exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

The recent extreme weather conditions has left Texas A&M Forest Service increasing their efforts to save the forest. The Central Texas Operations Department head said the organization estimates approximately 30% of the region’s canopy has been affected, totaling more than 10.5 million trees.

Frisco to add three more remote monitoring stations to its creeks. Using sondes, staff can remotely track changes in water chemistry and detect contaminants.

Critics are calling on federal regulators to increase their scrutiny and oversight of the proposed pipeline, which would send gas from Texas to the Mexican coast for export to other countries. Van Horn residents in the pipeline’s path worry their small town doesn’t have the emergency management capacity to respond to explosions or leaks along the pipeline, and they are distraught that local land would be snatched through eminent domain for construction. 

Last week, nearly 200 countries unanimously adopted a landmark decision that sets the world on a path to phase out fossil fuels and transition to a zero-emissions energy future.

At least five Austin suburbs — Bastrop, Elgin, Georgetown, Pflugerville and Round Rock — are beefing up their treatment systems to provide reliable drinking water as their combined populations are projected to swell from 303,000 residents to over 579,00 in the next 10 to 20 years. Pflugerville officials said they expect the demand for water to exceed its supply by 2025.

As the future of El Paso increasingly hinges on an abundant and affordable supply of water, the city’s water utility is planning to convert millions of gallons more of the salty groundwater that pools beneath the city into drinkable tap water. El Paso Water since 2007 has operated the largest inland water desalination plant in the world, which supplies around 5% of the roughly 40 billion gallons of water that El Pasoans use annually.

For the first time in its 36-year history, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District is declaring an exceptional drought in the Austin area. Officials said one of its monitor wells in South Austin hit a new low, meaning well owners and water service providers across the area will need to reduce their use by at least 30%.

The Good Natured program specifically aims to collaboratively grow and improve Fort Worth’s park system and preserve a minimum of 10,000 acres over the next five years. And all this will be against a backdrop of rapid economic growth and development, with the city’s population expected to reach 1 million by the end of the year.

For the past 10 years, SAWS has been fighting to take ownership of the billions of gallons the utility releases into the San Antonio River. Earlier this month, two administrative judges, Rebecca Smith and Heather Hunziker, issued a proposed decision to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that supports SAWS taking ownership of the water if the utility can provide more protections for the two entities fighting SAWS for water rights — the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and chemical company Union Carbide.

The New Braunfels Utilities (NBU) issued a boil water notice Thursday for customers in the Cloud Country neighborhood.

The system pressure dropped below 20 psi during a contractor's work to enhance water capacity and NBU is actively restoring pressure.

Ominous warnings from the federal government early this month cautioning of the “malicious cyber activity against operational technology” commonly used by water and wastewater providers must serve as a wake-up call for the nation — especially when it concerns the only public utility service we ingest.  

The City of Beaumont is notifying residence of an unauthorized discharge of domestic wastewater. A spill occurred at a collection facility on Hillebrandt Road when contractors damaged a pressurized sewer main Monday. Water utility crews were able to quickly isolate and repair the damage. The area was cleaned and disinfected Tuesday. 

Panthers in Texas? One local man in Huntsville says it's true.

Jerel Hall, who lives in the city about 70 miles north of Houston, snapped a photo that has prompted a barrage of questions on social media and follow-up articles in national news outlets. 

According to the most recent map from the US Drought Monitor, drought conditions were impacting 44% of Texas after dropping to 43% the previous week, compared to 86% three months ago and 52% one year ago. Drought coverage in Texas has overall remained hovering around the lowest level since July, though the mild improvements in North Central and West Texas were offset by worsening conditions in Central and East Texas.

Three months ago, residents were dealing with low water pressure. Here’s a closer look at the work underway to prevent it from happening again.

When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places — the ice in a skating rink, the manufactured snow on ski slopes, in pipes providing irrigation for farmland. And — coming soon — in your drinking glass. It's a big step for a state that has struggled for decades to have a reliable source of drinking water for its more than 39 million residents. 

The San Antonio River Authority (SARA) announced a strategic partnership with WAZE, a crowd-sourced navigation app, to provide real-time information on low-water crossings to drivers.

The collaborative partnership leverages community-driven data to alert drivers as they navigate area roadways.

As Canyon Lake sits at record low levels and Comal County remains in a bullseye of extreme drought, local water managers are updating policies and plans for tackling limited water supplies.

The community is getting a head start on American Rivers Clean-up Day this December after 285 pounds of trash were removed from multiple rivers by the River Warrior Program. The program includes organizations like the San Antonio River Authority, the San Antonio River Foundation, and American Rivers. Together, these organizations help protect various rivers in San Antonio.