In Austin, a work of guerrilla art predicted the gradual desertification of Texas at the height of the 2011 drought.
On Tuesday, we reported on how multiple years of unusually warm weather in Texas has changed attitudes about what’s hot and what’s not.
In a nutshell: people are starting to think of hotter-than-average weather as the new normal here in Texas. This year is a case-in-point: thanks to a warmer-than-usual winter, 2012 is currently on track to be the 4th hottest year (in terms of average temperatures) in Texas. But many people, shell-shocked from last year’s record breaking heat, are thinking of this year as a welcome respite.
A lot of the warming trend has to do with weather patterns that take decades to run their course. Strong and re-occurring La Nina patterns in the Pacific, for example, are in large part responsible for the dry, warm weather that Texas has seen since 2005 (with the exception of two wetter-than-average years). And, as we’ve explained in the past, dry weather in Texas means warm weather. But scientists say global climate change has exacerbated those trends, creating even hotter hot spells and drier dry spells.
What can the upcoming Texas legislature do about water, where will it find the funds if it decides to act? Those were some of the hot-button questions on tap at a recent Texas Tribune summit on water issues at Texas State University.
Tribune Editor-In-Chief Evan Smith sat down with two state legislators, Rep. Allan Ritter (R-Nederland), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, and state Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy), who sites on the Senate Natural Resources Committee. You can watch their conversation above.
Some of these potential policies have big implications for the massive energy industry (and aging coal power plants) in Texas, but at this point it’s really anyone’s guess how exactly it will all play out. Continue Reading →
The pictured rotor head irrigation performed the worst in the drought-simulation study.
Drought doesnât have to kill your lawn, say Texas A&M Agrilife researchers. Though it may appear brown, the grass can stay alive during water-restricted months. Researchers say it’s a matter of watering with the right sprinklers and the right techniques.
Texas A&M Agrilife researchers studied the best watering techniques during water restrictions by simulating drought-restrictions on grass. They used healthy plots of Bermuda and St. Augustine and limited their water intake to one-quarter inches and one-third inches of water twice a week. The researchers also tried out different sprinkler heads on the grass: spray, MP rotator, rotors and sub-surface drip.
According to the study, the drip irrigation sprinkler heads were the best at maximizing limited water supplies on grass. These sprinkler heads apply water slowly and directly to grass roots, although they are a little more labor intensive than other watering techniques. Continue Reading →
Republican chairman Barry Smitherman easily won re-election to the state agency that oversees oil and gas drilling. Smitherman faced no Democratic opponent.
In the race for the open seat, Republican attorney Christi Craddick defeated Democratic candidate Dale Henry.
Both candidates received significant funding from the oil and gas industry.
The races are largely a forgone conclusion, but thanks to our friends at the Texas Tribune, we’ll be carrying live election results for the two races for the Railroad Commission of Texas (which oversees oil and gas drilling in the state) tonight.
Running for re-election is chairman Barry Smitherman, who faces an easy road back to the commission as no Democratic candidate is opposing him (though there are Libertarian and Green Party candidates in both races). For the open seat, Republican attorney Christi Craddick is widely expected to defeat Democratic candidate Dale Henry. As the results come in, the widget above will display them. And you can listen to live election coverage on KUT 90.5 FM in Austin and KUHF 88.7 FM in Houston.
Mark Stimak says working in his BBQ trailor during the summer of 2011 was unbearable. This past summer was pretty hot too.
It’s the lunch rush on a warm November afternoon at the Hog Wild BBQÂ food trailer in Austin, and owner Mark Stimak says business is good. This time last year, he remembers, he was still recovering from the dry, hot summer. A summer that, in Austin, brought 90 days of triple-digit heat.
âIt was just unbearable, I was always asking myself, ‘Why am I doing this business?'” he tells StateImpact Texas. “As a matter of fact, trailer food sales were way down that summer because people did not want to come out and sit outside.”
Compared to that experience, Stimak says working the barbecue pit this year was a cake walk. Not that this summer was particularly cool.
“Still, it was ridiculously hot,” he says. “We hit a hundred degrees a couple dozen times, I think.â
In fact, Austin hit triple digits 35 times this year. The average for the city is 13 times. And Austin was not unique. As Texans across the state comforted each other by observing ‘At least it’s not as bad as last year,’ 2012 was shaping up to be another one for the record books.
Truck hauling tanks in Midland/Odessa hits and damages overpass
Looking for ways to pay to rebuild roads damaged by thousands of trucks servicing oil and gas drilling, the Texas legislature will likely consider raising fees for overweight trucks when it convenes in January.
“The fees we are collecting today just are not sufficient to compensate for the increased consumption of pavement and bridges,” John Barton, Assistant Executive Director for Engineering Operations with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), tells StateImpact Texas.
‘Completely Destroyed’
Consumption is one way to put it. Destroyed is another.
“With all the traffic, it’s destroying our roads. Some are already completely destroyed,” says Frio County Judge Carlos Garcia in South Texas. It’s in the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale formation, where oil production from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in nearby Karnes County now leads the state.
When San Francisco Bay area landscape photographer Thomas Bachand first heard about the Keystone XL pipeline, which will take heavy oil harvested from tar pits in Canada to refineries in Texas; he started looking around for a map of it. And he quickly discovered there wasn’t one to be found.
“Obfuscation is a big part of this [pipeline] project,” Bachand tells StateImpact Texas. To show where the pipeline will go — how many rivers, wetlands and streams it will cross, for instance — Bachand started the Keystone Mapping Project. Painstakingly collecting what information he could get from public agencies, he was able to put together an interactive map of the pipeline, which you can view above.
We recently spoke by phone with Bachand to learn about how he put the map together.
Q: So how’d you get involved in this?
A: I started out wanting to scout the route for a potential photography project. So I went looking for a map, and discovered there wasnât one. I went over to the State Department website, and found some great information, but then I discovered there wasnât any route information. So while you could find where a wetland was, for example, it would say, âWetland 500 feet from Mile Post 182.â You couldnât find where Mile Post 182 was. The State Department was helpful, but they werenât allowed to release the information. So I started looking around, and I went to the states. One gave me the mile post information, but everyone else either didnât have the information, or they wouldnât release it.
Just a few weeks ago, staff had recommended that the agency not seek an emergency drought plan, which has stricter cutoffs for determining whether water is sent downstream for irrigation.
“Since then, conditions have not measurably improved, and updated weather forecasts call for drier conditions,” the LCRA says in a statement late Friday afternoon. Now staff will recommend that the board of the LCRA adopt an emergency plan, albeit a “different” one from what they have currently. The agency declined to offer specifics as to how it’s different in their statement, saying only that details will be available at a meeting in a few weeks.
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