The funny thing about Walter E. Long Lake: most people don’t know it exists. The lake, tucked into a rural-feeling part of North East Austin is big, by Austin standards. It can hold more water than Austin’s two central city Lakes -Lake Austin and Lady Bird Lake- combined. It was created to host a power […]
Water from the Highland Lakes is important to everyone in Central Texas — from urban Austinites to rural rice farmers downstream. Wednesday, the board of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) was set to vote on a much-delayed plan to manage that water, but the authority’s board postponed that vote to gather more public input. The proposed […]
The Highland Lakes, the main reservoirs for over a million people in and around Austin, are only a third full. They could reach their lowest levels in history this summer. As the shores of those lakes receded during the Texas drought, businesses dried up and water quality declined. If you take a trip out to […]
Soaking rains will hit Central Texas today and tomorrow, washing garbage, dirt and leaves down the drains. Flash flood and heavy rain warnings have been issed for a wide swath of the state, from Houston to Paris. But the drought will remain. We are several years into a dry cycle and climate forecasters predict that […]
What role will agriculture play in the future of Texas? Should Texans continue to raise water-intensive crops like corn and rice?
This Friday we’ll be bringing you a special report, Life By the Drop: Drought, Water and the Future of Texas, a collaboration of StateImpact Texas, KUT News, and Texas Monthly. Life By the Drop is a close look at the state of water and drought in Texas, looking both to the past and the future for answers […]
The next couple days will be busy ones at the headquarters of the Lower Colorado River Authority. The agency that controls the water flowing from the Highland Lakes to the Gulf Coast is set to approve a new Water Management Plan on Tuesday. But before it makes a final decision, it will hear from the […]
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