exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

A boil water notice was issued on Sunday for residents who live in parts of Spring because of low water pressure, according to officials. The alert is specifically for Harris County WCID 114.

Instead of celebrating a break in the drought when four inches of rain fell in late August, Runaway Bay mayor Herman White worried about a catastrophe brewing on Lake Bridgeport. The city documented around 100,000 gallons of sewage that flowed into the lake but White said, “That’s what we know about.”

With several billion dollars in federal money secured for drought-stricken western states, managers and officials on the Rio Grande are hopeful some will reach their communities and bring attention to the challenges facing one of North America’s longest rivers.

The Brazos River Authority has announced that even though some area lakes are already well below their normal levels, water is being released from those reservoirs to meet desperate needs downstream. This water will soon be joined by more from lakes even further up stream.

Most areas of San Antonio saw less than an inch of rain Monday morning, and there’s no more precipitation forecast in the coming days. Put another way: the drought continues. But despite the lingering dry weather, most residents can and should start slowing down on their landscape watering starting now, said Karen Guz, director of water conservation for the San Antonio Water System.

After 10 years, the city is working to complete one of its biggest project in decades — a multi-million-dollar sewer system overhaul closing in on a March deadline. At the tail end of a long work list, city commissioners have agreed to fund projects to build a $2.9 million surge tank at the city’s service center and a $1.2 million sewer lift station in the Landrum area.

Austin Water will host the first of three workshops this week to outline its Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project. It’s a new water supply strategy that would allow the public utility to store stormwater in a natural aquifer that would be available for later use when the water is needed. 

A new study by researchers at the University of Houston shows that some of Houston’s suburbs are sinking at "a significant rate." Groundwater demands and a growing population have helped compress the soil underneath places such as Katy, Spring, The Woodlands and Fresno.

This decision came in response to the city's current water capacity and its ability to support the number of residential water accounts to come.

“If we do keep adding residential, at historic rates, let’s say two years from now—maybe even a year from now—if we had to entertain the same type of repair scenario, where we were only relying on Sandy Creek ... I don’t believe we would be able to manage through it,” City Manager Rick Beverlin said at the meeting, citing the recent repair of a Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority pipe that took that treatment plant offline.

Last week, Colorado's water quality agency gave unanimous preliminary approval to regulate direct potable reuse — the process of treating sewage and sending it directly to taps without first being dispersed in a larger water body. Pending a final vote in November, the state would become the first to adopt direct potable reuse regulations, according to state and federal officials.

Lennar Home sent a permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to build its own wastewater treatment center and pump up to one-million gallons of treated wastewater daily into Helotes Creek. Nathan Glavy, of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, said the organization is concerned because Helotes Creek lies on a recharge zone to the Edwards Aquifer.

The critical drought declaration was made on Thursday after one of the district’s drought triggers, Lovelady Monitory Well, passed below its critical drought trigger Monday. Approximately 50,000 to 60,000 people depend upon water from the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer, according to its website. It’s also the only known habitat for the endangered Barton Springs salamander.

The Brazos river is running at 70 percent of capacity and falling every day, putting the source of Galveston County's water at risk.

The City of New Fairview will be asking the City of Justin to provide water from Upper Trinity Regional Water District to the city.

During a workshop Monday, the council directed City Administrator John Cabrales to draft a letter to Justin making a formal request to purchase water for the new developments — Shoop Ranch and Constellations Lake — and other areas on the east side of the city. 

The amount of water required to be left on reserve in lakes Buchanan and Travis for firm water users was lowered to 35,000 acre-feet per year from 40,500 acre-feet per year. The Lower Colorado River Authority Board of Directors made the change at its regular meeting Wednesday, Oct. 19. 

Impacts continue to mount after a water main was damaged Friday along U.S. 87 in La Vernia. As of press time Oct. 17, city of La Vernia water customers remained under a boil water notice, after an 8-inch water main was broken by a subcontractor laying fiber optic cable around 3:30 p.m Oct. 14. To stop the water flow and isolate the break, city officials made the decision to shut off water supply to the whole city late Friday afternoon.

A status report was provided to City Council regarding a feasibility study and finding a secondary potable water source Monday night. Information has been submitted to state representatives for legislative language of both items. 

Though Texas is drought-prone, the risk of extreme rainfall and flooding is projected to increase by 30-50% by 2031, requiring improved stormwater infrastructure. Before installation of self-cleaning Trashracks (Duperon), the city of Dallas Hampton Road Pump Station operated without any protection in front of its stormwater intake grating.

Texas Parks and Wildlife says that the forecast for quail hunting remains “uncertain” ahead of the season, which starts on Oct. 29, because conditions vary throughout the state. This year, the habitat conditions for quail declined going into August because of the drought, and bobwhites were mainly “few and far between,” TPWD says.