The Texas Water Plan is a road map for the state to meet its current and future water needs over the next fifty years. It’s known in part for having a high price tag ($53 billion, with about half of that coming from state funds). It’s also known for being un-prioritized. It’s a wishlist of projects submitted by regional groups, with over 500 projects involved.
Now that it looks like the plan could see real funding during this legislative session, how will it play out? Which projects will get funding first, and which will be deemed unnecessary? At a StateImpact Texas panel on water issues this week, three legislators (State Sen. Glenn Hegar, Rep. Drew Darby and Rep. Lyle Larson) offered up some ideas. You can watch the segment in the video above, produced by Filipa Rodrigues of KUT News.
“You can see the writing on the wall, that there are so many people moving [to Texas] and there is only going to be so much water,” said Debra Johnson, who works for Goodwin Management and serves as the association’s property manager.
Like the Woods at Brushy Creek, a small but rising number of homeowners groups are easing requirements for installing turf, and now two Texas lawmakers are trying to ensure that the trend goes statewide. Two bills, Senate Bill 198 and House Bill 449, by Sen. Kirk Watson and Rep. Dawnna Dukes, both Austin Democrats, would prevent HOAs from restricting xeriscaping. It’s an issue that has received rising attention as the drought continues. Continue Reading →
Photo by George Konig/Keystone Features/Getty Images
We've come a long way from the days when DDT was sprayed on children to kill lice, as in this photo from Germany in 1945.
We’ve come a long way since the days when kids played in clouds of DDT, gas stations sold leaded gasoline, and smoking near youngsters was commonplace.
America has made great strides since the 1970s in reducing toxins in the environment that cause health issues in children, according to a new edition of the EPA report, “America’s Children and The Environment.”
The EPA is obliged, by executive order, to examine toxins’ effects on children. Children are also particularly vulnerable to toxins as they eat, drink and breath more than adults in relation to body size, and children’s bodies are still developing.
The EPA was not available to comment on the report, but Elena Craft, a toxicologist with the Environmental Defense Fund in Austin, tells StateImpact Texas that the report has reason for both optimism and concern.  “When we make concerted efforts to reduce pollution, we do see health benefits,” she said.
But while certain health hazards for children are on the decline, other less understood problems are on the uptick.
A drilling crew takes a break atop Spindletop Hill in Beaumont, Texas where the first Texas oil gusher was discovered January 10, 1901. Texas is seeing an oil boom again today.
Texas oil producers opened up the throttle on oil production in 2012. The state hasn’t seen such a banner year in oil output for nearly two decades, according to new numbers reported in Fuel Fix.
November 2012 production of crude oil was up about 73 percent compared to the same time in 2011, according to the latest statistics released this week by the Railroad Commission of Texas. Texas accounts for 48 percent of all “active land rigs” on the country, according to the Commission.
At the same time, many areas of natural gas production during the same time period were flat or slightly down. Take a look at the numbers:
How the coal will be handled marks a change in U.S. energy consumption.
The coal excavated from the mine will be transported across the border into Mexico and burned in coal-fired plants about twenty miles from the U.S. border outside Piedras Negras. The export of the coal is due, in part, to stricter emissions standards imposed by the EPA and cheap natural gas that have made many coal power plants uneconomical to operate. Continue Reading →
The Texas Governor said "none of us can deny the need" for improved water supplies and roads.
In his biennial ‘State of the State‘ speech today, Texas Governor Rick Perry called for spending billions to fund water projects and build and repair roads, advocating for taking $3.7 billion from the Rainy Day Fund “for a one-time investment in infrastructure programs.”
Current proposals in the Texas House and Senate that appear to have growing support call for taking $2 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to start a water bank. That bank would offer low-interest loans and grants to prioritized projects in the State Water Plan, with 20 percent dedicated to funding water conservation projects.
It wasn’t clear from Perry’s speech how that $3.7 billion would be split between water and roads projects. (We’ve asked the Governor’s office to elaborate, and will update when they do.) Update: a spokesperson for the Governor’s office tells StateImpact Texas how that $3.7 billion would be divided is something “we will be working with the legislature on, to identify the best and most efficient ways to use that money.”
Texas’ roads are also suffering, some from congestion and others from a massive boom in drilling-related traffic thanks to the advent of the drilling techniques of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Perry said today that “none of us can deny the need for these improvements. Water and roads add to the quality of life for all Texans – anyone stuck in traffic at rush hour in our cities can speak to that.”
A small 2.8 earthquake struck near Timpson, Texas, very early this morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It’s the second earthquake in less than a week in the area. On January 25, a 4.1 quake struck some two miles Northwest of town, around the same time of the morning. That quake reportedly caused one chimney to topple over. A smaller earthquake like the one this morning is unlikely to cause damage.
You can see where both quakes occurred in the interactive map above.
Scientists are linking a growing number of quakes in Texas to wells used to dispose of wastewater from oil and gas drilling, including earthquakes in East Texas and around Dallas-Fort Worth. There was even a 4.8 quake in Timpson last May that caused some damage and one reported injury.
“At the moment, we are actually linking them [earthquakes] to injection wells that are located close to where the earthquakes are in the Timpson area,” Dr. Wesley Brown, an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at Stephen F. Austin University told the regional newspaper Light and Champion in December. “We have one a little bit to the north, and [the wells] are north and south of each other,” said Dr. Brown. “The volume, especially for the one in the south, is up over 200,000 barrels of water per month.”
State Rep. Lyle Larson (R-San Antonio) says drought restriction enforcement should be uniform throughout the state.
Two billion dollars is a lot of money. It’s also how much some state lawmakers want to spend to protect Texas from future water shortages.
A lot has been made of that price tag. But when three state lawmakers sat down with StateImpact Texas at a forum in Austin last night, they also talked rulemaking.
State Rep. Lyle Larson, a Republican from San Antonio, said one thing the lege should tackle this session is how drought restrictions are enforced across the state. Â He pointed out that in 2011, when almost all of Texas was in drought, some counties mandated conservation, while others just sort of let it slide.
“And so we’ve gotta fix that so everybody plays nice,” Larson said. “One county, they’re not watering their yards. They’ve got their car washes turned off, and 100 yards away they’ve got a community that’s got their car washes going.” Continue Reading →
Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman as seen on his Facebook page
Barry Smitherman, the chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission which regulates oil and gas drilling, said there has been “much interest” by the commission’s staff since he made his proposal earlier this month to offer training for concealed handgun licenses.
But a union organizer said state employees of other agencies have shown little enthusiasm in arming themselves.
The Right to Protect Yourself
In announcing his initiative, Smitherman cited “recent shooting tragedies around the country”. In response to questions from StateImpact, he elaborated in an email: “At the Railroad Commission, many of our employees—such as our field inspectors—often work alone in remote, desolate areas of the state that can pose dangers. It is my position that Commission employees have the right to protect themselves.” Continue Reading →
Update, Jan. 29: On January 29, very early in the morning, another quake struck Timpson, measuring 2.8, according to the USGS.
Original story, Jan. 25:Â A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck about two miles Northwest of Timpson,Texas at around 1:00 AM this morning, shaking doors open, knocking pictures off walls, and causing at least one chimney to reportedly collapse in the small East Texas community. You can see where the quake struck in the interactive map above. It occurred three miles below the surface.
“It was like a rumbling, shaking, knocking-you-out-of-the-bed type feeling. It was very, very intense,” Timpson Municipal Court Clerk Paula Mullins told StateImpact Texas by phone. Mullins said she had heard of a neighbor’s chimney falling over, but no reports of injuries.
Quakes have become a semi-regular feature of life in the area lately. The strongest recent quake registered a 4.8 in May.
Researchers say previous quakes in the area have been caused by the use of disposal wells to store waste form oil and gas drilling. Timpson sits in the drilling area of the Haynesville Shale, one of several areas in Texas experiencing a drilling boom.
“At the moment, we are actually linking them [earthquakes] to injection wells that are located close to where the earthquakes are in the Timpson area,” Dr. Wesley Brown, an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at Stephen F. Austin University told the regional newspaper Light and Champion in December. “We have one a little bit to the north, and [the wells] are north and south of each other,” said Dr. Brown. “The volume, especially for the one in the south, is up over 200,000 barrels of water per month.”
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