Texas lawmakers allocated more than $2 billion to increase the state’s water supply and reduce flooding
Texans across the state are affected by declining water supplies, water infrastructure disruptions and flooding in their communities. Full Story
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![Lake Alan Henry in Garza County on April. 27, 2023, in Garza County, about 65 miles southeast of Lubbock.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
After historic drought, lawmakers agree on billion-dollar plan to expand water supplies, fix infrastructure
Following one of the hottest summers on record, lawmakers have set an ambitious target: By 2033, they want to bump up the state’s water supply by an amount equal to three of the largest reservoirs in the state. Full Story
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![One of the city's water towers stands in Wolfforth, on April 26, 2023.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune -
Texas parks officials want to buy Fairfield Lake State Park land after losing their lease
Texas parks officials said they are taking “all necessary steps” to purchase the land and save Fairfield Lake State Park from being turned into a luxury gated community and golf course. Full Story
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![Mary Navarro's children collect seashells and attempt to skip rocks from the bank of Fairfield Lake at Fairfield Lake State Park on Feb. 27, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Experts predict “near-normal” 2023 hurricane season of 12 to 17 named storms
One to four of those storms could be Category 3 or higher, meaning they will have wind speeds of at least 111 miles per hour. Full Story
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![Residents survey their flooded neighborhood near Buffalo Bayou and the Barker Reservoir dam Tuesday Aug, 29, 2017 in Houston, after Hurricane Harvey.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Texas has gone big with renewable energy. Why can’t it go all the way?
The biggest barriers to making Texas’ power grid 100% renewable have little to do with politics. Full Story
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![Solar panels near Cunningham on April 10, 2023.]()
Credit: Evan L’Roy/The Texas Tribune -
Texas Republicans want to shield oil and gas from federal climate regulations. Their bill would have little impact, experts say.
The bill would direct Texas agencies to not enforce federal regulations on the oil industry if there’s not a similar state regulation. But it likely wouldn’t apply to most federal environmental rules, experts and lawmakers said. Full Story
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![A house in the Hillcrest neighborhood in Corpus on Feb. 7, 2022. Houses in this neighborhood have co-existed with oil refineries like Flint Hills that spew air pollutants for decades.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
Economic incentives clear Senate committee as negotiations continue
Lawmakers are trying hard to come up with an agreement on how to replace an embattled 20-year tax abatement program for big companies that expired in December. Full Story
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![A working pump jack sits near wind turbines on the Cline Shale near Maryneal, south of Sweetwater, on April 16, 2013.]()
Credit: Mark Graham for The Texas Tribune -
Here’s how the fire that killed nearly 18,000 Texas cows got started
Investigators say the fire was an accident and started with an engine fire in a manure vacuum truck. Full Story
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![A worker was critically injured and more than 18,000 cattle were killed in a massive explosion at Southfork Dairy Farm in Dimmit on Monday, April 10, 2023. Dimmit is about 60 miles south west of Amarillo.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Castro County Sheriff's Office -
Texas leaders want a new way to attract businesses here. But they can’t agree on how to do it.
The two chambers have 10 days to cut a deal before the end of the legislative session, and they are miles apart on some of the very foundations of a corporate tax-abatement bill considered to be a priority for Republican state leaders. Full Story
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![A pumpjack operates nearby a house under construction in a new housing development on March 14, 2022 north of Midland.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune -
Texas lawmakers consider spending $1 billion for flood prevention and Galveston’s “Ike Dike”
The coastal barrier project may get $550 million from the state this year, and another half a billion could be on the table for flood-control projects. But that’s a fraction of the estimated need for flood mitigation. Full Story
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![Houses are seen submerged in flood waters caused by Tropical Storm Harvey in Northwest Houston, Texas, U.S. August 30, 2017.]()
Credit: REUTERS/Adrees Latif -
Texas cotton farmers leading the charge for more government insurance to cover climate, inflation challenges
The federal Farm Bill is must-pass legislation that Congress debates every five years. It includes billions of dollars in farm subsidies and pays for food assistance programs. Full Story
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![Cotton fields near the High Plains town of Ralls, on June 22, 2022.]()
Credit: Trace Thomas for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House moves to crack down on polluters with stricter penalties and heavier oversight
The bill would require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to focus enforcement and increase penalties on repeat violators and increase public outreach. Still, environmental advocates say the effort was too “modest” in its reach. Full Story
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![Residential properties near refineries in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Corpus Christi on January 24, 2017.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune -
Rural Texas landowners who lost water access due to San Antonio pipeline could soon get relief
Groundwater levels rapidly declined in rural Lee County after San Antonio began pumping the water and moving it 100 miles southwest. A Senate bill would help affected well owners. Full Story
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![The Vista Ridge site in Burleson County on July 12, 2021.]()
Credit: Sophie Park/The Texas Tribune -
House advances bill that could provide billions of dollars for new water projects and fixing aging infrastructure
The bill aims to create a water supply four times the size of Lake Livingston, one of the state’s largest reservoirs. But it may still be a “drop in the bucket” compared to the state’s needs. Full Story
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![Water pours into a holding pond inside Rio Grande City’s new $12 million water treatment plant. Along the Texas-Mexico border, nearly 90,000 people are believed to still live without running water. An untold number more — likely tens of thousands, but no one is sure — often have running water of such poor quality that they cannot know what poisons or diseases it might carry.]()
Credit: Spencer Selvidge for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House approves bills to spend up to $1 billion to buy more state parkland
The Texas House paved the way for a billion-dollar investment in state parks, which one advocate said would create “a new golden age” for the park system. Texas now ranks 35th nationally in state park acreage per capita. Full Story
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![A park visitor casts a fishing line at Fairfield Lake State Park on Feb. 27, 2023.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Houston-area chemical fire highlights gaps in Texas environmental enforcement
A fire broke out at a Deer Park Shell plant the day after a public hearing on renewing the permit for ITC, a nearby facility that caught fire in 2019, sparking a Texas Tribune/Public Health Watch investigation that documented failures in state and federal oversight. Full Story
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![Deer Park, Texas: An overhead view of an explosion at a Shell USA Inc. facility on May 5, 2023 in Deer Park, Texas. Mark Felix/The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Shell refinery unit in Deer Park had history of malfunctions before fire
Recent “upsets” like tripped compressors, pressure loss and freezing weather resulted in thousands of pounds of unauthorized pollution but no fines or citations from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Full Story
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![An overhead view of an explosion at a Shell USA Inc. facility on May 5, 2023 in Deer Park.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Progressive causes lose big in San Antonio and El Paso charter elections
San Antonio voters rejected by wide margins an effort to decriminalize abortion and require police to issue citations rather than make arrests for some nonviolent offenses. In El Paso, an effort to wean the city from fossil fuels fared similarly poorly. Full Story
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![Voters wait in line outside Cody Public Library in San Antonio during the evening hours of Election Day on Oct. 23, 2020.]()
Credit: Clint Datchuk for The Texas Tribune -
At a heated public hearing, residents urge state agency to reject permit for chemical facility that burned in 2019
In Deer Park near Houston, memories of the massive ITC fire are still fresh. Residents told state environmental regulators they should reject the company’s permit renewal, but officials said the fire won’t be part of the decision. Full Story
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![During the public hearing regarding ITC and their renewal application for a federal permit, Erandi Trevino, Houston Organizer for Public Citizen, questions ITC and TCEQ representatives why only 1 out of 27 violations resulted in a fine. Deer Park ,TX. Thursday , May 4,2023]()
Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune -
Texas likely will spend billions fixing its water systems. Will it reach these forgotten colonias?
An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come. Full Story
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![Maria Martínez’s son Jose Martínez removes a makeshift cover for plumbing near a water tank on April 21, 2023. Without the insulation during the winter, the pipes are prone to burst in the colder temperatures.]()
Credit: Jorge Salgado for Texas Tribune