January

Conference calls for "hydro diplomacy" to address water issues

Diplomatic channels need to be open for ‘hydro diplomacy’ that can address water management issues between India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, conference participants said on Thursday.

There’s a time bomb for US-Mexico relations ticking underground

All along the 1,250 miles of border between Texas and Mexico, hidden under hundreds of feet of soil and rock, lie more than a dozen underground aquifers—areas of permeable earth that hold water—that crisscross the national boundaries. They might be the only sources of water the region will have left when the Rio Grande, hit by a one-two punch of climate change and a booming population, inevitably dries up. And yet there is no binational agreement for all this shared groundwater.

Trump administration scraps clean-water rule aimed at protecting streams, wetlands

The Trump administration has finalized a clean-water rule that it says strikes a balance between protecting the environment and the economy, but critics say the change will put Houstonians at greater risk for flooding and threaten the drinking water for more than 11.5 million Texans.

U.S. Food Trade Increasingly Leans On Unsustainable Groundwater

American agriculture is a behemoth, a world-leading industry that, while meeting extensive domestic demands, still exports around $140 billion in farm products each year. Soybeans go to China. Cherries to Japan. Baskets of goods to Canada.

Water district joins in fight against natural gas pipeline

A small but determined group of opponents to Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway Pipeline gathered in downtown Kyle for the first of two protests last week.

Egypt and Ethiopia Said to Be Close to Accord on Renaissance Dam

But talks in Washington haven’t yet solved the trickiest questions still looming over the dam’s impact on countries downstream.

Arizona lawmakers call for measuring groundwater pumping in rural areas

Both Republicans and Democrats are backing measures in the Legislature that would enable Arizona to start measuring how much groundwater is pumped in unregulated rural areas where aquifers have been rapidly declining.

UTPB College of Engineering working on ways to clean produced water from oil and gas industry

MIDLAND, Texas — Here in the Permian Basin the oil and gas industry does not only produce black gold, it produces lots of water, too.

The produced water is filled with contaminants that can not be used for anything.

But graduate students at University of Texas Permian Basin College of Engineering are working to change that.

Drought is upon us again

Since we live in Texas we are always confronted with the possibility of a drought. The rainfall we experienced during the fall months was certainly a blessing. Unfortunately, as we approach the end of winter and the start of spring, drought has reared its ugly head again.