News
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...
Buda OKs bond issuance for regional water project
The Buda City Council unanimously approved the issuance of $4.37 million in revenue bonds as part of the city’s participation in a regional water supply contract with the Alliance Regional Water Authority (ARWA) at its regular meeting Oct. 15. The project will supply,...
San Marcos seeks input on use of $24 million in federal disaster mitigation funds
The city of San Marcos is asking for public input on how to prioritize the $24,012,000 in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation funding it received earlier this year. The online survey can be found here, and paper copies are also available at San Marcos Public...
Trinity Aquifer sustainable yield study receives strong support
On Oct. 22, Hays County approved an interlocal agreement that will involve installation of two groundwater monitor wells near Jacob’s Well and sampling of groundwater in the vicinity of Jacob’s Well. On Oct. 1, Travis County approved the continuation of groundwater...
Opinion: Vote ‘No’ on pipelines in Texas in coming elections
Another pipeline battle is raging in our backyards. With a major election cycle churning, Texans have the chance to vote out fossil fuel protectors and imagine a new environmental future. The Permian Highway Pipeline, or PHP, has captured fewer headlines than other...
New research sheds light on lunar phase impact on white-tailed deer
Conventional wisdom has long held that deer are more active on moonlit nights and most active under a full moon. The day after, the conjecture followed, deer move around less in the daylight. Some hunters staked their outdoors reputations in support of the theory, as...
25,000 gallons of sewage spills into Bull Creek in Austin, reports say
Approximately 25,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into Bull Creek near Old Spicewood Springs Road on Saturday, according to Austin Water. The water utility updated KXAN that crews should be working on removing excess sewer water from the creek until Monday afternoon....
City of San Marcos joins litigation against federal agencies regarding Permian Hwy Pipeline
The City of San Marcos has joined the cities of Kyle and Austin and the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District and the Wimberley Valley Watershed Association in filing a lawsuit against federal agencies regarding Kinder Morgan’s pipeline. On Tuesday, the...
How Flagstaff, Arizona, switched to LEDs without giving astronomers a headache
“I feel like we’re protecting the last tree, in a way.” That’s what Flagstaff, Arizona, city council member Austin Aslan said at a recent meeting. The subject of that earnest statement might surprise you: it was streetlights. To be more specific, he was talking about...
We say “Imagine a day without water,” but in the future this could be a reality we face
Did you know that the State Demographer estimates 250 people a day (yes, that's every day!) move to the Hill Country? Would it surprise you that none of them are bringing their own water? The state water plan projects a water deficit of 2,897,404,528,608 gallons by...
Our area, our culture and our ‘First freedoms’
Last week, I had the opportunity to represent our fine town on a media panel as part of the Hill Country Alliance Leadership Summit held at Camp Lucy near Dripping Springs. Several other Fredericksburgers were there to represent their interests in keeping this...
There’s an election in Texas coming up. Here are the Constitutional Propositions you’ll vote on.
Voters in Texas will decide on 10 constitutional amendments this Election Day, Nov. 5. The propositions range from prohibiting an income tax from ever being collected in the state to allowing law enforcement animals to stay with their handlers when they retire....
San Antonio adopts climate plan to go carbon-neutral by 2050
After more than two years of sometimes-heated debate about the future of San Antonio in a rapidly warming world, the City Council on Thursday passed a pledge for the city to do its part to stop the effects of global climate change. City Council voted 10-1 to adopt the...
San Antonio River events use kayaking to inspire stewardship
To persuade someone to pick up their trash, sometimes you have to get them to pick up a paddle. The San Antonio River Authority launched its Be River Proud kayak series on Oct. 5 with a float on the Mission Reach on San Antonio’s South Side. The event was part of the...
Hays County plans to transform El Rancho Cima into public park along Blanco River
HAYS COUNTY, Texas -- It's something many Wimberley residents have been aching for: a public park with waterfront access. Hays County has the ability to secure 533 acres of El Rancho Cima El Rancho Cima is a nearly 2,400 acre property County might use land for public...
Study shows declining water levels in Trinity aquifer; local leaders urge creation of groundwater conservation district
Homestead resident John Colman’s nearly 1.5-acre property near Bee Cave runs on well water and has since he and his wife brought the property in 2010. The well system is used for everyday uses including drinking water, washing, topping off the pool and irrigation....
East Bay water district considers buying giant cattle ranch that straddles four counties
The Alameda County Water District is considering shelling out $72 million for a fourth-generation, 50,500-acre cattle ranch — touted as the largest potential land sale in the state — to preserve water quality, officials say. Much of the property lies in watersheds...
Prop. 5 aims to give parks all across the state a boost
State parks and historic sites that are suffering from neglect, deferred maintenance and overuse — including a natural area near San Antonio that regularly draws a long line of cars — would benefit if Proposition 5 on the Nov. 5 ballot wins voter approval. “We’re...
Austin joins legal fight against Permian Highway Pipeline
The city of Austin is signaling it intends to sue Kinder Morgan, the company behind the proposed Permian Highway Pipeline — a 430-mile natural gas line that has provoked major opposition in the Texas Hill Country. In filing its Notice of Intent to sue, Austin joins...
Parks essential for health and wealth
In 1992, when we decided to relocate the corporate headquarters of AT&T to Texas, we did so for a number of reasons: the Texas business climate and the growth of economic opportunity; the work ethic of the Texas workforce; and the quality of life in Texas. State...