A beached boat dock on upper Lake Travis near Spicewood Beach sits dozens of feet from the water's edge.
A Texas town came within days of running out of water, a mysterious accident at a coal power plant fell under investigation, and an oil boom in South Texas has locals grinning (when they’re not getting whiplash from potholes). In case you missed it, here’s our top five new stories from the last week:
What Happened at the Sandy Creek Power Plant? An accident at the plant means one thing for its operators, who might prefer that the information stays secret. But what does it mean for the state of Texas?
How Fracking is Changing the Face of South Texas: Drilling is creating a gusher of jobs in South Texas, but trucks are ripping up roads and large amounts of water are being used. A look at the ups and downs of the fracking boom.
Electric Deregulation Turns Ten in Texas: Anniversaries are horrible things to forget, so here’s one that you might have let slip by: This month marks ten years of deregulation in the Texas electricity market. But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for rate payers since then.
In Midland, they try not to call it an oil boom because last time that happened in the 1980s, the economy went bust and stayed that way longer than anyone here wants to remember. But these days, things sure are boom-like.
K.C. Stallings, a landman, Â found that out when he moved last summer to Midland from Houston. He tried to buy a house.
“It’s the exact opposite as most of the country,” Stallings said.
How do you come back from a drought like this, especially one that’s still not over? While rains have eased conditions in parts of the state, there is still a very long way to go before we can say we’ve fully recovered from the worst single-year drought in Texas history.
Doris Steubing ranches cattle in Maxwell, Texas, about 30 miles south of Austin. Freelance videographer Jeff Heimsath visited her recently to see how the drought has affected her and other ranchers in the state. You can watch his video above, part of StateImpact Texas partner KUT’s “First Person” series.
But what about making the most of the water we already have?
Lyle Larson, Texas State Representative for San Antonio, has a plan that involves much more than a rain dance. Called the Emergency Water Act, the proposal contains a set of guidelines for state-wide desalination, cloud-seeding, and aquifer storage. Modeled after tactics adopted in the past by equally rain-strapped governments in Australia, India, and Argentina, the plan aims to offset the drought by immediately revamping the state’s water infrastructure.
I sat down recently to ask Rep. Larson about the inspiration behind the Emergency Water Act and his vision for an economically-developed, technologically-innovative, and above all, wetter, Texas.
Q: Could you explain what this plan is about and what motivated it?
A: The Emergency Water Plan involved looking at what Texas can do if we experience the drought of 2011 in 2012. All the climatologists are indicating that 2012 will be as dry or dryer than 2011. Continue Reading →
Photo courtesy of Pearsall Volunteer Fire Department
An explosion and fire rocked an oil fracking site in South Texas last week. Three were injured.
What happened last week at a disposal well outside of Pearsall, Texas? An explosion rocked the site early Thursday evening – about 50 miles southwest of San Antonio in the Eagle Ford Shale – blowing the lid off a storage tank and injuring three. A fire burned for over an hour as the all-volunteer Pearsall Fire Department (and three other nearby departments) battled the flames with twelve trucks and 33 firefighters.
The explosion likely started when workers there were welding near storage tanks, a decision that has many in the industry scratching their heads. The accident is now under federal investigation.
But there’s still much we don’t know.
Who Owns the Well?
First, we don’t know who owns the disposal well, which is used for taking wastewater from fracking and drilling and injecting it deep underground. That water contains highly flammable oil and natural gas.
While the well is operated by a company called High Roller Wells (which doesn’t appear to have a website), it’s unclear who actually owns it. When asked, the Railroad Commission would only say that it does not “have information on investors or owners of oil and gas facilities.”
A call to the only available number online for High Roller Wells leads to the office of Terry Bailey, listed as a manager of the company. A woman who answered the phone at his office declined to answer any questions about the company or the accident. She directed all inquiries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), then abruptly hung up. Continue Reading →
After almost losing the entire season to drought, gulf oysters are back on the menu in Texas.
Some good news today for fans of Texas Gulf oysters, which have been off the menu this season due to the drought. Those heavy rains we’ve been having in parts of Texas have alleviated the red tide and oyster harvesting will begin again at midnight tonight in the Espiritu Santo and San Antonio Bays northeast of Corpus Christi.
But hurry, because those bivalves may not be open to harvesting for long, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife department:
A very small portion of Texas waters will open to shellfish harvesting tomorrow. At 12:01 am on Friday, January 27, 2012 Espiritu Santo and the conditionally approved area of San Antonio Bay will open to commercial oyster harvest. Due to the recent rains in the Austin area the conditional area of San Antonio Bay might not remain open for long. The Texas Department of State Health Services will continue to monitor the red tide and will open areas to harvesting when it is safe to do so.
The return of gulf oysters in Texas is welcome news to gourmands and fisherman alike. In December, USA Today reported that “a monstrous bloom of toxic algae looming across the Texas coast has shut down oyster season.” Because of the drought, “the algae could cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in humans and is harmful to fish but not fatal to people.”
“Typically the oyster season opens in September,” says Carol Huntsberger, who owns Quality Seafood Market in Central Austin with her husband. “In the last couple years, due to the drought and red tide, you know, it was pushed back. Last year I think it didn’t open until November. So this is the latest I’ve ever seen it open.”
With some good rain, enough of that algae (the aforementioned red tide) has abated, and oysters are safe to eat again for the time being.
The department says you can call the Department of Health Services for updates on on the opening and closing of oyster harvest areas. The number? 1-800-685-0361.
The carcass of a cow that became mired in the mud in a dry stock tank in Knox County, Texas during the summer drought
At a hearing this week on funding for Texas state parks, several people voiced concern that as drought and extreme temperatures continue, funding will evaporate for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Erika Aguilar of KUT News, StateImpact Texas’ local radio partner, has more:
“If we are going to keep these special treasures for all Texans to use and enjoy, we need to raise $4.6 million,” Texas Parks and Wildlife Executive Director Carter Smith told lawmakers this week. Last month, the agency launched a public fundraising campaign to fill a significant department deficit.
“The consequences of us not being able to realize those revenue targets are real,” Smith said. “They’re tangible. And we absolutely may be looking, particularly at 2013, at further cut backs and that could include things as drastic as closures and looking at transfers again.”
In December, the Parks and Wildlife Department asked for millions of dollars in donations to offset the loss of visitors due to the extreme drought and excessive heat of last summer. Since then, they’ve raised more than $460,000 from donations, some of which have come from a new Texas Department of Motor Vehicles opt-in donation program, and an additional $500,000 from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. That still leaves a funding gap of approximately $3.5 million.
Harold and Nell Myers live in Lakeside Beach. He used to manage the community’s water system before it was sold to LCRA.
Spicewood Beach was placed under stage 4 water restrictions on Tuesday, meaning residents can only use water for cooking, cleaning and drinking.
A beached boat dock on upper Lake Travis near Spicewood Beach sits dozens of feet from the water’s edge.
Clayton “Buddy” Howell, a Navy Veteran shares a modest home with his daughter in Spicewood Beach.
Boat docks that once floated on Lake Travis now sit on dry ground in Spicewood Beach.
Joe Barbera, the current president of the Spicewood Beach POA, sits in the community recreation center.
LCRA trucks parked outside a water pumping station in Spicewood Beach, where workers took measurements for the river authority engineers.
The Lakeside Beach community, along with Spicewood Beach, was put under stage 4 water restrictions Tuesday.
Ryan Rowney, LCRA manager of water operations, sits in his office near Red Bud Isle.
Andy Uhler and David Barer of KUT News contributed reporting to this article.
(Update: On Monday, January 30, the wells in Spicewood Beach began to fail, and water was trucked in. It was the first time during the current drought that a Texas town has run out of water. Read our latest reporting on the story here.)
The drought has come close to drying up several small Texas towns. Without exception they’ve all been spared, whether through rain, new water pipelines, or a mix of the two. But for the first time since the drought began, within a few days, one community’s well is expected to run dry.
Spicewood Beach sits on a peninsula along the northern reaches of Lake Travis. Inflows into the lakes that provide for the region are at a historic low, while water demand is at an all-time high. The two main water sources for Central Texas, Lakes Buchanan and Travis, are currently only at a combined 37 percent of their full capacity.
There are 500 water meters in the Spicewood Beach area, serving an estimated 1,100 people. Water is drawn from wells managed by the Lower Colorado River Authority.
The irony of running out of water right next to a lake isn’t lost on locals like Joe Barbera, who is president of the Spicewood Beach Property Owner’s Association. “If you go down there, it’s nothing but sand,” he says. “If you actually walk down there, it’s unbelievable how far you have to go down to the creek bed just to see water.”
How Did This Happen?
Around here he’s known simply as “Buddy.” But his given name is Clayton Howell, an 85 year-old retired Navy vet who lives in a single-story home next to a golf course. Until about six months ago, you’d find him playing nine holes a day there. Now he’s more or less confined to his La-Z-Boy with a bad back problem. Over a late breakfast, he tells the story of how the local water wells came to be the property of the LCRA, and why they’re beginning to run dry. Continue Reading →
The drought has certainly lessened in recent month. The percentage of Texas in the most extreme, “exceptional” stage of drought is down from a whopping 86 percent in late September to 25 percent today. But there is still a long way to go. Continue Reading →
Photo by Flickr user Sharon Drummond/Creative Commons
Deregulation turns ten years old in Texas this year.
Anniversaries are horrible things to forget, so here’s one that you might have let slip by. This month marks ten years of de-regulation in the Texas electricity market.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for rate payers since then, according to one new study.
A typical electric customer paid $3,000 in added costs over the last ten years because of deregulation, according to a history commissioned by the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power. The report estimates that Texans spent $11 billion cumulatively because of higher rates. Continue Reading →
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