exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

Starting Oct. 1, the average San Angelo home that uses about 4,000 gallons of water per month will see an increase of $2.58 in their rates. The city’s executive of public works says it will help cover operational and maintenance costs impacted by inflation.

An early estimated cost totaled $34 billion for what is expected to be the largest civil engineering project in United States history, and is supposed to protect the Houston region from surges during hurricanes.

Arlington Water Utilities will continue to have some of the lowest water rates in North Texas when new rates for Fiscal Year 2024 go into effect on Oct. 1, 2023. The rate changes are associated with water and sanitary sewer service for residential and commercial customer accounts in Arlington. The average residential water and sewer bill will increase by about $2.76 a month, or by about 4.07%. Commercial customers who use 50,000 gallons of water and 50,000 gallons of wastewater will pay an additional $54.13 a month, an increase of 8.44%.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is offering rewards of up to $1,000 for Texans who report poaching of alligator snapping turtles through Texas' wildlife crime-stoppers program, Operation Game Thief (OGT). Thanks to additional funds from the agency's Conservation License Plate Program, the reward can be doubled if the tip leads to convictions for snapping turtle cases.

In Liberty County, one neighborhood has been slowly abandoned as years of flooding and intense rains prompted a spiral of decline. A struggling buyout program shows the complexities and limitations of “managed retreat” from disaster-prone areas.

On Wednesday morning, the city of Alice held a groundbreaking ceremony for the first Brackish Water Treatment Plant in the state of Texas. This treatment plant will provide the City of Alice with a self-sufficient and drought-proof water supply for a more resilience and more water independence. The reverse-osmosis treatment plant will desalinate and treat the brackish water before making its way to homes around the City of Alice.

In a new report, the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance (GEAA) detailed the importance of utilizing water reuse, or recycled water, to combat water scarcity in the booming Hill Country counties. Water reuse can be used as an alternative to existing water supplies and protect those supplies by diverting wastewater that otherwise would be disposed into “sensitive” waterways. Despite the benefits, GEAA points out that many Hill County counties don’t utilize the resource.

With water levels continuing to sink and ground across both Kendall County and much of the Lone Star state, the Kendall County Commissioners Court opted to extend its drought disaster emergency declaration Monday, September 25. In Kendall County, conditions remain dry with the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District – the elected officials in charge of regulating water use in the Hill Country county – entering its most severe drought stage earlier in July and remaining there through September. This marks the lengthiest and most severe drought restrictions placed on county water users in recent memory.

The El Niño weather pattern could lead to a wetter winter, but temperatures should stay consistent with past years.

After conducting a high-tech survey of red-crowned parrots, Amazona viridigenalis, a team of scientists were surprised to discover that these parrots are actually thriving alongside human communities in southern Texas. Considering that this species is endangered in its native range in northeastern Mexico, their remarkable ability to live alongside humans makes them unique.

Toxic algae blooms known as red tide have been detected in multiple sections of the Texas Gulf Coast including the upper coast around Galveston Bay and the lower Laguna Madre in the Rio Grande Valley, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said. It’s the first time Texas has seen a red tide since 2018, when it affected the upper and middle parts of the state’s coast. Red tide typically starts in late summer or early fall. Parks and Wildlife officials first noticed it in Freeport, south of Houston, on Sept. 3.

Exclusive FOX footage shows tons of toxic incinerator ash being dug up just feet from Houston's newest low-income housing complex. The East Side project known as 800 Middle Street is a 400-unit affordable housing complex being built with federal funds on property surrounded by toxic landfills and legacy, industrial pollution.  

After a long summer of extreme heat, Texas has been battered by a lingering drought that’s damaging crops, drying up water supplies and causing wildfires.

All Georgetown water customers on one-day-per-week watering schedule starting Sept. 29 Effective Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, all Georgetown water utility customers may return to the assigned, one-day-per-week outdoor watering schedule and other Drought Stage 2 restrictions.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Inland Fisheries Division selected 10 new projects to be supported by the Habitat and Angler Access Program (HAAP) for 2024-25. The Fishing Piers at Lake Livingston was chosen as one of the projects. The Trinity River Authority (TRA) and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department plan to construct fishing piers at two separate TRA park/boat launch locations, Blanchard Boat Ramp and Patrick’s Ferry, that will help improve shoreline angler access to Lake Livingston.

The Tyler City Council has approved the more than $3 million John Soules Food Waterline Extension project. The construction contract is with A.E. Shull & Company and the extension will add 14,700 linear feet of a new 16-inch diameter water line to the John Soules Foods plant, located at 10150 FM 14.

Water utilities throughout the United States will need to spend $625 billion over the next 20 years to fix, maintain, and improve the country’s drinking water infrastructure, according to preliminary results of a periodic assessment done by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That key finding of the survey, completed in 2021 and finalized in a report to Congress in September, represents a 33% increase, not accounting for inflation, from the almost $469 billion reported in the 2015 version of the Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment (DWINSA).

Last week, after the city of Kyle realized it has already used 102% of its allotted water from the Edwards Aquifer for the year, they struck a friendly neighbor deal with the city of San Marcos, which voted to sell a portion of its water rights to Kyle. It's a temporary solution, just until the end of the year, but it begs larger questions about long-range water planning in the Hill Country. For instance: What happens if both cities run out of water at once?

An amendment was proposed during the September 19 City Council meeting which will increase San Angeloans’ water rates in order to cover city inflation costs. The proposed amendment will modify a City Ordinance to incorporate a one-time increase to the drainage (Stormwater) utility system fees to offset operating cost increases resulting from higher inflation in operational parts, supplies and materials.

Along a parched stretch of La Salle County, Texas, workers last year dug some 700 feet deep into the ground, seeking fresh water. Millions of gallons of it. The water wouldn’t supply homes or irrigate farms. It was being used by petroleum giant BP to frack for fossil fuels. The water would be mixed with sand and toxic chemicals and pumped right back underground — forcing oil and gas from the bedrock.

Amarillo officials are providing updates on their plans for an improvement project at the Hollywood Road Wastewater Treatment Facility. The plant is almost 60 years old and officials say this has led to a significant amount of equipment and infrastructure that is deteriorating and is almost at a point of failure.

A water main leak has caused the City of Port Arthur’s water system pressure in the Highland Heights and the Taft Additions to fall below the 20 psi State requirement. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has required the City of Port Arthur public water system to notify all customers to boil their water prior to consumption.