News
Chronic Wasting Disease and deer management on private land
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a degenerative, fatal disease of deer, elk, and moose first discovered in Colorado in the 1960s. The disease can be transmitted among animals and over the past 6 decades, the disease has spread to more than 25 states and 3 provinces....
Water reuse is helping meet needs. But we can do better.
With the state’s population soaring, water resources limited and the climate getting warmer, water reuse is a growing but still underutilized solution to ensure that Texas has clean, abundant water supplies long into the future. The state’s latest water plan projects...
Opinion: Oak Hill Road Plan is taxpayer abuse
By the time you read these words, a federal judge will have ruled on whether the Texas Department of Transportation can make the historic community of Oak Hill into roadkill. Since it seems like forever ago, the "Y" intersection of U.S. 290 and Texas 71 in Southwest...
Explosive growth endangers unique wildlife, critical waters of San Marcos River
The San Marcos River touches hearts in the fastest-growing city of Texas’ fastest-growing county, and threats to it strike a nerve. Its champions warn that rapid development and the crush of new residents could herald a dark fate for the river’s endangered species and...
Water company’s moves anger buyers, landowners, local governments
In 2018, Ronnie Urbanczyk signed a contract to purchase water from Texas Water Supply Co., a Boerne company with access to at least 40 water wells that tap into the drought-sensitive Trinity Aquifer just south of the Bexar County line. Three years later, Urbanczyk...
Wastewater threatens Texas streams
Diane Causey is a 75-year-old antique shop manager in Utopia, a tiny town of 277 people located an hour-and-a-half northwest of San Antonio. Her favorite place in town is a swimming hole on the Sabinal River, accessed on land her family owns. This section of the...
Walkability and the culture wars
An unfortunate recent article by Aaron Gordon for Vice is titled, "Walking Places Is Part of the Culture Wars Now." It's centered around a discussion of recent survey results from Pew Research, which appear to show that a majority of Americans prefer a neighborhood...
Hill Country communities can pursue Dark Sky designation following new state law
Across the more remote pockets of Hill Country, several communities are looking to attract tourism dollars and increase the quality of life for residents by utilizing a precious, shrinking natural resource—darkness—or rather, the absence of artificial light. With the...
Austin City Council approves housing contracts, Colony Park developments
Here’s what we’re following ahead of the Austin City Council meeting Thursday. Housing and support services contracts: approved Council is expected to amend an agreement with Foundation for the Homeless to provide housing for families with children for an additional...
5 principles for resilient groundwater management in Texas
Although Texas has a solid foundation for managing groundwater, this foundation is cracking under the combined pressures of increasing demand and decreasing supply. These pressures are pitting rural areas against urban areas and landowners against each other, with...
Zoning and “Bigness”
Back in April, Daniel Herriges at Strong Towns wrote an excellent article called “Pretextual Planning is Absolutely Everywhere.” What does that mean? Essentially, the article is about zoning rules that are written into the code not because the requirement itself is...
EPA recognizes Austin Water for efforts to restore ecosystems
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized Austin Water in this year’s Outstanding Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development Competition. Austin Water’s Wildlands Conservation Division received First Place in the People’s Choice Category for a...
Boerne mayor bracing for impact of approaching San Antonio sprawl
That continued explosive development northwest of San Antonio comes at a cost. And Boerne, a quaint town grappling with its own growing pains, could pay a steep price. “Candidly, most of the growth that’s going on is outside of the city limits of Boerne. There are no...
Feral pigs release 1.1 million cars-worth of planet-warming carbon dioxide every year
As Twitter user Willie McNabb tried to warn in 2019, the threat of feral hogs is real—whether their numbers range from 30 to 50 in the backyard or millions across America. The pigs have damaged virtually every ecosystem they have invaded, often with the help of...
Solarization on the Water Quality Protection Lands and how you can do this at home
On the Water Quality Protection Lands, we’ve been experimenting with soil solarization to control invasive grasses in summer (June-August). This process uses solar radiation to heat the roots and seed of herbaceous plants to such high temperatures that they are no...
Colorado River forecasts not a ‘crystal ball’
Every month the Bureau of Reclamation attempts to peer two years into the future of the Colorado River and its reservoirs. Reclamation’s 24-month study is a staple forecasting product for the federal agency that manages a chain of dams in the watershed, including...
Members in the Wild: Loving the Llano
As a professional fly fishing guide, I’ve spent the last decade getting to know the rivers of Texas on an intimate level. It has become my life passion to explore these waterways but also share their wonders with others through angling and paddling. Seeing the look on...
Water supply contract could derail dreams of a park at Honey Creek
When Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioners gave their approval to turn a ranch upstream of Honey Creek into a public park rather than a controversial subdivision, opponents of the development rejoiced. But this week, many were learning more about a looming issue that...
Scientists seek ways to help nature safeguard aquifer amid development
On a four-wheeler at the edge of the Hill Country, geologist Mark Hamilton rolls and bumps across a 151-acre property at the Edwards Aquifer Conservancy Field Research Park. He pulls up to the end of a steep hill and points out a sunken, marshy spot along the bottom....
The state of Texas water infrastructure
Earlier this month, during a special session of the Texas Legislature, the Texas Capitol flooded. After the water stopped cascading down the pink granite walls inside the Capitol extension, the Legislature resumed its deliberations. The August flood was preceded by...
Ranch fever: Pandemic drives city slickers to seek out room to roam
The allure of wide-open spaces is drawing people to snatch up rural land in Texas at a record pace. Ranch sales in the state nearly doubled between the second quarter of 2021 and the previous year, according to data from the Texas A&M Real Estate Center. While the...
Wild rice sues to stop oil pipeline
In 2018, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and the 1855 Treaty Authority, an organization that upholds treaty rights for Chippewa bands, enacted legal personhood for manoomin -- wild rice. Manoomin, which translates to “good berry” in Ojibwe, is a sacred food for...
Comal County seeks grants for conservation purchases
Preserving Comal County’s wide-open spaces hasn’t been at the top of the county’s to-do list, but commissioners took steps in that direction last week. Last Thursday, they selected Moriarty & Associates LLC to pursue funding for county land acquisitions for...
40 million people rely on the Colorado River. It’s drying up fast.
On a 110-degree day several years ago, surrounded by piles of sand and rock in the desert outside Las Vegas, I stepped into a yellow cage large enough to fit three standing adults and was lowered 600 feet through a black hole into the ground. There, at the bottom,...
Texas Water Utilities provide a snapshot of financial conditions and prospects for addressing Texas water infrastructure needs in 2021 and 2022
Recently, Water Opinions LLC teamed up with the Texas Water Infrastructure Network (TXWIN) for the second annual assessment of current and future Texas water infrastructure projects, financing, and other issues facing Texas water utilities. TXWIN distributed the...
Deal to preserve Honey Creek moves forward with Texas Parks and Wildlife approval
A land deal that could forever preserve a pristine Hill Country stream north of San Antonio moved forward with approval from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department commissioners. Commissioners on Thursday unanimously voted in favor of a land deal involving the...
Family’s ranching heritage at stake in inheritance tax battle
At 84 years old, Melville Steubing has been involved in ranching since he could walk. And his family’s ranching heritage runs even deeper. From the first year his German immigrant ancestors set foot on Texas ground in the 1840s until today, there has never been a time...
Droughts push more people to migrate than floods
After a year of extreme weather, people in the drylands of northern California and the hurricane-drenched bayous of southern Louisiana are brooding on the same question: should we leave? New global research suggests that one of these “water shock” scenarios is more...
From the toilet to the sink: water recycling battles scarcity
Would you take a swig of water from your faucet if it originally came from the sewer? Treating wastewater to put it back into public use can help against water crises around the world, according to the United Nations, though the practice has to overcome the "yuck"...
Wimberley ISD: Blue Hole Primary School puts focus on conserving water
A Wimberley elementary school is teaching students about water conservation with a hands-on approach. Blue Hole Primary School was the first “One Water” school in Texas, the school was designed to reduce water usage. Read more from Nabil Remadna with KXAN...