The drought has meant different things for different people in Texas. For many, it meant a brown lawn and fewer trips to the car wash. For others, it meant the loss of a crop, the sale of a ranch, or the disappearance of a lake. A new report gives us the opportunity to look at […]
To get to Spicewood Beach from Austin, you first drive through the Hill Country. You’ll pass a parcel of land scorched by wildfire and drive over a Pedernales River that has been reduced to a trickle, with docks awkwardly resting on the dry riverbed. When you get to the rusty barbecue smoker with the Confederate […]
Reaction came fast and furious to Friday’s announcement that the Texas Supreme Court had reached a decision in The Edwards Aquifer Authority V. Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel. The case has far-reaching implications for how local water authorities can regulate the amount of groundwater a private property owner pulls from their land. It’s a decision […]
We do a lot of reporting on the ongoing (but hopefully abating) Texas drought around here, with a weekly update on drought conditions in the state. Yesterday’s update showed that drought conditions continue to improve in Texas, with Dallas/Fort-Worth drought-free, and parts of Houston are now out of drought as well. Austin is in the lightest stage […]
The Texas Supreme Court has reached a ruling in a case that will have widesweeping implications for the way groundwater is regulated across the state. The Edwards Aquifer Authority and the State of Texas, V Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel, centered on whether property owners could be compensated if a water authority limited the amount […]
We’re far from the finish line, but after another week with rains in parts of Texas, the record single-year drought shows continued signs of abating. While 85 percent of Texas is still in “moderate” drought, only 14 percent of the state is in the highest level of drought, “exceptional.” That’s down from 20 percent last […]
In what they’re calling the “most decisive issue” they’ve ever come across, the Lower Colorado River Authority voted today in favor of a new water plan that will change how much water goes from the Highland Lakes to customers downstream. The water plan was created over the last 18 months by a group with representatives from […]
The fish hatchery that supplies much of the striped bass in Texas may soon close due to lack of water.
Who deserves water more? The first one in line, or the one who stands to lose the most financially if it’s taken away? That’s one way of looking at the ongoing “water war” on the Lower Colorado River between rice farmers in Southeast Texas and residents and businesses along the Highland Lakes upstream from them. […]
David Barer, an intern at StateImpact Texas, researched and reported this article. Derrick Schmalz is lifetime angler who grew up fishing on the Llano River with his grandfather. When it comes to fishing in his home state, he can’t help but show a little Texas pride. “I’ve fished all over the country, and Texas has […]
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