News & Updates
Drought hits hard in the Hill Country
The Frio River is flowing again — in places. “The water is clean, and the water is good right now,” said Brett Rimkus, who operates the concessions at Garner State Park in Concan, 90 miles west of San Antonio. “If you want to get in the water, it is great. The river...
Black and Hispanic Texans say they don’t trust the quality of their water
Black and Hispanic people and those living in low-income Texas communities are highly concerned about the quality of their drinking water, a new survey shows. Commissioned by the nonprofit organization Texas Water Trade, the survey included responses from 650...
The lost reservoir inside our water infrastructure
Water is shaping up to be a priority during the 88th Legislature. Texas weathered its fourth-most intense drought on record last year and entered 2023 with half the state still in drought. Spurred by this precarious situation, a group of House lawmakers recently...
Department of Defense announces 2023 REPI Challenge funding recipients
The Camp Bullis Sentinel Landscape Partnership (CBSL) has received a $5.1 million award from the US Department of Defense (DOD) to protect groundwater supplies in the Texas Hill Country. Funds from DOD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Challenge...
Guadalupe runs dry with rainfall scarce
Despite the recent rain across the region, the Guadalupe River and a popular watering hole are in a sorry state. January usually sees 2 inches of rainfall in the San Antonio area. But it hasn’t even been close this year. The region has received just 0.47 inches of...
Environmental advocates push feds to investigate Texas’ enforcement of water quality
The Environmental Protection Agency says an informal investigation is underway after more than two dozen environmental advocacy groups submitted a petition against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The petition alleges that state regulators are not doing...
TxDOT central I-35 expansion project puts businesses at risk of displacement, loss of 625 jobs
The Texas Department of Transportation released the environmental impact statement (EIS) draft for its proposed Interstate 35 Capital Express Central project. The draft provides Central Texans their first look at how many residences and businesses could be impacted by...
Texas heat-related deaths reached a two-decade high in 2022 amid extreme temperatures
Heat-related deaths in Texas last year reached a new high for this century amid a sharp rise in migrant deaths and soaring temperatures enhanced by climate change, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data going back to 1999. In 2022, Texas saw its...
Rural Central Texas’ plentiful trees make power outages a frustrating fact of life after storms
By the glow of a flashlight, Stacy McAlpine and her 10-year-old granddaughter played Go Fish and other card games as they snuggled up next to a propane fireplace. Thirty miles south in Robertson County, Elizabeth Smith and her husband cooked freeze-dried camp food...