Last year’s drought forced Texans to take a hard look at their water resources. But in many ways the crisis just underlined a scarcity already looming in the state. Most people in Texas live in urban areas, yet most of the water still goes to rural agriculture.
Where will the state find the water to sustain its booming urban population? Many believe some of it will have to come from agriculture, where farmers and ranchers will have to cut back. Others stress conservation. And some think that Texans should be investing in major infrastructure projects to develop new water supplies, like desalination.
Today we take a look at where the city of Austin fits into all of this. During roughly the same time frame that Texans endured the worst single-year drought in the state’s history, Austin was the second fastest-growing city in the U.S.
2007 implosion of power plant to clear site for new homes
For developers of housing or commercial projects in Texas, bringing what had been contaminated, blighted lots back to life can be full of challenges, both legal and economic. But sometimes it works.
“Once you own the site, you have repercussions to that and potential liabilities,” says John Slavich, a Dallas lawyer.
TCEQ Easier, EPA Harder
Slavich has shepherded hundreds of Texas brownfield projects through an often daunting legal and regulatory maze. Most sites he worked on were ones overseen by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). He says he tries to avoid other, sometimes more toxic sites under control of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Texas has a Revolving Door law but critics say it's ineffective
There’s a flow of talent leaving Texas environmental regulation agencies, often for better-paying jobs in the private sector. In some cases, the former state employees are hired by the very companies they used to regulate.
The revolving door is obvious by looking at resumes posted on job-hunting websites by people whose experience includes stints at the Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) or at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the big state agencies that regulate refineries, oil and gas drilling, pipelines and power plants.
Located in Galveston County, it was disposal site for millions of gallons of petrochemical waste
It’s the summer vacation season and on the way to Galveston, thousands of beach-goers drive right past it. It’s a 12 acre field that lies along the east side of I-45 right before you head over the causeway to Galveston Island. It’s doubtful many of the vacationers stop to look, but if they did, they might see a stone marker. It’s an historical marker, of sorts. In big letters it proclaims what is just the other side of a barbed wire-topped chain-link fence: the MOTCO FEDERAL SUPERFUND SITE. Â
It’s one of over 150 polluted Superfund sites in Texas. Some are under control of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Many of the worst are managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Continue Reading →
A Red-cockaded woodpecker, an endangered species, in a forest at the Cook’s Branch Conservancy.
‘It’s a false sense of security if people think it doesn’t matter that one species is disappearing. To me, that tells me the whole system is in trouble” – Sarah Scott Mitchell, granddaughter of George Mitchell
The Cook’s Branch Conservancy is located on 5,600 acres in Montgomery County. The land was purchased by Texas oil & gas billionaire George Mitchell in 1964.
“We’re now getting close to the condition the settlers found it in. We’re restoring grasses and doing controlled burns.” -Sheridan Mitchell Lorenz, daughter of George Mitchell
Naturalists improve breeding of the woodpecker by climbing old pines to build nests and remove predators like squirrels
Watching woodpecker return to feed hatchlings
Woodpecker nest in old-growth pine
Woodpecker hatchling
“I can hear the difference. You can hear so many more song birds that I didn’t hear before. We’ve actually doubled our population of (woodpeckers) in 10 years” -Kathy Hutson (center), Conservancy Manager
Wildflowers in a restored meadow
Flock of Eastern Wild Turkeys on the conservancy, one of many species that benefited from the restoration.
Keeping the lights on at home in Houston as state regulators debate letting power companies make bigger profits
The three members of the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) seem in agreement that the cap on the peak price for wholesale power should be raised. They’ll likely finalize a massive increase this summer.
Then, the big question: will it encourage power generating companies to build more plants in Texas as intended? Or will it only encourage profit-taking and possibly even market manipulation?
At a meeting of the PUC April 12, there was disagreement over how to implement a higher cap on the price allowed on the spot market, typically a factor in extreme weather when power use surges. The current cap has been tripled in recent years and is now the highest in the nation at $3,000 per megawatt/hour (during normal times, the price per megawatt/hour can be $50 or less). The commissioners are considering raising the cap to $4,500 this summer and to $9,000 by 2015. Continue Reading →
Tomatoes on the vine at Village Farms new thirty-acre greenhouse in Monahans, Texas.
The vines are suspended from the ceiling, with large cylinders circulating air beneath them.
The tomatoes are grown in coco peat instead of soil, greatly reducing impact on land and waterways.
Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples inspects the tomatoes.
Computers control temperature, air and humidity. Bees are allowed in for pollination, but other bugs are kept out, eliminating the need for pesticides. Large tubes keep air circulating beneath the tomatoes.
Doug Kling says “there’s a peacefulness” to the greenhouse.
The end product: bushels of Texas tomatoes.
Precisely-beveled glass diffuses light on the tomatoes, providing equal amounts of sunlight to the crop.
Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples and Village Farms officials tour the greenhouse.
Next time you buy a Texas tomato, check where it was grown. The answer might surprise you. That’s because ninety percent of the state’s tomatoes come from a few greenhouses in the arid deserts of Far West Texas. (You can see a detailed breakdown of how the process works in the slideshow above.)
The latest addition to that group is a massive glass facility in Monahans, outside of Odessa. It officially opened for business this week.
“Well, when you look at this, this is like a giant, 15-acre, indoor garden,” says Doug Kling, Senior Vice President for Village Farms, which owns and operates the greenhouse. “Pollinated [by] bees, and grown naturally. Where the sunlight comes in and you can smell the calyx. It’s kind of exciting. There’s a peacefulness to it.”Â
Pipe is stacked at the southern site of the Keystone XL pipeline on March 22, 2012 in Cushing, Oklahoma.
The debate over TransCanada’s proposed oil pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast has mostly focused on the environmental and economic impacts. People in favor say it will bring jobs and energy security. Opponents say the pipeline, and the crude it will carry, will harm the earth.
But the project might have another consequence that’s been largely overlooked. Some analysts say it could actually raise gas prices for many American consumers.
Deep in the Heart of Texas Oil: an Italian restaurant has pulse of industry
Barbie Lomonte works in a part of Houston that has one of its biggest concentrations of oil and gas companies. She knows a lot about the industry and what the price for a barrel of oil means to it.
“Business has been wonderful, oil and gas are doing well and I have nothing to complain about,” said Lamonte as her employees bustled around her, filling orders.
She herself isn’t an oil trader nor does her company do any drilling. But it does use lots of oil. But of the olive variety, not Texas tea. She owns Lomonte’s Italian Restaurant.
“We’re right in the middle of the Energy Corridor,” said Lomonte.
The Energy Corridor is what the locals call a strip along Interstate 10 that runs west out of Houston. From Lomonte’s restaurant, you can drive less than two miles and pass the headquarters of ConocoPhillips, BP America and CITGO. At lunch time, a shuttle bus brings geologists, oil engineers, and accountants by the dozens to Lomonte’s and several other eateries clustered under big live oaks.
Lomonte has run the restaurant for over two decades and has shared the roller-coaster ride that is the oil business in Texas.
Houston Lawyer Anthony Buzbee: "The new way of going about it is massive, massively large cases like the one in Texas City "
The Houston law office of Anthony Buzbee is on the 73rd floor of the tallest building in Texas. There are only two more floors to the top. The furniture is modern, so is the artwork on the walls. It all reflects the success Buzbee has had suing some of the nation’s biggest companies. And now he says he has a new approach to make companies compensate people who’ve lived near chemical plants that have had pollution problems.
“It’s saying a lot that these people who’ve put up with so much have finally decided the state is failing us, the EPA is failing us, we’re going to try to do it ourselves through the court system,” Buzbee said in an interview with StateImpact Texas.
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
Where will the state find the water to sustain its booming urban population? Many believe some of it will have to come from agriculture, where farmers and ranchers will have to cut back. Others stress conservation. And some think that Texans should be investing in major infrastructure projects to develop new water supplies, like desalination.
