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News
Q&A with Tim Loftus
Trib+Water interview with Tim Loftus: Tim Loftus is a faculty member in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. He also serves as chair in water conservation at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. Loftus’s research focuses on water...
Program aims to keep local skies bright with stars, not lights
Members of Keep Utopia Beautiful recently joined Hill Country Alliance program director Cliff Kaplan to encourage Uvalde County Commissioners to support the preservation of dark skies in the area by reducing light pollution. Kaplan, along with Claudia Rogers and...
Eminent Domain and the Landscapes of Texas
A new study looks at the role of eminent domain and condemnation in the changing landscapes of Texas and the Hill Country. Are private companies taking advantage of loose regulations on the use of eminent domain to abuse private property rights? The Texas Hill Country...
Say goodbye to El Niño and hello to La Niña
This year’s monstrous El Nino, nicknamed Godzilla by NASA, is dead. It heated up the globe, ended the Central Texas drought, but didn’t quite end California’s four-year drought. El Niño delivered the promised rains to Central Texas, resulting in periods of deadly...
Commission rules against pipeline in condemnation case
Jeanne Simpson sits before a foot-wide section of 42-inch diameter green pipe, a sample of what is likely to be buried on her property. A fourth-generation landowner, Simpson co-owns and manages the Barreno Ranch southwest of Marfa, a more than 6,000-acre property her...
Aquifer District Director Precincts Extended to Annexed Area
New Director precinct boundaries that extend representation into the Shared Territory annexed in response to House Bill 3405 were finalized at the May 26, 2016 Board meeting after extensive research, a public hearing, consideration of numerous public comments, and...
Lawyers Say Ruling Bad For Landowners
Agriculture and landowner groups recently heralded a Texas Supreme Court ruling favoring a South Plains ranch as a major win for private property rights, but some lawyers and conservationists are painting the decision as more of a win for developers and water...
Wind turbine farms coming to Kimble?
James Murr | The Junction Eagle | Wind turbine farms are not strangers to the residents of Texas. According to the State Energy Conservation Office, “wind resource areas in the Texas Panhandle, along the Gulf Coast south of Galveston, and in the mountain passes and...
Understanding Water Risks Drives Global Investors
Just like homeowners who do not think twice about water supply when they turn on the tap, financial advisors considering investing in companies or new products took water for granted. The same went for governments and multi-lateral finance institutions, like the World...
Golden-cheeked warbler to remain on endangered list
Rejecting a bid by former state Comptroller Susan Combs and others to remove special habitat protections for the golden-cheeked warbler, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is set to announce their petition “did not present substantial information that delisting is...
I-35 corridor could see more groundwater from Burleson County
Another private company is quietly trying to sell central Texas groundwater to utilities along the fast-growing Interstate 35 corridor, putting it in competition with the San Antonio Water System and others. Coastal Water Regional Supply Co. is trying to sell Hays...
Being a Texas Master Naturalist According to 2016 Trainees
Becky Breazeale | Each spring, the Highland Lakes Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists has a new training class. Trainees learn about natural resources and conservation management with units of study such as geology and archeology, ecological regions of Texas, land...
Lights off for the love of lightning bugs
For the love of lightning bugs, experts ask people to turn off as many exterior lights as possible during peak mating months. Artificial lights have eradicated large populations of lightning bugs in East Tennessee and across the developed world. "Light pollution is a...
REI Awards Cibolo Nature Center and Farm $10K Stewardship Grant
REI San Antonio recently awarded the Cibolo Nature Center & Farm (CNC&F) with a $10K Stewardship Grant which was awarded to select nonprofits that care for the outdoor places its customers use and love. The grant will support National Trails Workday being held...
Opinion: What San Antonio should learn from Melbourne
San Antonio just made it through one of the worst droughts in Texas history. Climate change means we’ll have more — unpredictably longer and more intense. Is San Antonio prepared? Nope. And the San Antonio Water System is leading us the wrong direction. Express-News...
Leaving land alone to hold floodwater west of Houston
Houston sprawls for miles, but we went to where that sprawl stops. “I think if you’d listen for a minute, you don’t hear any cars,” says Mary Anne Piacentini as she stands near a pond on the Katy Prairie 45 miles west of downtown Houston. “We protect over 20,000 acres...
Adler drops surprise $720M mobility bond proposal
Mayor Steve Adler has blasted into the middle of the ongoing conversation about a November mobility bond election by proposing an estimated $720 million package of projects along Austin’s most vital arterials. In a closed-door speech before the Greater Austin Chamber...
In Weighty Water Ruling, Texas’ High Court Backs Landowner
The Texas Supreme Court has strengthened protections for landowners who don’t have rights to the water underneath their property. In a ruling Friday, the state’s highest civil court said Texas' “accommodation doctrine” should also apply to groundwater, in addition to...
Why become a Texas Master Naturalist?
The Hill Country Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists are now accepting applications for the class of 2016. The mission of the Texas Master Naturalist program is to develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to...
Unplugging the Colorado River
WEDGED between Arizona and Utah, less than 20 miles upriver from the Grand Canyon, a soaring concrete wall nearly the height of two football fields blocks the flow of the Colorado River. There, at Glen Canyon Dam, the river is turned back on itself, drowning more than...
The Texas Water Development Board launches TexasFlood.org
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) is pleased to announce the development and launch of TexasFlood.org. The website will serve as a centralized location for flood-related data and information on what to do before, during, and after a flooding event....
Brimming wastewater ponds must be lowered to avoid ‘catastrophic failure’
It seems most bodies of water in Travis County are filled to the brim, including wastewater ponds. The West Travis County Public Utility Agency has two full wastewater holding ponds, resulting from ongoing heavy rains. The utility must lower the water levels in those...
A year after Memorial Day floods, Central Texas still picking up the pieces
Homes destroyed. Lives stolen. Over Memorial Day weekend a year ago in Central Texas, disaster struck. On May 23, 2015, geologic factors, along with already-saturated ground, combined to produce a record-setting flash flood after heavy rain fell upstream of...
Water Symposium held in Junction
James Murr | The Junction Eagle | The Texas Water Symposium (TWS) series explores the challenges faced in providing water for Texans, and provides perspectives from policy makers, scientists, water resource experts and regional leaders. The TWS is a joint effort by...
Maximizing storm water: Researchers at UTSA trying to purify dirty water faster
All this recent rain has researchers at UTSA excited. They are taking advantage of all the extra water to see how well they can decontaminate it and replenish our drinking supply. They were awarded a $42,800 grant from the San Antonio River Authority and Greater...
Study foretold Abengoa woes
Calvin Finch hates to say, “I told you so.” But he feels he should anyway. “Yeah,” Finch said, “and I’m disappointed that I can.” This week, the San Antonio Water System’s board of trustees voted to allow a Kansas City firm to take over the utility’s largest-ever...
A sinkhole tells the story of the Edwards Aquifer recovery
The white Ford Explorer turned right onto the farm road and headed north, as sunlight broke through heavy storm clouds and illuminated the green knobs of the Hill Country on the horizon. In the driver’s seat sat Jon Cradit, a geologist with the Edwards Aquifer...
New Colorado Law Brings Rain Barrel Owners Out From Shadows
Rain barrel owners are passionate advocates who believe the practice is an essential water conservation tool.Rain barrel owners are law breakers who steal water from farmers and other water rights holders. These two long-held identities for many rain barrel owners...
In Sharp Reversal, California Suspends Water Restrictions
California recently suspended its mandatory statewide 25 percent reduction in urban water use, telling local communities to set their own conservation standards after a relatively wet winter and a year of enormous savings in urban water use. The new rules are a sharp...
Austin water pipe leaks could fill Lady Bird Lake twice, in 2015
For three years running, Austin Water Utility has posted an increase in the amount of water leaked from city pipes, and utility officials have not pinpointed exactly why. The city’s latest water loss report shows more than 5.8 billion gallons of treated drinking water...