Vol 3, Issue 8

Pressing Texas leaders to act on climate change, a state lawmaker on Monday appealed to his colleagues' long-held disdain for federal intervention.

A proposal to ban the trade of shark fins in Texas sailed through the Texas House on Wednesday, but it faces choppier waters ahead: the Texas Senate, where similar legislation foundered in 2013.

With a third of Texans still facing drought conditions, a coalition of Texas universities and water providers has launched an $8 million effort to curb water use in cities.

Researchers have found that the water supply in Vinton is making people sick, but local politics have gotten in the way of a solution to connect to nearby El Paso's utilities. This is part two of our five-story Undrinkable series on border communities that lack reliable, clean water.

Yongli Gao is the acting director of the Center for Water Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is also an associate professor of environmental geology and hydrology.

In this week's Bookshelf, our content partner Kirkus Reviews highlights Fire and Ice.

Fracking policies and practices vary widely around the state, leading to different approaches to preserving freshwater use.

An Environmental Protection Agency report found that a fracking database compiled voluntarily by the oil and gas industry lacks important data on chemicals and sources of water.

The region's prolonged drought has impacted the Rio Grande River in multiple ways: challenging farmers, fueling environmental conflicts and sparking water disputes between Texas and its neighbors.

The historic wooden glass-bottom boats that have plied the waters of Spring Lake since 1945 are being redesigned and refurbished under the guidance of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State.

Mandatory water restrictions enacted by California Gov. Jerry Brown have caused tension between growers who are exempt from cutbacks and homeowners who feel they are being asked to bear too much of the burden.

Justin Sullivan set out to capture the severity of the drought in the West by documenting the water level creeping lower in lakes and reservoirs in California, Utah and Arizona.

Using data from the Texas Water Development Board's reservoir status tracker, our auto-updating map visualizes the current state of Texas reservoirs.