Water Resource Issues

With Texas Reservoirs Dropping, State Lawmakers Kill a Water Supply Bill

Last night, a bill to fund water projects across the state died an ignominious death in the Texas House of Representatives. This was strange because it looked like the rails had been thoroughly greased. During his State of the State back in January, Gov. Rick Perry made the case for dipping into the ... More >>

As the Texas Lege Tackles $2 Billion Water Legislation, Drought Records Are Set

The Texas House and Senate took up legislation Tuesday to address a drought-induced water crisis. A proposed bill out of the House would pull $2 billion from the state's Rainy Day Fund to implement a 50-year water plan. Municipalities and water districts could apply for funds the state would priorit ... More >>

State Water Planners are Giving Lip Service to Conservation. Environmental Groups Want Them to Do More.

One of the few areas of bipartisan agreement in Austin this legislative season is that the state needs to take major steps to meet the state's long-term water needs. The arithmetic -- exploding population historic drought increasingly stressed water supply -- is simply too stark to ignore. The m ... More >>

The Legislature is Considering Letting Cities Sue Homeowners For Overwatering Their Lawns

As it stands, anyone caught watering their lawns more than twice a week and/or during daytime hours and/or outside the official watering days ordained by City Hall faces a fine of between $250 and $2,000. As of last summer, the city had handed down slightly more than a handful. But this is Texas, w ... More >>

Lawmakers Are Taking the Battle Over Texas' Water Supply to Your Front Lawn

Water -- or the lack thereof -- has already made it to the top of the state Legislature's priority list, and it's an area of rare bipartisan agreement. After all, it doesn't take a hydrological engineer to figure out that growing population plus soon-to-be-maxed-out water sources plus historic droug ... More >>

Hey Dallas, Don't Get Used to that Cheap Water

We've had it good, no doubt about it. Ever since the drought of the '50s, when Dallas water planners set forth, constructing and acquiring the rights to reservoirs that would feed the city's growth for the coming decades, we haven't had to worry. Even as Lake Travis contracted to a muddy puddle in 2 ... More >>

Human Rights, As Told By Hagman’s Eyebrows

Dallas Water Utilities Wants City's Sewage to Supply Downtown

In April 2005, the city of Dallas began an experiment. What if, rather than spraying millions of gallons of fully treated, tap-quality water on the Cedar Crest Golf Course, it used partially treated wastewater. The grass doesn't mind water that's a little bit dirty and, so long as it's piped in sepa ... More >>

'A Pain in the Behind': Council Gets Briefed on Zebra Mussels

When zebra mussels found their way to Lake Ray Roberts last month, or, more precisely, when wildlife officials found that they had found their way there, Dallas let out a collective "Oh, crap." The invasive bivalves were easy to ignore when they were the plague of the Great Lakes and the Upper Midwe ... More >>

Tiny East Texas Towns Join Fight Against Keystone Pipeline. Should Dallas?

Together, they have a population of fewer than 2,000, but the tiny East Texas hamlets of Reklaw, Alto and Gallatin have an outsized mission: To halt the southern portion of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, a conduit designed to ferry some 830,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands a day from an Oklaho ... More >>

Rep. Lon Burnam: Let's Tell Texas What Scientists Think About Radioactive Waste Site

In a letter Monday, state Representative Lon Burnam called upon Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow him to release to the public confidential documents he says indicate Texas Commission on Environmental Quality scientists fear a West Texas radioactive waste disposal facility may contaminate ... More >>

City Council to Discuss How to Reconcile Developing the City With Conserving Our Water

City Hall's touting the Urban Reserve as an ideal development given our weather and water needs.​In one way, shape or form we've noted most of what the city council will discuss this afternoon during its briefing. But there's one briefing we've overlooked: Water Conservation and the Land Developme ... More >>

Who'll Stop the Rain? Rick Perry's Pals, That's Who.

A plan for the Brazos River threatens to upend Texas water law.

Study: In Drought Planning, Water Managers Should Look Further Back Than 1950s

Photo by Brandon Thibodeaux​As we near the end of 2011, let us now look back on the year (without much fondness) and take stock. We racked up one of driest years in recorded history (more on that in a moment). The livestock and agricultural industries took a shuddering blow that, when the fina ... More >>

Assistant City Manager Answers Scott Griggs's Questions About Saving, Selling City's Water

​A couple of weeks back, during those water conservation and watering restriction briefings, council member Scott Griggs had a few questions for Dallas Water Utilities Director Jody Puckett that she wasn't prepared to answer, among them: Is the city presently selling water to gas drillers, and, be ... More >>

Irving Needs More of Dallas's Water. And So Does the North Texas Municipal Water District.

​Speaking of Dallas's water supply ...I was on US 380 yesterday, headed to Cattleman's Cafe in Blue Ridge for chicken-fried steak, when, driving toward Farmersville, I espied what's left of Lake Lavon, down some 13 feet due to the drought. "It's stunning," in the words of North Texas Municipal Wat ... More >>

Get Wet With This Look at City's Request For "2070 Water Supply Plan" Consultant

​It didn't come up last Wednesday, when the council talked about saving and selling Dallas's water. But there was a brief mention made ago, during that chitchat concerning the city's long-range water-supply plan, the most recent of which was done six years ago. Says right there on Slide No. 41: "S ... More >>

Drink In the City Council's Discussion on Conserving (And Selling) Dallas's Water Supply

I was in the middle of watching the city council briefings on water conservation and the Stage 1 watering restrictions yesterday when I got pulled away -- and just when it was getting interesting too. So this morning I started going back to review the tape, beginning just as Sandy Greys ... More >>

A Message from Mary Suhm Concerning Dallas's Role as Region's "Emergency Water Provider"

​So much for all that rain we were promised; there it goes, not even close save for last night's stray raindrops. The not-even-near-miss seems only fitting in advance of tomorrow's briefing before the Dallas City Council, when City Manager Mary Suhm will recommend going to Stage 1, twice-a-week wa ... More >>

Mary Suhm to Recommend Council Implement Stage 1 Watering Restrictions on December 12

Click to enlarge this chart from the drought update that will be discussed by the Dallas City Council on Wednesday.​On November 2, City Manager Mary Suhm told Unfair Park that the city would initiate Stage 1 water restrictions sooner than later; but exactly when, she would not say, only that the c ... More >>

In the Midst of Historic Drought, Council to Look at Dallas's Long-Range Water Supply Plan

​The plan to siphon off the water from Lake Palestine, which is just southwest of Tyler, has been around for close to four decades; in '72 Dallas acquired the contractual rights to the lake, at a rate of 102 million of gallons of per day. In 2007, the city council was reminded: Dallas had "The Lak ... More >>

Water Rights Policies At the TCEQ Could Affect Your Lunch

It's tough being a gulf oyster. The BP oil spill devastated Louisiana oyster beds, and then a historic Texas drought reduced river flows into Galveston Bay, seriously increasing the bay's salinity. Predators and disease are thriving and threatening the already hobbled industry. Now the Texas Commis ... More >>

Sucking Up Water and Sand in the Quest for Natural Gas

For folks in the sandy hills northwest of Dallas, it's a devil's bargain for gas, water and jobs.

What Do "Voluntary" Mean? It Means Dallas Wants Us to Cut Back on Yard Watering. Now.

Dew, the city's water-conservation mascot, is no Perry the Pipe.​Last week, you may recall, I asked Frank Librio, Dallas City Hall spokesman, if Dallas had any plans to follow its neighbors' leads and clamp down on water use. To which he responded: "The lakes are currently 84% full and we continue ... More >>

Hot Hot Heat: CBS Early Show Comes to Town, It Ain't 1980 Yet and Dallas's Drought Plan

​CBS Early Show's Marysol Castro's in town -- can't imagine why. Oh, right. It's hot. Still, not so hot that two high-school footballers can't spend their after-practice hours toiling in the sun -- one on a construction site, the other decorating doorknobs with fliers, both hoping to buy a car. Th ... More >>

Gas Drilling Variances Denied Near Grapevine Lake, While A Pair of Federal Suits Allege Water Contamination from Barnett Shale Fracking

​Worries about groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing around the Barnett Shale got a fresh wave of attention yesterday -- first with a pair of federal suits filed in Dallas, and then with the Town of Flower Mound's denial of a request to drill near to Grapevine Lake. Keystone Energy w ... More >>

Chefs Clash for a Cause

Sure Hope Perry the Pipe Is Made Out of Solid Gold

C'mon, City of Dallas, Give "Clever DISD Student" Credit Where Credit is Dew

Not So Fastrill

Eddie Bernice Johnson's in the "Vote No!" Choir. Now, She Just Has to Learn the Words to the Song.

Trifecta

Wading in the city's dirty water

The biggest pump wins

Bart Sipriano's well dried up four days after Ozarka started pumping water nearby. Under the state's "rule of capture," he has no right to complain.

Bo? Hell no!

Chicken king Bo Pilgrim wants to bring a new plant and new jobs to East Texas. But East Texans say they want no more of his filthy business.