Everything you need to know about Texas’ beleaguered water systems
Texas has more than 7,000 water systems. A fraction of them self-reported that they lost 30 billion gallons of water due to broken pipes and leaks in 2021. Full Story
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![Water spews out of a fire hydrant as a San Antonio Water System crew works to fix a water main break near Hunt Ln. and Adams Hill in San Antonio, TX on August 18, 2022.]()
Credit: Chris Stokes for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ water infrastructure is broken, jeopardizing quality and supply for a growing state
On a daily basis, water managers in cities across the state move from crisis to crisis hoping to keep the water flowing to residents. Full Story
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![Tom Bailey flushes out a water line in Zavalla on April 10, 2023.]()
Credit: Mark Felix/The Texas Tribune -
With billions of dollars on the line, East Texans say a crucial state map incorrectly shows they already have broadband
East Texans worry they could miss out on federal dollars because a state map that will help determine where the money goes shows they already have access to broadband. Residents say their broadband is chronically unreliable. Full Story
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![An aerial view of a utility truck driving down a gravel road March 20, 2023, in Nogalus Prairie, Texas.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
“I love my babies. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy”: One mother’s struggle to survive in pro-life Texas
Pregnancy forced Destiny Williams to quit her job. She almost died during childbirth. Now with a newborn in tow, she’s struggling to build a more stable life for her and her children. Full Story
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![2/10/23, Pineland, Texas: Destiny Williams holds her three month old Irelynn inside her home in Pineland. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune -
Black and Hispanic Texans say they don’t trust the quality of their water
A survey was commissioned by the nonprofit organization Texas Water Trade and included responses from households in both rural border communities and in urban areas across Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Full Story
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![A portable water tank at a colonia at Las Pampas, on Oct. 21, 2014.]()
Credit: Jennifer Whitney for The Texas Tribune -
Company that wants to build oilfield dump in East Texas gave $53,750 in campaign donations to regulators
McBride Operating LLC and its owner, Joseph McBride, contributed to the political campaigns of the three commissioners on the Texas Railroad Commission now considering his request. Full Story
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![Two wells of the Paxton Water Supply Corporation sit about 1,000 yards away from the proposed dumpsite on Jan. 18, 2023.]()
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After a hospital stopped delivering babies, Deep East Texas faces a growing maternity care crisis
Women in Deep East Texas drive over an hour to give birth after the last obstetrics unit in the area closed in 2019. But if closing the unit was hard, reopening it is proving nearly impossible. Full Story
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![Chloe Walker pushes around her sixteen-month old daughter, Everleigh, outside the home they share with her parents and grandmother in Newton, TX, on Jan. 3, 2023.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
“It takes time to get stuff done”: New Texas congressman promises results, not rhetoric
Nathaniel Moran, the former Smith County judge, has promised to be a staunch conservative who will pass legislation. That worries some of his constituents. Full Story
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![U.S. Congressman-elect Nathaniel Moran, R-TX, is seen at Hyatt Regency Washington hotel in Washington, DC, on Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022.]()
Credit: Shuran Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Texans are dying on state highways every day — especially in rural “dead zones”
Fatal crashes in rural areas accounted for 51% of Texas’ 4,489 traffic fatalities in 2021, even though only about 10% of the state’s population lives in a rural area, according to data from the state’s department of transportation. Full Story
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![EMT Ronnie Robison calls the Woodland Heights Medical Center to tell them to prepare for an opioid overdose patient at the Lufkin facility Friday, Dec. 16, 2022. Robison has to call on a certain street of highway before a “dead zone” of no cell service or they will not be able to warn the trauma team to prepare for their patients.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
A boil-water notice in Houston made national news. In rural Texas, it’s a way of life.
Rural communities face compounding reasons they can’t improve their water infrastructure, including inflation and a lack of human resources. Full Story
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![David Wilshusen, 69, stands outside his home in Houston County, Texas on on Wednesday, November 30, 2022. (Emil Lippe for The Texas Tribune)]()
Credit: Emil Lippe for The Texas Tribune -
A growing number of Texas rural counties are declaring local immigration “disasters”
The latest county to make a disaster declaration is an eight-hour drive away from the Texas-Mexico border, but local officials there say they’re under “invasion.” Full Story
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![Thousands of young cedar trees line rolling hills near Sulphur Springs. They were planted by the energy company, Luminant, as part of a beautification effort along where it once operated a coal mine. Nearby on the same site they left a mound of coal mine waste containing toxic materials that towers over the homes and businesses it shares property lines with.]()
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune -
An East Texas town must boil its water on Thanksgiving as officials seek a solution to aging infrastructure
Zavalla lost all water for several days. The Texas Department of Emergency Management has sent pallets of bottled water and a team to help. Full Story
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![An Ector Count resident, who declined to give their name, loads their car with cases of bottled water after the majority of Ector County was placed on a boil water notice early Tuesday, June 14, 2022 in Odessa, Texas. The resident and their partner, who also declined to give their name, stated that they had been without water since approximately 7 p.m. Monday evening. “I know I payed my water bill” one said when they were attempting to determine why they did not have any running water.]()
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Texas votes: Abortion, border security and marijuana energize voters on Election Day
Texas voters cast their ballots Tuesday with a wide variety of issues on their minds, including the state’s grid and the Uvalde shooting. Full Story
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Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
A national bus driver shortage is upending Texas’ beloved Friday night high school football games
School leaders are offering more money and paid training for potential bus drivers. Some routes still go unserved. Full Story
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Inside a bus, East Texans get the health care they can’t afford or find anywhere else
Access to health care is limited in rural Texas. The mobile clinic operated by Beaumont-based TAN Healthcare aims to close that gap. Full Story
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![Shelly Huffman meets with a nurse practitioner as patients receive healthcare at a mobile health clinic in Kirbyville, Texas, U.S., on Monday, October 17, 2022.]()
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Texas’ heat index could reach 125 degrees over the next 30 years, study finds
“If it’s gonna rise by that much, I don’t think we’re prepared,” one South Texas mayor said of temperature increases. Full Story
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Stephen F. Austin State University president Scott Gordon steps down months after a salary bump angered the campus community
The Board of Regents backed Gordon last year despite a vote of no confidence from faculty. Six months later, the board reversed course. It said Sunday that it was in everyone’s “best interest” to part ways and appointed an interim president. Full Story
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![Stephen F. Austin State University President Scott Gordon.]()
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Ken Paxton targets Louie Gohmert in hotly contested primary for attorney general
Paxton’s attack ads suggest that he sees Gohmert as a bigger threat than the other two Republicans in the race — Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and current Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.]()
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State Rep. James White, an East Texas Republican, won't seek another term in Texas House
White, chairman of the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, has served in the lower chamber since 2011. Full Story
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![Rep. James White, R-Hillster, testifies regarding HB 1708, legislation he proposed relating to an electronic voting system that produces a voter-verifiable paper record, on Thursday, April 8, 2021.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Lubbock votes to become the state’s largest “sanctuary city for the unborn”
The outcome could prompt a lawsuit over what opponents say is an unconstitutional ban on abortion. The vote comes less than a year after Planned Parenthood opened a clinic in the West Texas city. Full Story
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![Sara Mistrot campaigns for Proposition A with her kids at the corner of Indiana and 82nd Street on May 1, 2021, in Lubbock.]()
Credit: Justin Rex for The Texas Tribune
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