exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

The project entails the expansion of the Barry Rose Water Reclamation Facility and the decommissioning of the Longwood WRF. This is one of the several water and wastewater improvement projects the city is taking on, leading to increased water rates for residents to pay for the new infrastructure.

The Central Texas Groundwater Conservation District chose to maintain drought Stage 4, the most severe, in Burnet County during the Board of Directors regular meeting on Feb. 17. While the county has seen slight increases in soil moisture, groundwater is still at historic drought levels.

Mark Holtzapple, professor in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has spent the last three decades developing a method to convert biomass, such as sewage, sludge or food waste, into fuels and chemicals. 

The request came after a contractor broke a large waterline near Nederland Avenue, according to a City of Nederland release. City Manager Chris Duque told 12New the break happened around Monday afternoon.

On Jan. 9, the City of Irving began construction on the replacement of a 48-inch diameter wastewater line and a 36-inch diameter wastewater line that run along the east side of Riverside Drive between Northwest Highway and Las Colinas Boulevard. The project is part of the $27.6 million Cottonwood and Hackberry Creek Wastewater Interceptor Project. 

Rising sea levels threaten billions of dollars of damage to critical coastal roads. Experts say we need to be faster at protecting against climate change.

The Reclaimed Water Master Plan intends to create a “drought proof” resource of water that can be used to irrigate city parks and green spaces as well as supply reclaimed water for road and construction projects, according to City of Kyle communications manager Rachel Sonnier. The main points of the plan are to review the existing and proposed reclaimed water infrastructure, and develop a plan to budget and construct the separate infrastructure that will be needed to implement it, Sonnier said.

A survey was commissioned by the nonprofit organization Texas Water Trade and included responses from households in both rural border communities and in urban areas across Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Among those surveyed, 61% responded that they do not think their water is safe to drink. 

Dwindling flows and growing salination threaten crops and soil in Texas. Here's what it means for the struggling river.

When the Agriculture Department finished its calculations last month, the findings were startling: 2022 was a disaster for upland cotton in Texas, the state where the coarse fiber is primarily grown and then sold around the globe in the form of tampons, cloth diapers, gauze pads and other products. In the biggest loss on record, Texas farmers abandoned 74% of their planted crops — nearly 6 million acres — because of heat and parched soil, hallmarks of a megadrought made worse by climate change.

Floodgates at Wirtz Dam, which forms Lake LBJ upstream from Austin on the Colorado River, will be replaced in a $76 million, three-year project, the Lower Colorado River Authority announced earlier this year. The LCRA, which runs the dams, uses them to manage the sometimes flood-swollen river and generate hydroelectric power.

The city of Corpus Christi is reviving a program to sell treated wastewater effluent for nonpotable purposes, such as irrigation. Intended for commercial customers, the city’s program would be a subscription billing service for approved applicants, who could load their trucks with the effluent at the Oso Wastewater Treatment Plant’s fill station.

The Texas General Land Office is pumping more than $12 million in flood control and prevention efforts into the Rio Grande Valley.

Several cities in Cameron and Hidalgo counties received different amounts of the money. The cities were designated as disaster areas because of heavy flooding in 2018.

As the weather warms in the coming weeks and months, more people will head to area lakes and rivers to fish, but the ongoing drought conditions may have an impact.

"Recreational angling opportunities, it is going to be tough this year on some of our Central Texas reservoirs in terms of anglers targeting these fish because the flows are simply not there, says Patrick Ireland, a biologist with Texas Parks & Wildlife.

The Houston Police Department searched the Kingwood Central Wastewater Treatment Plant after allegations the third-party operator falsified government documents and compliance samples. Texas Commission of Environmental Quality records note three complaints were filed about a foul smell in the area of the plant. 

Cedar Park City Council approved a $383,280 contract that goes toward the construction of the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority’s Phase 1D Water Treatment Plant Expansion project. The Phase 1D expansion project will add a fourth treatment structure to the BCRUA water treatment plant, expanding treatment capacity from 32.5 million gallons per day to 41.9 mgd. 

A Texas state park is set to permanently close later this month to be turned into a multi-million dollar development. Now, a state representative is trying to prevent that, filing a bill to allow the state to acquire the land through eminent domain.

The funding will go towards the engineering services and completion of several drainage improvement projects within the city. Projects include drainage improvements for the area bounded by US Bus 83, Expressway I-2, and Alamo Road. Construction will include a 2.50-acre detention pond, installing new inlets, installing 1,400 linear feet of 24-inch pipe, and installing 1500 linear feet of 18-inch pipe.

Homeowners and residents in Valley Mills say they've had enough of the boil water notices that have plagued the town for the last few months. Mayor Ray Bickerstaff told 6 News that Valley Mills received a nearly $10 million federal grant to provide high-speed internet access to rural communities. Once the subcontractor began digging into the ground in Valley Mills, they began having a major pipe issue that could not be prevented easily.