaves too much uncertainty...
Livin’ life by the drop: Rainwater systems flourish in Texas
The use of rainwater for drinking, irrigation and conservation has been a growing trend for decades, said Alan Rossing, owner of Lakota Water Company. When he started his rainwater business in 2000, Hays County had more rainwater related businesses than the rest of...
Alcoa Inc. puts massive Texas land holdings, water rights on market for $250M
New York-based metals manufacturer Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) has put its Texas land holdings on the market for $250 million, which include a vast array of water rights that could be the biggest known water rights deal struck of its kind in the Lone Star state. The...
New documentary highlights all 16 National Park Service sites in Texas
Think of national parks in Texas and you probably envision the sprawling skies, cactus-covered canyons and steep mountains of Big Bend National Park. But the National Park Service’s holdings in our state go far beyond West Texas, and a new 60-minute documentary, set...
Repaying loan may affect SAWS’ pipeline deal
The San Antonio Water System’s Vista Ridge pipeline project is still moving ahead, despite concerns over a $120 million loan, litigation between water suppliers and a challenge to rate increases from customers outside the city limits. Garney Construction, a company...
Kerr County honored for exhibit hall’s rain-catching system
The award-winning elements of the Hill Country Youth Event Center aren’t discernible to motorists passing the site on Texas 27, where a $3.7 million exhibit hall was added last year. The accolades flow from rain gutters along the edges of the new 72,000-square-foot...