Patching it cost the state $1.6 million. Many others are similarly falling into disrepair, and the agencies charged with their oversight are doing nothing about them.
“Your article may be an epitaph,” the then-president of the Houston Audubon Society told the writer.
How to get the adventure and scenery without having to spend days in your kayak or canoe.
My dream of navigating through Big Bend’s stunning canyons finally came true. I just had to start a little farther downstream.
After an abandoned well began spewing toxic, salty water onto her Permian Basin land, Ashley Watt would stop at nothing to determine the cause—and to hold Chevron accountable.
As TCEQ investigates its Austin plant, the company was praised for “protecting our state’s natural resources.”
On a remote ranch south of Alpine, Bonnie and Dick Cain have carved out their ideal lifestyle, without electricity, refrigeration, or running water.
Aggregate mining in Texas yields billions of dollars but leaves behind a pockmarked landscape.
A&M researchers say more-robust testing is needed to understand just how much human feces ends up in Gulf waters.
Researchers at Tarleton State have found an all-natural way to prevent Texans from imbibing quite so many tiny plastic particles.
Dangerous gas leaking from an abandoned well has become an issue in the colorful Railroad Commission runoff election.
The nonprofit effort will cost hundreds of millions and preserve 50,000 acres over the fragile Edwards Aquifer. Can it be done?
For years, raw sewage has overwhelmed the city’s aging wastewater infrastructure. It’s spending $725 million to try to stop that.
A toxic herbicide used in cotton fields is devastating vineyards on the High Plains, endangering the state’s $13 billion wine business. Grape farmers have banded together to fight back.
Wes Moorehead, an expert at the Texas A&M Forest Service, explains what’s happened in 2022 and what the future might hold for the state.
Cleaning crews dredged up creepy dolls, armored catfish, rental scooters, and a staggering quantity of chairs.
Turns out the Permian Basin well that's been blowing briny water 100 feet high isn't the well the Railroad Commission thought it was.
The salty water spewing high on a Crane County ranch could be a sign of a “whack-a-mole” future in the Permian Basin.
These Texans think so.
A Pecos County well has leaked noxious salt water for almost two decades. No one is taking responsibility for getting it cleaned up.
Federal agencies have long struggled to stop illegal fishing and drug smuggling in the Gulf of Mexico. In recent years, it’s only gotten worse.
So is a little fish that swam along the San Marcos River.
In 2018, as national chains pledged to ditch their nonbiodegradable polystyrene cups, Whataburger said it would look into alternative materials, too. What happened?
Some of the healthiest coral communities in the world beckon off the Texas coast. Can unlikely allies save this undersea paradise?
Conservationist Adam Black roams the state looking for endangered flora, which he shares with researchers around the world.
The state's energy business has long counted on tax breaks and other largesse. Whether renewables or fossil fuels get more depends on how you do the math.
Residents of the South Texas beach town say SpaceX’s billionaire owner is ruining their “little piece of heaven.”
In announcing an ambitious renewable-energy push this week, the Biden administration highlighted a vessel under construction in Brownsville as proof of the economic opportunities of going green.
A ten-year, $205 million renovation is transforming Houston’s Memorial Park from a dense and dying thicket into a lush oasis. But is this restoring nature or replacing it?
Two major conservation funding victories could create a brighter future for Texas's public lands.
Instead of wasting time on tiresome culture wars, Texas’s political leaders ought to be thinking big. They could start by saving Houston from disaster.
After the oil bust, wind and solar energy might be the Permian Basin’s best hope.
Merlin Tuttle has spent his career dispelling myths about bats. Now he’s defending them once again.
Christian Wallace talks to some familiar faces from the Boomtown series in an attempt to understand what happened on April 20, 2020—when oil prices went negative for the first time in history.
On a special edition of ‘The National Podcast of Texas,’ the West Texas native and former roughneck explains this week’s record-setting price plunge and weighs its long-term impact on the state’s once-thriving energy business.
Robert and Vickie Lyle’s lives revolve around hunting and trapping hogs. Wildlife refuge managers count on them to keep the destructive pigs in check.
An interview with Robert Bullard on how the novel coronavirus exacerbates existing environmental health issues.
The Redfish Wars changed Texas fishing. A fight over flounder could be next.
The state has spent more than a century building up a world-class fishery, with some unintended consequences.
One energy company allegedly working with the drag star is based in Texas.
Surprising statements by oil industry leaders have grabbed headlines. But the bigger change is underway more quietly, among young Republicans.
The uneasy alliance between ranchers and the oil industry goes all the way back to the early wildcatting days in West Texas. But today, that relationship is more fraught than ever.
During booms, the Permian Basin sees a rise in prostitution charges. But misperceptions and stereotypes about sex work have led to policies that may actually harm the women involved.
We explore a different kind of boom in the Permian Basin. Meet the women working at a lingerie coffee shop, a “breastaurant,” and two area strip clubs.
A devastating bust transforms the Permian from the promised land into a wasteland.
As part of the ambitious Alexandria Project, West Texas archaeologists are documenting several hundred pictographs in just four years.
I spent some quality time with those decorated cedar trees along Loop 360 to see if I could get in the holiday spirit.
The Santa Rita oil well, named after the patron saint of impossible dreams, launched the first Permian Basin boom and has been fueling the dreams of West Texas wildcatters ever since.
In the first episode of our new podcast series, host Christian Wallace takes us back to his hometown in the Permian Basin, which is nearly unrecognizable to him today. We meet a few of the people whose lives have been upended by the biggest oil boom in U.S. history.
Unless rapid warming is halted, the teeming reefs of the Gulf will likely be decimated.
