News
Endgame: Water for a water district
For well over two years and spanning two legislatures, Kendall County Water Control and Improvement District (WCID) No. 3 has searched for a source of water. It now appears that a source has been found, but only if the law that protects the Edwards Aquifer can be...
Gay Ruby Dahlstrom Nature Preserve opens
Gay Ruby Dahlstrom Nature Preserve, Buda, TX – Hays County and the family of the late Gay Ruby Dahlstrom today officially opened the nature preserve named in her honor. “This 384-acre preserve is the culmination of Gay Ruby Dahlstrom’s vision to share her love of the...
Kinder Morgan asks judge to throw out Permian Highway Pipeline lawsuit
Houston pipeline operator Kinder Morgan is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed against a project to move natural gas from the Permian Basin of West Texas to the Gulf Coast. Citing various technicalities, lawyers representing the pipeline company filed a motion...
Hill Country Headwaters Conservation Initiative accepting applications for Regional Conservation Partnership Program
AUSTIN, Texas – Hill Country Conservancy (HCC), the Texas Hill Country Conservation Network and 18 partner organizations today announced Applications of Eligibility are now being accepted from farmers, ranchers and wildlife managers to take part in the $5.15 million...
KXAN investigation sparks bill to make sure companies pay for environmental violations
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Texas State Representative recently laid out a House Bill that aims to protect clean air and clean water by making sure companies pay for environmental violations. The bill cited a KXAN investigation that found TCEQ had offered discounts on many...
A new pipeline through the Hill Country is pitting the oil industry against landowners
The state’s biggest industry finds itself in an unusual position: facing landowner-friendly reforms at the Texas Legislature. On the day of the explosion, Randy Zgabay’s grandmother kept him inside. His grandfather would usually hold Randy, who was only eighteen...
Preserve our local land
In 1846 when Comal County was founded with an area of 575 square miles, it had a population of 1,700. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated the 2018 population to be 148,373, a 37% increase over the last eight years. Or, as the Herald-Zeitung’s April 20 editorial...
Wren: Dark skies vital to gaining perspective
Friday evening’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math Expo keynote speaker was William Wren, a distinguished and award-winning advocate for dark sky preservation. Wren has worked at the McDonald Observatory for 29 years and currently is the special...
Texas Senate approves using herbicides to fight illegal border crossings
It’s not a wall and it isn’t more boots on the ground, but the Texas Senate has approved a bill that would send millions of dollars of herbicides to the front lines to battle illegal immigration. The Texas Senate passed legislation to send up to $10 million in...
Bulverde developments threaten local water supply by discharging treated sewage into the Edwards Aquifer
The past decade has seen numerous developments sprouting up in the area around Bulverde, Texas. Driven by close proximity to the one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., the sprawling development in the Bulverde area is going largely unchecked, causing all sorts...
How San Antonio uses its water to influence Kendall County development
Two years have passed since Kendall County Water Control and Improvement District (WCID) No. 3 was introduced in Senate Bill (SB) 914, by Sen. Donna Campbell. As written, 1,055 acres were to be developed and more than 2,000 homes built, but it had no source for a...
Dark skies bill moves forward in legislature
International Dark Sky communities are one step closer to using Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) dollars for infrastructure meant to reduce light pollution. House Bill (HB) 4158, authored by State Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood), would give Dark Sky communities more...
A creek flowing to the Colorado River turned black. Now the state has sued the alleged polluter.
ALTAIR — For more than two months, the waters of Skull Creek have flowed black, its surface covered in an iridescent sheen. Yellowed fish skeletons line the pebbled banks of the Colorado River tributary, and a dizzying chemical odor hangs in the air. The odor is so...
Oil or property rights: House panel clashes over which to favor as it weighs eminent domain reforms
Lawmakers, lobbyists and landowners sparred at a Capitol committee hearing on Thursday over a batch of bills designed to protect property owners whose land may be seized by private companies to build oil and gas pipelines. A bipartisan — though largely Republican —...
Two Views: In pipeline politics, love of the land is a shared value
We can be fairly certain that gas pipeline giant Kinder Morgan didn’t have this consequence in mind when it decided to route a massive, nearly four-foot diameter gas pipeline through the Texas Hill Country and over the fragile Edwards Aquifer. That consequence is a...
Dr. Robert Mace to receive Texas Rainmaker Award
Texas Water Foundation is honored to announce the 6th recipient of the Texas Rainmaker Award – Dr. Robert Mace. The Award is given to leaders who have made exceptional contributions and long-lasting impact to promote sustainable water policies in Texas. On May 7,...
Railroad Commission, Kinder-Morgan sued over route of Permian Highway Pipeline
Hays County, the city of Kyle and a coalition of Hill Country landowners have filed a lawsuit to fight the route of Kinder Morgan's proposed Permian Highway Pipeline and challenge how the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry allows companies to use...
Time for reform of eminent domain law
Corporate entities that take property with eminent domain authority often claim the system is working. It does. For them. Corporations with this powerful, often abused, tool are not required to follow the same rules of transparency that a government must observe. They...
Farmers’ group pushing for transparency in land acquisitions
With the state's ever-increasing infrastructure needs, Texas farmers and ranchers are bracing for the likelihood of pipelines, transmission lines andrailways cutting through their fields and pastures. But some say it’s unfair to allow private companies or other...
Inks Lake Park intern battles light pollution
There was once a time in which every star in the sky could be seen at night. Our ancestors experienced an absolute absence of light once the sun set, and the twinkling black sky above was untouched; one could watch the stars twinkle from anywhere in the world. Today,...
Railroad Commission, Kinder Morgan sued over route of Permian Highway Pipeline
Hays County, the City of Kyle and a coalition of Texas Hill Country landowners have filed a lawsuit to fight the route of Kinder Morgan's Permian Highway Pipeline and how the state agency in charge of regulating the oil and natural gas industry applies eminent domain...
Hill Country pipeline opponents are taking Kinder Morgan to court
KYLE, Texas (KXAN) — For months, a handful of towns and counties in the Hill Country have passed formal opposition to the Permian Highway Pipeline — a pipeline set to carry natural gas from West Texas, through the Hill Country, to a hub near Katy. On Tuesday, Hays...
Dallas-Fort Worth metro area saw biggest population growth in Texas in 2018
In a state where the population continues to rapidly swell, the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth region remains a fundamental source for those gains. Adding 131,767 residents from 2017 to 2018, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area gained more residents than any other...
Across the Hill Country, sewage plants threaten to turn clear streams into algae pools
BULVERDE – When Michelle Molina heard about plans for a sewage treatment plant to start discharging wastewater into Indian Creek, she organized her neighbors and started raising money to hire a lawyer to fight the developers behind the plan. They called their group...
Op-Ed: The Hill Country is not the place for a pipeline
The Hill Country is a unique and precious place that is known for its incredible open spaces, clean water, and dark skies. The individuals and communities that live within and around these precious natural resources appreciate them not only for their incredible beauty...
Trump signs orders to speed up oil and gas pipeline construction
HOUSTON — President Trump signed two executive orders on Wednesday that he says will speed up construction of pipelines and other projects to enhance the production and transport of oil and natural gas between states and across international borders. The actions are...
For the first time, researchers find captive-bred horny toads that survived winter in the wild
For the first time ever, researchers have found captive-bred Texas horned lizard hatchlings alive after winter hibernation. It's a big win for the state reptile, which has vanished from Texas landscapes over the past several decades. New technology has allowed Texas...
Commentary: Texas will have taller billboards unless Legislature acts
The state of Texas has drawn a line in the sky that limits the height of billboards along our highways. Unfortunately, many billboard owners have ignored it. A significant number of the billboards across our state, which are regulated by the Texas Department of...
Reality of drought: Sausages, laws and a water district
Part One of a Two-Part Series - Friday, Mar 29, 2019 From a 1933 textbook “Government in the United States” the author invokes the sage advice of Otto von Bismarck: “The man who wishes to keep his respect for sausages and laws should not see how either is made.” Never...
CWD sampling effort leads to proposed containment zone expansion
AUSTIN – Texas remains vigilant in monitoring and testing for chronic wasting disease, with no reported spread beyond existing containment zones over the last 12 months. However, the discovery of CWD in a free-ranging whitetail near the perimeter of the disease...