exTRA by the Trinity River Authority of Texas

After an update early Thursday Morning, the Texas Drought Monitor now includes portions of the central and northeastern Big Country in either an abnormally dry or moderate drought category. This is due to a recent lack of substantial rainfall, despite a generous surplus in rain to start the calendar year.

Invasive Arundo cane, Zebra Mussels, and Hydrilla are among a host of aquatic plants and animals that are not native to Texas and compete with our native animals and plants for food and space. Because introduced species lack natural enemies in our waterways, they can multiply and spread at an alarming rate, interfering with boat traffic, affecting water quality and quantity, and causing a range of other problems.

The Texas A&M College of Engineering honored six alumni during the 2017 Outstanding Alumni Awards Banquet. Receiving the Outstanding Alumni Honor Award were: Fiona McCracken Allen ’82, regional manager, Trinity River Authority.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Community Outdoor Outreach Program awarded about $1.5 million in grants this year throughout Texas. Some of that money will benefit a group in Corpus Christi. Youth Odyssey, Inc., a nonprofit group based in Corpus Christi, received a $50,000 grant from the program, according to a news release from the department.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Mansfield Dam forms Lake Travis, the largest water supply reservoir in the Highland Lakes and last line of defense against devastating floods funneling into Austin. Built and placed between 1937 and 1942, the dam’s 24 floodgates are showing signs of corrosion and deterioration. While the dam is still safe and fully functional, the Lower Colorado River Authority says it is time to pull each of the 50,000 pound floodgates, rehabilitate and replace them.

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2010 by Environment Texas Citizen Lobby, Inc. and the Sierra Club, claimed unauthorized air emissions from the Baytown refinery and chemical plant between October 2005 and September 2013. The judge ruled that the company delayed improvement projects and reaped an economic benefit of more than $14 million during that time.

DALLAS — Following a $50 million donation from the widow of late Texas philanthropist Harold Simmons last October, the Trinity Park Conservancy soon will break ground on the largest civic project in the history of Dallas — a “Nature District” along the Trinity River Corridor roughly eleven times larger than Manhattan’s Central Park.

As Jan Haima flipped the switch on Lake Whitney’s giant new hydroelectric turbines Wednesday, a bell rang, and a long-ago memory flashed back. She and her twin sister, Nan, flipped the switch on the original dynamos in 1953, when they were 5 and their father was the project engineer for Lake Whitney, then the biggest lake in Texas. Ever since then, Lake Whitney and its 10-story powerhouse have held a special place in her heart.

Crossroads residents interested in planning for their groundwater resources may attend a meeting hosted by the Texas Water Development Board. The meeting will be at the Pattie Dodson Health Center, 2805 N. Navarro St. in Victoria, at 9 a.m. May 11. The meeting will be in Room 108 and is free. At the meeting, the groundwater conservation districts in Groundwater Management Area 15 will review groundwater management plans, accomplishments, and proposals to adopt new or amend existing desired future conditions for the relevant aquifers within a management area.

CORPUS CHRISTI (KIII NEWS) - Crews with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality were out Thursday morning along SPID at the Oso Bay bridge cleaning up the place.