Want to understand Texas’ water crisis? Start with the guide to water terms.
Water is complex. So are the terms used to describe it. Get to know the language as Texas debates how to save its water supply. Full Story
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Alejandra Martinez is a Fort Worth-based environmental reporter. She’s covered the impacts of petrochemical facilities on Black and brown communities, including investigating a chemical fire at an industrial complex and how the state's air monitoring system has failed Latino communities. Her work on climate change includes exploring the health effects of extreme heat and how extended droughts affect water resources. Before joining the Tribune in 2022, Alejandra was an accountability reporter at KERA, where she began as a Report for America Corps Member and then covered Dallas City Hall. She also has worked as an associate producer at WLRN in South Florida. A Houston native, Alejandra studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and speaks fluent Spanish.
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![The secondary clarifier at the Bustamante Waste Water Treatment Plant expansion in El Paso on March 5, 2025.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
Texas is running out of water. Here’s why and what state leaders plan to do about it.
The state’s water supply faces numerous threats. And by one estimate, the state’s municipal supply will not meet demand by 2030 if there’s a severe drought and no water solutions are implemented. Full Story
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![Water gushes from Rick Bradbury’s truck to Shannon Montague’s reservoir as the Bradbury’s make a delivery Saturday, March 16, 2024 in Terlingua.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Texas braces for surge in power demand amid population and industry boom
At a Texas Tribune event Thursday, energy experts discussed how the state’s growing energy demands will impact residential bills and how legislation is trying to regulate new big energy users. Full Story
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Texas leaders defend Black official after lawmaker’s public interrogation of DEI policies left her in tears
The topic was a budget request from a state agency. The exchange grew emotional when a lawmaker pressed for answers about a strategic plan that praises diversity. Full Story
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![Then-Texas Water Development Board member L’Oreal Stepney listens to comments during a board meeting Tuesday, July 23, 2024, in Austin. Stepney was named chair of the Board by Gov. Greg Abbott on January 8, 2025.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
New study finds elevated cancer rates near toxic San Jacinto River waste pits
State researchers found above normal levels of four types of cancer in communities near a toxic waste site. Full Story
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![The San Jacinto River Waste pits, an EPA Superfund site which is contaminated with dioxins, sits right on Interstate 10 east of Houston on Oct. 12, 2014.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for Te Texas Tribune -
Why oil and gas companies want state oversight for carbon dioxide injection
Environmentalists are worried the state — known for a lax approach to regulation — is not prepared for the added responsibility of regulating certain carbon capture projects. Full Story
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Once the carbon dioxide is captured, the gas is compressed and transported, usually through pipelines, to a storage location, which is later injected into deep underground rock formations where it can be permanently stored.
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Petra Nova CCS Facility at NRG Power Plant in Richmond on May 18, 2018.]()
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Texas regulators grapple with a growing problem: old oil wells leaking polluted water
Two years after lawmakers created a $10 million program to address leaking wells in rural counties, none of the money has been distributed. Full Story
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![Hawk Dunlap stands at the site of Lake Boehmer, a brine lake that has leaked out of an old well in Pecos County.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang/The Texas Tribune -
“A lot of fear going on”: Texas immigrant community on edge during Trump’s first weeks
Across the state, immigrants and their loved ones are changing their daily habits as the Trump administration orders at least 1,200 daily arrests of undocumented people. Full Story
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![People gather at Memorial Park in El Paso on Jan. 29, 2025 to protest ICE raids and deportations.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
Texas wildflower big red sage proposed for endangered species protection
Only seven native populations remain in Texas, all in the Edwards Plateau in Central Texas. Full Story
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![Big red sage occurs on bluffs and banks along waterways in the Edwards Plateau of central Texas.]()
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 22 other states sue to halt planned federal methane fines
The rule fines certain oil and gas facilities that exceed federal limits for methane emissions. Full Story
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![The Rebel Gas Plant vents off natural gas into two flare stacks Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Garden City.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune