exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

The city of Bellaire is returning to Stage 1 of its drought contingency plan and lifting its voluntary watering restrictions. Previously, the city was at Stage 2, which indicated mild water shortage conditions. Officials from Bellaire's city manager office announced Oct. 27 that the change was due to customers reduced water usage.

Heavy rains overnight caused the Lower Colorado River Authority to partially open floodgates at two major dams, impacting the Llano River which feeds into the Colorado River.

The City of Port Arthur has issued a boil water notice to areas from Highway 365 to Highway 73 and 58th Street to West Port Arthur Road. The TCEQ has mandated that the City of Port Arthur public water system advise all customers in the impacted areas to boil their water before consumption due to a water main leak in the system's pressure.

The City of San Marcos removed three dying trees in City Park this week. Officials say urban trees are struggling with year after year of drought.

Shannon Hamilton, the executive director for the Central Texas Water Coalition said it's going to take a lot of rain for the lakes to get to where they need to be.

The withdrawn proposal would have allowed the dam’s owner to take nearly 4 million gallons from the South Llano River, the main water source for Kimble, Mason and Llano counties.

Representatives from Leprino and state environmental regulators hosted a public meeting Tuesday evening about how that future cheese factory in East Lubbock proposes to get rid of its wastewater. Leprino officials say the plant will bring in eight million pounds of milk every day, and 87 percent of that milk is water. They say some of that water will be recycled to reuse within the facility, but it will produce more water than it needs to operate, so the excess needs to be discharged elsewhere.

During their most recent meeting on Oct. 11, the City Council approved a $1 million purchase for new equipment installation at Liberty Hill’s wastewater treatment plant. The equipment includes a new fine screen and grit trap. Public Works Director David Thomison said city staff assessed the condition of the current fine screen and discovered multiple known existing mechanical and structural issues with the unit which ultimately led to its failure and required manual cleaning.

Wastewater surveillance and monitoring are growing in popularity as a testing tool for public health monitoring. But how does it work?

A five-year contract extension that will ensure continuity for an advanced meter system and customer portal in Coppell was approved. Coppell City Council approved the contract renewal with Aqua-Metric during the Oct. 24 meeting. By approving the contract, the city will maintain its existing water utility customer portal, water usage analytic software and meter reading system.

City officials noted that current lake levels have stabilized but have not recuperated and remain at (lower) elevations that reduce some production capacity. “While dissipation and decline have slowed dramatically, neither lake has yet to experience any increase in levels and actually have started to again decline slightly,” the agenda item concluded.

As part of the I-35 expansion project, there will be new wastewater and water lines installed in South Austin that will increase water resiliency.

Officials want to bring in a trash-collecting waterwheel to remove floating trash from the water. The waterwheel is a floating technology that picks up floating trash, puts it on a conveyor belt inside the craft and then deposits it into a trash bin. It is powered sustainably, primarily by river currents but if the hydropower is not sufficient, the craft can work off of solar power.

Federal forecasters released an outlook Thursday that points to a “classic” El Niño winter with the potential for a few wild cards. Winter will be wetter, and warmer in parts of the U.S. Thanks to El Niño, a natural ocean and weather pattern in the tropical Pacific.

Texas’ flood planning efforts are as critical as ever, but what if we made efforts as a state to work with nature instead of against it?

At a facility very few residents will ever visit, a $39 million expansion is allowing a larger capacity of wastewater to be treated at Lick Creek. The Lick Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion was a four-year construction project — billed as the largest capital project in College Station — in order to meet city needs.