Texans must treat every drop of water as precious

September 8, 2020
Drought

The state of Texas is a behemoth. At some 268,000 square miles — from the Piney Woods of East Texas, the Hill Country and the Panhandle to the desert mountains of West Texas and the Gulf Coast — the Lone Star State encompasses disparate climate regions, each with varied economic, social and environmental drivers. As climate change continues, each of these areas will change. As a general rule, scientists predict a significantly warmer and drier climate — with occasional catastrophic…

Ensuring One Water delivers for healthy waterways: A framework for incorporating healthy waterways into One Water plans and projects

September 8, 2020
Drought

The One Water approach offers tremendous opportunities for improving how water is managed within communities. Using water efficiently and taking advantage of diverse, locally available water supplies are important goals. It is also important that the approach support communities in assessing how their water use affects the health of waterways, both upstream, where water is sourced, and downstream, where other communities and aquatic resources may be impacted. Local water capture and reuse technologies are some of the most successful innovations…

opinions+water: Time for Texas to get serious about controlling water loss

September 8, 2020
Drought

This fall the state’s 16 regional water planning groups will be submitting to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) revised plans for meeting projected water demands in their area of Texas over the next fifty years — to 2070 and even beyond. These “2021” regional water plans, once reviewed and approved by TWDB, will be the culmination of the latest five-year review and revision cycle established by the passage of Senate Bill 1 by the Texas Legislature in 1997. The…

Blue Hole Primary wins TWDB Rain Catcher Award

September 8, 2020
Economics of Sound Planning

The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association is so proud of the collective accomplishment that is Wimberley ISD’s One Water School – Blue Hole Primary. The honor of the 2020 TWDB Rain Catcher Award will be shared by the many hands and minds that came together to make this reality—not just theory. The Wimberley Valley Watershed Association has a long history of preserving and protecting water resources in Hays County and the greater Hill Country. Locally, we see water resources that are…

City could store three Lake Austins’ worth of water underground by 2040

September 8, 2020
Drought

Austin gets all of its water from the Highland Lakes, but that might not always be the case. The city recently took a first step towards storing massive amounts of water underground. If the plan works, it could help Austin survive as climate change threatens traditional water supplies. The technique is called aquifer storage and recovery, or ASR. In it, utilities pump water into underground aquifers to save it for later. Aquifer storage and recovery is touted as a good…

Hays County kicks off Wimberley Valley Trails Initiative

September 8, 2020
Economics of Sound Planning

Hays County is kicking-off its new Wimberley Valley Trails initiative, an effort to develop a multi-year vision to improve connectivity in the City of Wimberley and surrounding areas. This vision includes a system of hike and bike trails, multi-modal transportation options, and other strategies to help connect people with nature and link regional points of interest in the community. Read more from San Marcos Corridor News here.

‘God is not making more Honey Creeks’: Longtime neighbors clash over planned Hill Country development

September 8, 2020
Groundwater Resources

Fed by water pouring out of Honey Creek Cave, the stream forms a series of pools and riffles, shaded by towering cypress and sycamore trees. Bass, sunfish, and other native fish dart beneath the lily pads dotting the surface of the clear water. Biologists consider the creek one of the most pristine examples left in the region of what Hill Country creeks looked like before European settlement. Development was probably inevitable for this area on the northern fringes of the…

Healthy Creeks Initiative underway

September 8, 2020
Habitat Conservation Plans

Contractors will soon begin the annual control efforts to manage Arundo along the Pedernales River and several tributary creeks. Arundo, also referred to as Giant Reed or Carrizo Cane, is a non-native, invasive plant that can take over creeks and rivers. Since 2016, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), Hill Country Alliance (HCA), City of Fredericksburg, and other organizations have partnered with participating landowners through the Healthy Creeks Initiative to control Arundo and enhance the creek-side (or riparian) habitat…

Water, Texas: Border wall concerns in Lower Rio Grande Valley diminished by virus and growth

August 27, 2020
Land Conservation and Stewardship

Before it turns right and heads straight north to the Dakotas, US 281 spends its first 46 miles close to the Rio Grande in South Texas. The two-lane highway slips out of downtown Brownsville and bends west through a Lower Rio Grande Valley landscape renowned in Texas for binding water, agriculture, and ecology in a tumult of ferocious urban growth, nationally significant environmental restoration, and political turmoil… On the highway’s south side, distant stands of spiny hackberry and western soapberry…

San Antonio aquifer, trail advocates lament sales tax vote

August 27, 2020
Conservation Easements

Environmental advocates were dismayed Thursday after City Council set up a shift of sales tax funding away from the Edwards Aquifer and San Antonio’s trail network, with some saying they plan to focus on ensuring replacement funding. San Antonio City Council voted 9-2 Thursday to put a measure on the November ballot to devote a one-eight-cent sales tax to workforce development for four years before shifting to VIA Metropolitan Transit. The tax currently funds the City’s trails and aquifer protection…