News
Q&A+water: Katherine Romans
Executive Director of the Hill Country Alliance In this issue’s Q&A, Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Todd Votteler, interviews Katherine Romans, Executive Director of the Hill Country Alliance, a regional nonprofit focused on protecting the water, land,...
Hill Country photo contest winners announced
The Texas Hill Country is a unique region filled with diverse wildlife, clear springs, sprawling rural landscapes, historic towns, and some of the starriest night skies in the country. Each year the Hill Country Alliance (HCA) holds a photo contest encouraging...
San Antonio’s challenge: Protect the aquifer and get real with VIA Funding
San Antonio’s efforts to increase funding for VIA Metropolitan Service to give citizens a better mass transit system suffered a significant setback last week and left mobility advocates uncertain of the road ahead. The ConnectSA initiative right now is a plan without...
Hill Country landowners say Kinder Morgan is lowballing them. Special courts are agreeing.
Kay Pence owns a ranch in the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg. About a year ago, she got a call from the pipeline company Kinder Morgan. The caller told her the company planned to run a section of its 430-mile Permian Highway natural gas pipeline through her...
One Water: Projects In Motion
Ian Taylor, Chief Executive Officer at New Braunfels Utilities, knows his city is growing, fast. And that with that growth means looking at new ideas to manage resources. “I really struggled with [One Water] because … it was just kind of this out there concept,”...
Gov. Abbott issues emergency proclamation for 53 counties suffering from drought
Gov. Greg Abbott issued an emergency proclamation for exceptional drought conditions posing a threat of imminent disaster in 53 counties. Significantly low rainfall and prolonged dry conditions continue to increase the threat of wildfire throughout the impacted...
Light pollution is key ‘bringer of insect apocalypse’
Light pollution is a significant but overlooked driver of the rapid decline of insect populations, according to the most comprehensive review of the scientific evidence to date. Artificial light at night can affect every aspect of insects’ lives, the researchers said,...
Mysterious creatures: Exploring the depths of our karst aquifers
“These ecosystems harbor some really amazing species,” said Dr. Ben Hutchins at the most recent Texas Water Symposium forum on Wednesday, November 13 at Schreiner University in Kerrville. Referencing the plethora of creatures that reside within Texas’ karst aquifers,...
Former Boy Scout camp will become next Hill Country swimming hole after Tuesday vote
Hays County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday morning to put up about half the money to buy a portion of the former El Rancho Cima Boy Scout camp along the Blanco River. The Nature Conservancy pledged the other half of the $13 million price tag in a bid to...
NIGHTS OVER TUCSON: How the Tucson, Arizona, LED conversion improved the quality of the night
Can a lighting retrofit in a growing metropolitan city save energy, maintain safety standards, and protect the starry night sky? __ Tucson, Arizona, is a major metropolitan city in the southwest United States. The city has a long-standing commitment to best lighting...
Nirenberg calls for shifting sales tax to VIA Transit, away from Aquifer Protection
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined other local leaders this week in calling for a one-eighth-cent sales tax to be redirected towards funding mass transit – and away from popular water quality protection and trailway programs. Voters would need to approve the new...
Pipeline opponents focus on ESA: Agencies put on notice to comply with law or be sued
Opponents of Kinder Morgan’s routing of its Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) have put two federal agencies on notice – either comply with existing federal law or face legal action. In one of the latest challenges to the 435-mile, 42-inch natural gas pipeline, which is...
Efforts encouraging Texas ranchers to restore native grasses show promise
There aren’t many pastures with native grasses left in Texas. Instead there are invasive weeds like bermudagrass and Old World bluestem. Some Texas landowners and nonprofits are working together to change that. Restoring native grasslands takes years and is an arduous...
These are the world’s best stargazing spots
FOR MANY CITY people, a clear night sky is a mythical beast. We’ve heard the legends inspired by the constellations and we know sailors used the stars to guide their way home, but urban light pollution means we can’t quite see the heavens ourselves. Enter the...
San Jacinto River turns milky white in Kingwood
The San Jacinto West Fork is white like milk in photos captured by a citizen in a helicopter flying over the Kingwood area Monday. He reported the strange color to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). An agency spokesman told FOX 26 that TCEQ is...
San Antonio Food Bank partners with hunters to collect deer meat for hungry families
The San Antonio Food Bank is once again participating in the Hunters for the Hungry program, which is managed by Feeding Texas, to help those in need. Through the program, hunters can drop off legally tagged deer to a participating meat processor, and eventually, the...
Dark Skies meeting attracts Medina crowd
Nearly 40 people filled the meeting room at the Medina Community Library on Tuesday, Oct. 29, to be enlightened about a program called Dark Skies which helps combat light pollution from cities and towns. “We had a great turnout at the Medina Dark Skies Night,” said...
Axis deer population control in Texas
Axis Deer Control Warranted Gillespie County AgriLife Extension and Hill Country Alliance have launched the Axis Deer Control Project and are encouraging landowners and hunters to participate. Axis deer are an exotic species that were introduced from India to the...
Hill Country Land Trust to celebrate two decades
The Hill Country Land Trust wants to get the word out about its conservation easement program as development from the east encroaches on area counties. The trust (HCLT) will mark its 20th anniversary with a “Conservation Celebration” on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the...
Why frackers are using sewage to collect oil and gas
America's oil industry faces a number of challenges, including low oil prices, the rise of electric vehicles and proposals to limit fracking. But one of its biggest problems: The industry is running out of water. The US oil boom is being driven mostly by the growth of...
Update: Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District passes with almost 75% of the vote
Update: The Southwestern Travis County Groundwater Conservation District passed unofficially with 74.78% of the vote, or 9,715 in favor to 3,276 opposed. Included on the ballot were all seven members of the newly elected board of directors: Juli Hennings, Jim Urie,...
Texas voters approve state income tax ban, most other constitutional amendments
Amendments to the state constitution that would make it harder to enact a state income tax, would stabilize funding for state parks and would allow retired law enforcement animals to be adopted by their handlers received widespread support from voters Tuesday....
Frequently flooded Ag land may be eligible for NRCS Easement Restoration Program
Temple, Texas, October 1, 2019 — The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Texas is taking applications through November 15, 2019 for floodplain easements through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program Floodplain Easement (EWPP-FPE). The program’s...
Austin’s aging water pipes leaked 6 billion gallons in a year
Investigative Summary: KXAN investigated Austin’s water loss, enough to fill Lady Bird Lake twice, in 2015. Now, the city is losing more water through leaks and pipes, more than six billion gallons in 2018 alone. KXAN investigator Kevin Clark questioned Austin Water’s...
The long battle to stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline
In 1975, Terese Hershey, one of the state’s most influential conservationists, purchased a 1,561-acre tract of land in Stonewall, Texas. For years, she protected the property from the encroachment of nearby development. She worked with The Hill Country Land Trust to...
Saving Part of the Former Boy Scout Ranch
An old saying tells us to invest in land because they aren’t making any more. That saying could be updated to say: Invest in undisturbed natural land because each day there is less of it! Unfortunately, the updated version is very true, which is why we need to take...
Report reveals the challenges Austin faced during last year’s citywide water-boil order
Floodwaters shut down the Colorado River a year ago, bringing mud and silt to the treatment plants that supply Austin’s water. That aquatic sediment was too much for the plants to filter out efficiently. What followed will be remembered by anyone who lived here as...
Travis County to vote to approve groundwater conservation district
Many residents of Southwestern Travis County rely on Trinity Aquifer for their water supply, but due to overpumping and lack of regulation, the water supply is rapidly declining, said a representative from the Hill Country Alliance. Currently, eight groundwater...
Landowners got one Hill Country oil pipeline moved. But can they do it again?
A month after news surfaced that a pipeline proposed by a Texas-based petroleum juggernaut would run across the Edwards Aquifer, the primary source of water for San Antonio and other cities, the company said it would shift the pipeline’s path. It was a difference of...
ULI releases report for “Activating the San Marcos Riverfront”
The Urban Land Institute released a Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) report regarding land use along the San Marcos River in August. The City of San Marcos, the Greater San Marcos Partnership and Texas State University partnered with the Austin District Council of...