News
Using the Airbnb Model to Protect the Environment
As the world’s population grows, so does demand for land. One upshot is that setting aside big tracts to protect endangered species and carbon-rich forests is increasingly expensive. Enter the Airbnb economic model. While it’s not a panacea, it provides attractive...
Bastrop County landowners can challenge groundwater permit, court says
Four Bastrop County landowners won a decisive court victory this week when a district judge decided he would allow them to challenge a permit to withdraw 15 billion gallons of groundwater annually from the Simsboro formation of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. The...
Seeing Stars in Dripping Springs
Dripping Springs’ municipal motto—“Gateway to the Hill Country”—suggests the city is westward-looking, more in tune with its rural roots than with the buzzing boomtown glowing like a giant arc lamp 25 miles to the east. Culturally, politically and ecologically, the...
San Antonio River, a City’s Pride, Yet Still Impaired
People in San Antonio are more educated about water conservation and management than anywhere else I have lived, and as the city’s Tricentennial approaches in May, people are understandably proud of the $384 million San Antonio River Improvements Project. The...
Be wary of border ‘takings’ for wall
Abuse is precisely what occurred when the government acquired border land a decade ago, including for a barrier in southernmost Texas, according to an investigation by the Texas Tribune and ProPublica. The reporting by T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and the Texas...
Ecologist challenges the myths about Cedar, Texas’ most hated tree
Every year, cedar fever descends on Central Texas, and with it comes a deep-seated, Texas-sized hate for the mountain cedar. “Cedar fever is not just any allergy,” wrote Patricia Sharpe in a 1986 issue of Texas Monthly. “It’s a scourge, a plague that smites the just...
$2B Veramendi development could add 7,000 jobs
Nearly a decade into planning and negotiations, the Veramendi master-planned development is “starting to heat up,” according to Stacy Snell, New Braunfels assistant director of planning and community development. At the end of several phases and with an estimated $2...
Ring in the new year with a 2 for 1 calendar sale!
Happy New Year from Hill Country Alliance! We are ringing in 2018 with a buy one get one sale on our 2018 Texas Hill Country Calendar! Now through Sunday, January 7 for each calendar you order online we'll include a second calendar for free! If you purchase 2...
Recovering America’s Wildlife Act Offers Exceptional Opportunity to Help Wildlife and Business in Texas and the Hill Country
With fish and wildlife populations under increasing pressure in Texas and throughout the country, Texans are hailing a new opportunity to reverse this trend. House bill 4647, known as the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, would provide $1.3 billion annually from...
Aquifer Storage: City of Buda green-lights pilot study
Buda city leaders took another step toward implementing Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) with the approval of a pilot study meant to test the safety of the proposed project. On Dec. 5, the Buda City Council approved, by a 6-0 vote, a professional services agreement...
BEC Lights the Way in Dark-Sky Movement
Tony Tucci, BEC | In the dark field, you can barely see the telescopes and the groups of men and women gathered around them. They are amateur astronomers seeking the secrets of the sky. Light is their enemy, and they carefully guard against it. Most of them are...
Director’s Notes – December 2017
Hill Country Family, As we approach the end of 2017, it seems like a fitting time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished, the journey we’ve taken to get where we are today, and the plans for an exciting, bright future for the Hill Country Alliance (HCA). HCA is very...
The Taking: How the federal government abused its power to seize property for a border fence
The land agents started working the border between Texas and Mexico in the spring of 2007. Sometimes they were representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Other times they were officers from the U.S. Border Patrol, uniformed in green, guns tucked into side...
How to build a city that doesn’t flood? Turn it into a sponge
Urban floods make the news with alarming regularity. Just in the past few months, Hurricane Harvey submerged Houston, and the seasonal monsoon crippled cities in South Asia. Dramatic floods from increasingly severe storms come with a steep cost, both human and...
State climatologist: Dry conditions could worsen for much of Texas
Adam Russell | AgriLife Today | October and November were two of the driest Octobers and Novembers on record, and much of the state appears to be facing a continued dry spell through winter, according to the state climatologist. Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, College...
Big spring vs big oil
Charles Phillips was in his pasture one day last year when he heard the sound. At 85, Phillips doesn’t hear as well as he used to, but he had no problem picking up the unmistakable squeal of a drill boring through rock. That’s odd, he thought. Why would my...
Amid Population Boom, Texas Cities Plan $225 Million Water Pipeline
Texas cities with booming populations are teaming up on a major water pipeline project. “The Alliance Regional Water Authority has obtained permits and financing is underway to start construction next year on a 95-mile pipeline to pump groundwater from the...
Louisiana may sell water to drought-stricken Texas
Hit by drought after drought, Texas is so parched that it's asking its neighbors if they have any water to spare. Louisiana's response: maybe, but it'll cost you. This week, the state Water Resources Commission approved the formation of a group to study the idea of...
TPWD Announces Opening of Guadalupe River Fishing Leases
The Canyon Reservoir Tailrace, located below Canyon Reservoir on the Guadalupe River, is considered one of the top trout fishing destinations in the United States. To help anglers access the river during the peak of the cool-weather trout fishing season, the Texas...
New Census Data Shows SA’s Population Growth Rate Beating Dallas, Houston
San Antonio’s population increased by about 10 percent since 2011 to 1,439,358, according to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday. The city’s growth is second to Austin (16.1 percent), but outpaces that of Houston (7.2 percent) and Dallas (6.8...
Texas Has An Epic Story To Tell About Water Conservation
Texans are making tremendous progress on conserving water. In fact, in the municipal sector (composed of residential, institutional, industrial, and commercial water use) cities across Texas are using 21 percent less water than we were in 2000. One of the methods used...
SA water company to quench development thirst with Hill Country pipeline
By next fall, there will be a new water pipeline running from Bexar County to Comal and Kendal counties in an effort to lay the groundwork for new developments between San Antonio and Austin. Texas Water Supply Company LLC, a San Antonio-based wholesale business that...
Challenges of Rapid Growth
What happens when an area known for its natural beauty and resources experiences rapid population growth? Executive Director, Katherine Romans, joins the Mothering Earth podcast for a discussion on the unique challenges of balancing growth with natural resource...
Why a conservative Republican from northern Minnesota wants to kill the suburbs
Charles Marohn’s professional epiphany came with equal doses of clarity and guilt. The University of Minnesota-trained civil engineer had once been proud of a project he helped build in Remer, a town of a few hundred people between Brainerd and Grand Rapids. A sewer...
Symposium mulls ‘climate change’
A Texas Water Symposium titled “Climate and Water in Central Texas: Planning for a Changing Resource,” was held earlier in November at Schreiner University and recorded for broadcasting on Texas Public Radio. The public was invited to the free symposium to hear...
Fast-growing Hays cities partner to build $225 million water pipeline
Officials in Hays County cities and others along the Interstate 35 corridor are moving forward with a $225.8 million deal to secure a long-term water supply for the rapidly growing region. The coalition of agencies has permits in hand and financing underway to start...
TCEQ Punts on Water Rights Fight on the San Saba River
In the latest volley in a decade-long fight over water rights on the San Saba River in Central Texas, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has delayed implementing a permanent solution to ensure the river flows year round. As the Observer reported in...
Kyle officials find temporary fix for failing wastewater plant
Kyle officials said Tuesday that they’ve come up with fixes for the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which experienced a mechanical failure Sunday morning. City staff will install a temporary pump system at the malfunctioning plant this afternoon that will mimic the...
Wastewater plant issue could lead to partially treated effluent in Plum Creek
Kyle city officials are scrambling to rectify an issue at the city’s wastewater treatment plant that, if left unfixed, could release up to one million gallons per day of partially treated effluent into Plum Creek. The issue took place Sunday when the center well...
Six oil operators, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation form partnership
Partnerships and joint ventures are nothing new among Permian Basin oil operators, but a new partnership just announced takes a unique approach. Six companies with significant operations in the Permian Basin – Anadarko Petroleum, Chevron, ExxonMobil’s subsidiary XTO...