Robert Lee Mayor John Jacobs looking out over the dry EV Spence reservoir in West Texas in Spring 2011. His town built a pipeline to avoid running out of water.
If you happened to be in Austin last Monday, you may have noticed a sight that would have been strangely unfamiliar just two years ago: three Republican state lawmakers, calling in unison for more spending, higher prices and more restrictions for water.
It represents a real about-face for the Republican majority in Texas. Last legislative session, the focus was on cutting spending and abortion and immigration, but not water. Despite dry times in 2009, with extreme drought in parts of the state, and the onset of the record one-year drought in the fall of 2010, in the last legislative session, lawmakers took little action on building new water supplies and encouraging conservation. It wasn’t for the want of trying by some legislators, like State Representative* Allan Ritter (R-Nederland), who pushed to get money for the state’s Water Plan. But that bill didn’t pass. The only major water bill that passed last session, on groundwater rights for private property owners, may have actually made things worse.
In the meantime, the state’s de facto water policy became ‘Pray for Rain.’
Texas lawmakers appear to be ready to start seriously funding water development and conservation in the state. They’re looking at creating a state-run program, with billions of dollars, that would pick projects based on need and efficacy, administered by an oversight board appointed by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Speaker of the House.
But it all sounds awfully similar to another state-run grant program that has come under harsh review for a lack of oversight and accountability: the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute (CPRIT).
In Houston, a biker crosses a utility right-of-way
Update: Rep. Jim Murphy filed a new bill February 18, 2013 that appears to still limit a utility’s liability but not in cases of “gross negligence.”
The electricity industry is among the biggest of the big spenders on lobbying the Texas legislature. So when bills are introduced giving the industry extraordinary protection from law suits, you can bet somebody’s going to cry foul.
“It’s a very unusual bill,” says Andrew Wheat at Texans for Public Justice, a corporate watchdog group in Austin. Continue Reading →
If you live in the East Texas town of Timpson, or nearby, chances are you’ve had a shaky week. It all started last Friday, very early in the morning, when an earthquake measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale struck just north of town, causing minor damage. Then on Tuesday, again, very early in the morning, a smaller 2.8 quake struck. Then yesterday afternoon another quake occurred, just south of town, with a strength of 2.7. That’s three earthquakes within a week.
So what’s going on? We put that question to Dr. Cliff Frohlich, a seismologist that studies manmade earthquakes at the University of Texas at Austin. Yes, manmade.
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.”
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives. Learn More »
