Welcome to exTRA – an aggregation of both TRA-related and industry-specific news clips. TRA’s communications division provides these clips as an educational service to TRA’s valued staff, directors and consultants. The articles selected are determined to be of interest to our readership, but in no way reflect TRA’s official position(s) or view(s).
City leaders in Kerrville, Texas, have approved initial design work for a 1.6-mile reclaimed water pipeline as part of a long-term strategy to strengthen water supply reliability amid ongoing drought conditions, MySA reported.
As the Coastal Bend continues to grapple with an impending water crisis, officials in Corpus Christi are seeing glimmers of hope that new water will soon be on the way as part of the so-called Evangeline groundwater project. On Friday, March 27, a critical shipment of piping arrived in rural San Patricio County that will soon connect a new network of groundwater wells to Corpus Christi Water, which provides water to 500,000 customers across seven counties.
The Brazos River Authority has announced that nine of the 11 reservoirs in its system are now under Stage 1 Drought Watches, including Belton Lake and Lake Whitney.
The entire state of Texas is experiencing some level of drought this season. There are five levels of drought classifications, D0 through D4. According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, Lamar County is level D2 and D3, severe to extreme drought. Fannin County is level D1, moderate drought.
Harris County Flood Control District breaks ground on a $10 million project to restore channels upstream of Barker Reservoir, aiming to protect thousands of Katy-area homes from future flooding.
The spill was located in southeast Midland near the intersection of North Lamesa Road and Mulberry Lane, north of De Zavala Elementary School. A pipe break caused wastewater to be discharged from the sanitary sewer system and flow into the area's drainage draw, which flows southeast toward North Calhoun Street. In total, about 125,000 gallons of wastewater spilled over the three-hour period.
During its March 17 meeting, the Poteet City Council approved entering into an agreement with the Nueces River Authority to help secure a long-term water supply for the city. Travis Pruski, chief operating officer of the Nueces River Authority, presented details on regional water challenges and outlined plans for a large-scale desalination project near Harbor Island in South Texas.
Sarah Ortbal's work addresses PFAS at multiple critical points — wastewater treatment, surface waters, and targeted remediation — using both targeted PFAS methods and adsorbable organic fluorine (AOF) to reveal the broader fluorinated organic load that traditional methods can miss.
A wastewater treatment facility in West El Paso spilled enough wastewater to fill an Olympic-sized pool and some got into the Rio Grande. According to El Paso Water, around 670,000 gallons of wastewater were spilled from the John T. Hickerson Treatment Plant, located at 701 Executive Center Blvd. near the Rio Grande River and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lake McQueeney and Lake Placid are coming back. The two lakes on the Guadalupe River, which were created a century ago by damming the river east of New Braunfels, have sat nearly empty for years, with little river flow across the mostly exposed lake beds.
Flood sirens and a flood awareness campaign in the wake of last summer's deadly flooding were discussed by Bexar County commissioners at their Tuesday meeting. Commissioners approved a resolution to seek a state grant to pay for the installation of sirens in flood prone areas of the county that were identified by the state.
The current wastewater treatment plant treats 2 million gallons of water a day. Capacity could more than double in two years. The upgrade is designed to keep the city ahead of its projected growth.
Houston's Memorial City area is in line for some much-needed flood prevention with a $76 million underground detention basin set to be constructed. The project, which is expected to break ground near Memorial Middle School in February, is designed to store massive amounts of water during periods of heavy rain.
Houston will provide sanitary sewer services to Bellaire for the next 100 years in exchange for the Ruffino Hills tract in Bellaire. The agreement also transfers three tracts of land to Bellaire and gives the city a $5.4 million credit for wastewater impact fees.
Cameron County Commissioners’ Court recently approved a contract of over $1.5 million for wastewater system improvements in Brownsville’s Saldivar colonia. The colonia, which sits east of the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport, does not have sewer line connections to systems to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board.
The Corpus Christi City Council authorized staff to negotiate a water sale agreement with Aquatech for up to 14 million gallons of water per day. The proposal could eventually provide the city with up to 14 million gallons of water per day. The water would be produced and treated at the existing CC Polymer seawater desalination plant.
The cities of Round Rock and Georgetown entered into a water treatment and transmission agreement several years ago, with Round Rock treating up to 3 million gallons of raw water per day from Lake Georgetown because of the extra treatment capacity at Round Rock’s plant. Round Rock’s water treatment plant has the capacity to treat 52 million gallons per day. With the agreement now expired, Georgetown asked Round Rock to renew the deal.
With populations rising in Prosper and Celina, local officials and the Upper Trinity Regional Water District are expanding water infrastructure to meet growing demands. In 2024, both municipalities agreed to fund a $269 million expansion of the Doe Branch Water Reclamation Plant, which serves both communities.
The Lacy Lakeview City Council heard a proposal to recycle wastewater through a sewer mining system as concerns grow over water usage for a planned data center.
Officials in Three Rivers, the tiny town of 1,800 people that’s located along U.S. 281 about 70 miles northwest of Corpus Christi, issued a news release on Monday, March 23, to announce that the town is under imminent threat of being unable to access its primary water source, Choke Canyon Reservoir. That’s because Corpus Christi water officials will soon release water from Choke Canyon into Lake Corpus Christi — something that had not been accounted for under previous water supply projections.
To get content containing either thought or leadership enter:
To get content containing both thought and leadership enter:
To get content containing the expression thought leadership enter:
You can enter several keywords and you can refine them whenever you want. Our suggestion engine uses more signals but entering a few keywords here will rapidly give you great content to curate.