News
San Antonio City Council urged to restore natural resource provisions into SA Tomorrow Plan
Last week, the San Antonio Planning Commission removed two important provisions from the SA Tomorrow Plan, one for impervious cover and one for night sky protection. The SA Tomorrow Plan, more than a year in the making, will be the city’s prevailing document setting...
What Happens to the U.S. Midwest When the Water’s Gone?
"For the past 60 years, the Ogallala has been pumped out faster than raindrops and snowmelt can seep back into the ground to replenish it, thanks largely to irrigation machinery like the one sleeping nearby. As a result, in parts of western Kansas, the aquifer has...
Commentary: Texas Hill Country is on the Edge of Night
“Without leadership from our rapidly urbanizing cities, we stand to lose all of the groundwork we’ve laid to protect night skies in the Hill Country,” said Katherine Romans, Hill Country Alliance executive director. “San Antonio was on the right track in including the...
Water Forward: Planning for the Next 100 Years, August 3 in Austin
The next installment of the Imagine Austin Speaker Series will focus on developing a water plan to take us through the next century. Austin Water Director, Greg Meszaros and Integrated Water Resource Plan Community Task Force Chair and HCA board member, Sharlene...
Commentary: Let’s base Hays County water policy on science, not guesswork
Hays County Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley writes that he will ask the county judge and fellow commissioners to help fund an initiative to “develop the science and monitoring that we need to make informed decisions” about groundwater pumping from the Edwards and...
Efforts to reduce feral hog numbers show promise
While using a toxin that could help put a dent in the worldwide feral hog plague still has hurdles to clear, preliminary studies are showing promise, according to wildlife biologist John Kinsey. “This is not the end-all, be-all control measure, but it can become...
Drought conditions slowly returning to South Texas
Aside from yesterday's one-one-hundredth of an inch of rain, San Antonio hasn't seen a significant amount of measurable rainfall since early June. That lack of rain is starting to take its toll on the area water supply, possibly bringing back drought conditions. It...
Salt Lick owner breaks ground on unique conservation development in Driftwood
"In contrast to large master-planned communities that tout man-made amenities like golf courses and swimming pools, “these are the only amenities,” he says of the 9 miles of nature trails and scenic views from bluffs overlooking Onion Creek." Toward a Regional Plan...
Proposed wastewater expansion raises concerns in Dripping Springs
The City of Dripping Springs has requested a permit to discharge treated sewage into Onion Creek. Residents, downstream municipalities, and the local aquifer protection districts are concerned by the potential contamination of this pristine creek, local drinking...
How Fair Oaks Ranch residents and CCGCD put a stop to a high-density development
Boerne based Hill Country Weekly gives us a great human interest story that includes the details what can happen when water and politics mix. Kendall County’s Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District is featured as it applies its rules to help residents of Fair...
Five Factors Driving Economic Growth in Small Cities
One of the challenges of urban economic development is that most conferences and case studies profile efforts in large, internationally-known cities. While large cities tend to captivate America’s attention, there are small cities lurking in their shadows – and these...
Proposed groundwater transfer riles Kendall County residents
A miniature version of the Vista Ridge pipeline dispute is unfolding here over a local utility’s bid to convey groundwater to its customers from a new well proposed miles outside its service area. As with the San Antonio Water System’s plan to pipe in water 140 miles...
Eyes on the stars
With eyes on the stars – and on the city’s future prosperity – the Wimberley Dark Sky Committee has been launched to attain official International Dark Sky Community status for Wimberley. “This is an initiative to protect our night skies,” Cathy Moreman, Executive...
More officials stand against discharge permit
Roughly a week after the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BSEACD) formally opposed Dripping Springs’ proposed discharge permit, the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (HTGCD) Thursday followed suit. By a 4-1 vote, the HTGCD made a...
The Hill Country Land Trust releases first video in Land Steward Video Series: Prickly Pear Management
Hill Country Land Trust is proud to share the first of a series of videos on land stewardship. Each video will focus on one stewardship practice. The first video features Steve Nelle discussing Prickly Pear management techniques. Take a look, then download the...
Goforth water, EP deal moves forward
A move by Goforth Special Utility District (SUD) approving a second amendment to its water supply agreement with Electro Purification, LLC (EP) means the water supply company has a year to prove the quantity and quality of its water to Goforth. EP has to deliver a...
Big Bend rancher sues pipeline company
The owner of an 11,000-acre ranch south of Marfa has filed suit in federal court, claiming the use of eminent domain by a private pipeline company to take part of his land is unconstitutional. Filed in Pecos, the lawsuit by lawyer John Boerschig of Katy against...
Additional CWD Cases Discovered at a Quarantined Captive White-tailed Deer Breeding Facility
Thirteen new cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) were confirmed at a Medina County captive white-tailed deer breeding facility on June 29. Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) discovered these cases while conducting...
The Forgotten History of Environmental Protection in Texas
Before there was this thing called the internet, families who could afford to often bought an encyclopedia as a home reference. Typically they came with an atlas as well – a thick book of maps, charts and comparisons. Now Texas has one of its own: an unprecedented...
Reclaiming the Night
We can see the Milky Way from Dripping Springs, but lights in Austin steal a piece of our sky," Cindy Luongo Cassidy says looking out from the viewing deck of her personal observatory to the starry horizon. Nearby, her husband John tinkers with his large aperture...
Dripping Springs homeowners push against treated wastewater in creek
A group of neighbors in Dripping Springs are hoping to stop the city from dumping treated wastewater into their local creek. Thursday night, members of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District held a special meeting to discuss the city’s application with the...
Texas Comptroller Announces Partnerships with Texas A&M, Sam Houston State University to Study Monarch Butterfly
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar recently announced Texas A&M University and Sam Houston State University will share about $500,000 in funding for a research project to study the monarch butterfly. The research will document the monarch butterfly population in Texas...
Graduate research study explores origin, quality of Pedernales water
Sarah Zappitello, a graduate student in the Department of Biology at Texas State University, has published results from a year-long study determining the origin and quality of water carried by the Pedernales River. The research is part of a larger study facilitated by...
Katherine Romans selected as Executive Director of Hill Country Alliance
The Board of Directors of the Hill Country Alliance (HCA) is proud to announce the selection of Katherine Romans to serve as full-time executive director of HCA. The selection was made after a nationwide search. Katherine will fill the vacancy created when founding...
TPW Commission Adopts Amended Deer Movement Rules
After extensive public testimony, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission recently approved an amended set of regulations for artificial movement of deer by permit as part of the state’s chronic wasting disease (CWD) management plan. Adopted provisions are the result...
Sprawl Costs Americans $107 Billion a Year, Says Study
Urban sprawl isn't a new phenomenon. But new analysis from City Observatory has finally quantified the cost of building cities that make us travel farther between the places where we live, work, and play. They call it the "Sprawl Tax." Based on numbers from a 2015...
STEVE NELLE: Misunderstood mesquite
A great deal of myth, misinformation and folklore surrounds mesquite ? the most common and most unpopular tree in West Texas. For decades, this attractive native tree has been maligned, abused and misunderstood. Yet mesquite survives and thrives, even in the midst of...
Rising Water Level Lifts Spirit of Residents, Local Businesses
More than four years ago, many Lakehills residents traded in their jet skis and boats for 4-wheelers and ATVs, said Kristin Eliason, who lives in the Brushy Creek subdivision next to Medina Lake. In a drought-ridden area like Medina Lake, there was no use for water...
Nestlé Just Suffered a Major Defeat as Community Blocks Water Privatization
Hydrogeologist and spokesperson for Nestlé Waters North America, Eric Andreus, announced at a monthly township meeting in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, last week that Nestlé had given up on its plans to pump 73 million gallons of water per year from the town’s local...
Landowners Win Six Cases Over Compensation Claims Against Pipeline Company
A special commission appointed by District Judge Roy Ferguson to settle compensation claims in eminent domain lawsuits tied to the Trans-Pecos Pipeline has sided with landowners and against the pipeline company – Energy Transfer – in six of seven cases. The...