Texas
Texas is losing too much water
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Odessa was left without water for several hours while crews worked to fix a major leak in a major waterline. For the roughly 100,000 residents of this West Texas city, it was like watching a movie on repeat. They are now used to the unacceptable inconvenience of water shutdowns and boil water notices.
Odessa’s crumbling water infrastructure is not unique in Texas, but it is becoming a poster child for a major issue statewide: leaky pipes.
Finding the money to fix aging water infrastructure is complicated. Federal funding from the infrastructure bill is getting lost in the weeds of congressional bureaucracy, and state funding is limited. But cities, especially older urban centers, can’t be left to manage these costs alone. The state must find a way to address this issue permanently if we ever want to catch up.
Old leaky pipes have been a problem often seen in smaller municipalities, but recent self-reported audits from water utilities show that major cities lost 88 billion gallons of water last year, with Houston leaking out 31.8 billion gallons.
Dallas alone contributed to 17.6 billion gallons of lost water, The Texas Tribune reported.
The voter-approved $1 billion Texas Water Fund is a starting point that can help communities like Odessa, but given our state’s needs, it is largely not sufficient for the problem. A 2023 report from the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Texas will need $61.3 billion to address drinking water systems in the next 20 years.
The state expected federal funding for water infrastructure, but congressional earmarks are getting in the way. “We are robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Perry Fowler, executive director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network, a trade association representing businesses that construct water infrastructure in the state.
“Texas has lost more than $100 million in annual federal funding for water infrastructure — more than any other state — since the return of earmarks just three years ago,” Fowler told us. “When these funds start getting diverted into individual projects and districts rather than going into the overall program, it basically harms the ability of the state to leverage federal funding.”
This means the Texas Legislature will need to take a closer look at providing permanent funding for the Texas Water Fund, said Jeremy Mazur, a senior policy adviser from Texas 2036, a public policy think tank.
With Texas’ growth, we cannot afford to lose so much water. Climate change is already putting increased stress on old water infrastructure with hotter temperatures, droughts and extreme rain cycles.
A focus on smarter water conservation, efficient irrigation and smart appliances works, but in the end, fixing leaky pipes across the state should be at the top of the minds of state legislators in next year’s session.
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MCKINNEY, Texas (AP) — Closing arguments were set for Tuesday in the trial of a Texas teenager charged with fatally stabbing a 17-year-old track athlete at a high school meet during a confrontation that students said rapidly escalated in the stadium’s bleachers.
Karmelo Anthony, now 19, did not testify in his own defense over the killing of Austin Metcalf, whose death stunned a booming Dallas suburb where the two students attended different schools.
If convicted, Anthony faces up to life in prison.
Over the course of the nearly weeklong trial, Anthony’s attorneys have sought to convince jurors that Anthony was forced to defend himself under a tent belonging to the track team of Frisco Memorial High School, where Metcalf was in his junior year. Several schools were competing at a rainy track meet, and Metcalf and others had repeatedly told Anthony to leave, witnesses testified, leading to an escalating confrontation.
Witnesses at trial who were in the tent described Anthony as the aggressor. According to the arrest report, Anthony at one point told Metcalf: “Touch me and see what happens.”
Several students told jurors that Metcalf then pushed Anthony, who then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest.
Prosecutors called the stabbing an unjustified attack and not a case of self-defense.
Testimony at the trial leaned heavily on the recollections of teenagers who described being shocked at the tragedy at a community sports event. Many questions centered on team culture at track meets and the confrontation in the tent.
One teammate told jurors that Anthony was “distraught” after the stabbing. Judge John Roach Jr. ordered that the names of teenage witnesses not be made public.
“I was hearing him say, ‘I told him not to touch me,’” the teenager said.
Vincent Hooper, an area track coach who approached Anthony, asked him what had happened. Anthony replied that he had stabbed someone who had “put his hands on me,” Hooper recalled last week.
The death last year quickly drew wide attention, in part because of social media posts that amplified the case in racial terms. Anthony is Black; Metcalf was white.
After the stabbing, Jeff Metcalf, Austin’s father, condemned those who seized on the race of the teens. Prosecutors also opened the trial by saying race had nothing to do with the case.
FULSHEAR, Texas – A Texas homeowner heading out for an early morning walk got quite a surprise when he mistook a large reptile parked on his front porch for an online delivery.
Officers with the Fulshear Police Department were called to a local residence last week after the homeowner accidentally struck an alligator with his screen door, initially believing it was a package from Amazon.
What they’re saying:
“With all the heavy rain we’ve been getting lately, it seems the gators are on the move,” the police department said in a statement. “This little fella decided to skip the swamp and upgrade to porch life this morning.”
Footage released by the department captures the alligator resting on the concrete porch while the homeowner explains the startling encounter to responding officers, noting he didn’t realize what it was until he banged into it with the door.
Police officers successfully wrangled the alligator and relocated it safely to a nearby pond.
Recent heavy rainfall across the region has displaced local wildlife, prompting authorities to urge residents to remain cautious as animals seek out dry territory.
“If you see an unexpected visitor like this around your home, give it plenty of space and let us handle it,” the department reminded the community. “Apparently, even the gators are looking for higher ground these days!”
The department also added a bit of local humor to the unusual morning call: “And yes, before anyone asks, this little gator is not paying property taxes.”
The Source: Fulshear Police via Storyful
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