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alexander

@texaswaterpunk.bsky.social
62 followers 116 following 61 posts

former east dallasite turned riverbottom rambler, dabbling in riparian restoration. volunteer- and wildland firefighter TXRIVERS.ORG

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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Texas' biggest illegal riverine dumping site in recent memory has finally gotten into crosshairs of law enforcement following the arrest of a previously convicted felon in Dallas, whom complainants had been warning regulators about for years. www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
dallasnews.com
Wilonsky: Drowning in illegal dumping along the Trinity River
Within the span of three years, Dallas' majestic, historic overlook became a crime scene. This is not hyperbole.
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Texas Standard @texasstandard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Texas' deployment of floating buoys in the Rio Grande is raising questions about safety and flooding. buff.ly/DGEK87e
texasstandard.org
New DHS border buoys in the Rio Grande raise concerns
The Trump administration is moving ahead with a new border security project in the Rio Grande — a floating barrier of linked buoys. The effort, known as Operation River Wall, calls for more than 500…
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
The Texas Water Trust received its first donation in nearly two decades thanks to East Texas rancher Bob Sanders, benefitting critical flows to Big Cypress Bayou and Caddo Lake. www.texastribune.org/2026/03/16/e...
texastribune.org
Texas program lets people donate water rights to the state
As Texas faces growing water challenges, the donation to the Texas Water Trust — a little-known conservation tool created nearly 30 years ago — was the first in two decades.
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James Talarico @jamestalarico.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
President Trump wants to build a wall through Big Bend National Park. One of the most sacred places in Texas. Texans have a message for him: Come and take it.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Talking about the Dallas "Blue Hole" - Fighting Water Woes with a Kayak and a Camera - 2024 Lightning Round at the Hill Country Leadership Summit, hosted by the Hill Country Alliance www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R32...
youtube.com
Fighting Water Woes with a Kayak and a Camera - 2024 Lightning Round
YouTube video by Hill Country Alliance
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Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 19/02/2026
New from @scottnicoltx.bsky.social: From the Santa Ana refuge to La Lomita chapel, some of the most sacred places in the Rio Grande Valley are at risk from Trump's border wall ... if Congress doesn't act soon to save them.
texasobserver.org
Trump’s New Wall Will Destroy Irreplaceable Border Treasures—Unless Congress Acts
The "One Big Beautiful Bill" did not include the provision that spared the La Lomita chapel, the Santa Ana refuge, or any other sensitive location, and a map posted by CBP indicates that Trump’s…
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Feds waive environmental protections to fast-track Big Bend wall bigbendsentinel.com/2026/02/18/f...
bigbendsentinel.com
Feds waive environmental protections to fast-track Big Bend wall
Planned projects could also include Big Bend National Park by SAM KARAS Late last week, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem gave physical border wall construction in the Big Be...
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Martha Pskowski @psskow.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
If you care about the Big Bend, this is a good time to start paying attention to the border wall plans. CBP told me there will be "new infrastructure or upgrades" as part of the smart wall within both the national park and the state park. insideclimatenews.org/news/1702202...
insideclimatenews.org
Border Wall Closes in on Big Bend - Inside Climate News
Residents and elected officials are speaking out against a proposed border barrier through Texas’ biggest state park and one of the jewels of the national park system.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
@texasstandard.bsky.social Per reporting from the Big Bend Sentinel, this canyon within Big Bend Ranch State Park is within the proposed footprint of a new, steel border wall. The hundreds of feet of canyon wall, as seen from canoe, are apparently not tall enough for DHS' disastrous project.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
In case you missed this quick listen on legal and political updates at The Cutoff.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
New updates and history on the Cutoff of the Trinity River in Henderson County, where legal battles abound regarding stream navigation law. Last week from @texastribune.org: www.texastribune.org/2025/10/23/e...
texastribune.org
East Texas fishermen fight to keep stream public
Phillip Surls, a local businessman who owns much of the property around the Cutoff, has argued he blocked access to the stream to protect his cattle and that the waterway is not public.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Hearing @gregjstoker.bsky.social on @texasstandard.bsky.social this morning is awesome.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Last night, identities of 3 individuals were released who have been directing TXDOT to aid a landowner on his conquest to privatize a beloved 735-acre waterbody (The Cutoff) owned by the State of Texas. They are: House Representatives Keith Bell and Cody Harris, and Senator Robert Nichols.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
as gale force winds endure 200 miles south of the eyewall, masked bobbies plunging into the seawater amid 20+ foot waves to feed on various fish potentially including flying fish, squid, small tuna
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
up close and personal with the spiral rainbands of Hurricane Erin this morning aboard @royalcaribbeanintl.bsky.social's Wonder of the Seas. ~200 miles south of the eye, enduring gale force winds from SW, wave heights well over 15 feet
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
can't wait to paddle the upper Guadalupe River later this year and witness all the thousands of cypress trees which survived flow rates that more than doubled that of Niagara Falls some pictures I took from Guadalupe River State Park this spring:
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
Per the Rio Grande Guardian this week: City of Brownsville, Cameron County, and their partners (Freese and Nichols and a real estate broker) are being completely secretive about this $500 million project and its "River Walk" along the fourth longest river in the US. rgv.me/thread/3954
riograndeguardian.com
Jokl: River Walk-type project planned for Downtown Brownsville – Rio Grande Guardian
The Renaissance Park project will cost upwards of $500 million and be the biggest thing to happen to Downtown Brownsville for many years, says real estate broker Larry Jokl.
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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
I grew up poor and in the country without cable. Know what channel always came in? PBS. Fuck Trump.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Greg Abbott Killed the Best Chance to Save Jacob's Well www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
texasmonthly.com
Why the Best Chance to Save One of Texas’s Most Iconic Swimming Holes Drained Away
The Legislature passed a measure to help save the iconic watering hole and Hays County’s dwindling aquifer. Then Greg Abbott vetoed it.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
From historian Char Miller, author of West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement (2021):
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Texas Tribune @texastribune.org · 17/07/2025
Federal DEI funding cuts threaten the work of the few remaining Black farmers in East Texas
texastribune.org
Federal DEI funding cuts threaten the work of the few remaining Black farmers in East Texas
Trump’s rollback is another example of the federal government’s lackluster efforts at giving Black farmers a boost in recent years.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Guadalupe River at further risk: I am hearing reports from Kerr County that debris removal contractors have been emphasizing getting out as much material as possible because they are being paid by weight - so they were getting material out while it was still wet, green and heavy.
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Texas Observer @texasobserver.org · 24/07/2025
Out today: Although Texans have been doing flood-prevention planning, most of those analyses are based on the statistics from past storms without attempts being made to better define the current reality. More importantly, we don’t treat floodplains with the respect they deserve and demand.
texasobserver.org
Floodplains Belong to the Rivers
From Houston to the Hill Country, we Texans keep doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Proposed Transmission Line Threatens Texas’ Largest Reservoir www.texasobserver.org/locals-oppos...
texasobserver.org
Proposed Transmission Line Threatens Texas’ Largest Reservoir
If approved, opponents warn that a massive new utility project could disrupt toxic sediment, and more, in Lake Livingston—Houston’s “most critical” water source.
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Martha Pskowski @psskow.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
I went on the Talk+Water podcast hosted by Texas+Water to discuss produced water, the Rio Grande and more. Thanks to Todd Votteler for having me on. You can listen to the episode here: texaspluswater.wp.txstate.edu/2025/07/18/t...
texaspluswater.wp.txstate.edu
talk+water: Martha Pskowski
In this conversation, Dr. Todd Votteler, Principal of Collaborative Water Resolution and Editor-in-Chief of Texas+Water and the Texas Water Journal, discusses water challenges in the Rio Grande with M...
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Texas Standard @texasstandard.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
"Globally, in the last 20, 25 years, we lost more than 500,000 sq. km. of natural floodplains. And that’s almost the size of France. So protecting the natural floodplain is fundamental to protecting people from flood hazards, but we are not doing that." txst.us/lvjrtx
txst.us
Expert cautions on rebuilding within Guadalupe River floodplain
New human settlements constructed in recent years have made the waterway more hazardous, UT-Arlington civil engineering professor says.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
'Looks like it did 200 years ago' | Centuries-old trees and trails wiped out by mistake in Garland www.wfaa.com/article/tech...
wfaa.com
'Looks like it did 200 years ago' | Centuries-old trees and trails wiped out by mistake in Garland
The City of Garland accidentally cleared parts of Spring Creek Forest Preserve, damaging historic trees and wildlife.
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Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Four maps of the flooding in Kerr County, TX. Each newsroom drew on varied data sources & focused on a different aspect of the disaster. Refined combination of color-coded rainfall data & shaded relief by Laris Karklis, @washingtonpost.com wapo.st/3IpvrTu #dataviz #cartography #ddj 1/4
Map of rainfall and topography for July 4 showing what led to the flooding in Kerr County, Texas. About 12 inches of rain fell on steep hillside that funneled into narrow stream valleys.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
What alternatives were recommended, if any? No public input, no initial contact with TPWD Kills and Spills Team, now a world class birding facility, educational and recreational amenity is closed off to the public with unknown effects to migratory wildlife. Particularly disturbing event timeline.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
This is particularly tragic and heartbreaking, as Spring Creek Forest Preserve contains some of the last old growth forest in the southeastern US.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Self-described environmentalist, Dallas-based hedge-fund manager Kyle Bass, is looking to take over 46,000 acre-feet (15 billion gallons) of water per year out of the Carrizo-Wilcox in East Texas www.ketk.com/news/local-n...
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Checked out a neat beaver lodge on the shore of Richland-Chambers Reservoir on Saturday. It is a hybrid of both common types of lodges: the classic conical lodge & the bank lodge. Setting up a game camera to monitor their dam maintenance activities for the next couple weeks.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Last weekend's overnight paddle down the Angelina River was one for the books. Deep, cool oxbow lakes, full of fish, surround the Angelina before it meets the Neches. 46 species of birds heard & seen, highlights: dozens of prothonotary warblers, parulas + 2 swallow-tailed kites.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Snapshot from @alereports.bsky.social & @texastribune.org regarding Texas' Water Crisis on display during lecture by Dr. Matthew Berg at @TAMU this afternoon during the annual Water Day event at the university. Great, innovative presentations and posters shared today by students & faculty.
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Texas Tribune @texastribune.org · 31/03/2025
Texas' water supply is threatened by a changing climate, rapid population growth, and outdated infrastructure, which loses billions of gallons of water each year. State lawmakers are poised to devote billions to save the state’s water supply. Here are some of the ways Texas could spend the money.
texastribune.org
Store, harvest, fix: How Texas can save its water supply
State lawmakers are poised to devote billions to save the state’s water supply. These are some of the ways the state could spend the money.
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forrest4thetrees.bsky.social @forrest4thetrees.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
NEW from me: Bianca Sicich, a 30-year-old Texan, was abruptly fired by DOGE two weeks ago. She's so dedicated to protecting the endangered Attwater prairie chicken that she's been working her federal job at a Texas ntl wildlife refuge *without pay* ever since. www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...
texasmonthly.com
After Elon Musk Fired Her, She Kept Showing Up to Work—for Free
The billionaire and his followers are out to cull federal employees they think are lazy and overpaid. But without people like Bianca Sicich, the Attwater’s prairie chicken could go extinct.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
as we head towards spring, gentle reminder that nearly 90% of the developed infrastructure and landscape at s***hole tesla gigafactory is in the floodplain : - )
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 08/02/2025
Paddling on the San Marcos River yesterday on a warm February afternoon with @rivergeek.bsky.social and singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Beth Galiger. Got up close and personal with a great horned owl while on one of the most special rivers in Texas.
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Alejandra Martinez @alereports.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Two years ago TX lawmakers created a $10 million program through the TCEQ (state environmental agency) to address leaking wells in rural counties. None of the money has been distributed. The TCEQ’s rulemaking process still isn’t finished. via @texastribune.org www.texastribune.org/2025/02/04/t...
texastribune.org
Texas regulators grapple with a growing problem: old oil wells leaking polluted water
Two years after lawmakers created a $10 million program to address leaking wells in rural counties, none of the money has been distributed.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Exploring the Flow: New Book Highlights Freshwater Inflows into Bays and Estuaries www.harteresearch.org/new-book-fre...
harteresearch.org
Exploring the Flow: New Book Highlights Freshwater Inflows into Bays and Estuaries | Harte Research Institute
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
excellent piece today in the Dallas Morning News on industrial solar in northeast Texas and what solar's unregulated rise means not just for East Texas but for all of rural America www.dallasnews.com/news/environ...
dallasnews.com
East Texas became an energy frontier for Dallas. This community is trying to save its land
As growth in North Texas booms amid a more extreme climate, solar energy is needed to help stabilize the state’s electrical grid and keep bills manageable for...
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
'Don't take our homes' | East Texans rally against proposal to flood their land for DFW's water supply www.wfaa.com/article/news...
wfaa.com
'Don't take our homes' | East Texans rally against proposal to flood their land for DFW's water supply
Regional water planners would build the Marvin Nichols reservoir by flooding 67,000 acres in northeastern Texas. Pipes would carry the water to the Metroplex.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Q: How much does it cost to pay off three-letter agencies in Texas so you can break- and re-write environmental laws in Texas? A: $26,000.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Woke up to some snow at Beech Ravines Scenic Area, Sabine National Forest, yesterday; icicles in the chasms of Upper Colorow Creek. Steepest hillslopes in Deep East Texas in an obscure part of the state. Feeling ready to take on 2025 today.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
tx glo: spends tens of millions of state dollars on ineffective border "walls" while tx ranks 43rd in the nation for school funding and tx teachers make less today than 10 yrs ago, given inflation... and tx glo boasts about how much they help school funding. pigs.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Today on the Burleson County scanner: non-operational oil pad explodes around 10:45am, 3 miles from the Brazos River. Reports suggest the boom could be heard over 20 miles away and that the blast could be felt in buildings over 10 miles away. Awaiting details on the cause.
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
While Meta is down at lunch... enjoy these pictures of an old growth bald cypress tree in East Texas. Tree is perhaps over 500 years old and lives in an ancient, cypress-lined oxbow lake from a meander scar of the Neches River at Upland Island Wilderness Area in the Angelina National Forest.
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Pablo De La Rosa @pablodelarosa.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Journalist @gaigedavila.bsky.social, based in the Rio Grande Valley, wrote for @deceleration.bsky.social this week about how industrial projects are reshaping the region. He highlights how these projects are influencing the culture and daily lives of communities that have lived here for generations.
deceleration.news
How SpaceX Is Colonizing South Texas En Route to ‘Occupying Mars’ – Deceleration
Reflections from 70 feet above Port Isabel, Texas, on why Elon Musk’s MAGA alignment—including his support for long promised mass deportations—will forever change the meaning of his rocket launches. C...
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alexander @texaswaterpunk.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
The Texas General Land Office has the most pathetic social media of any state gov probably in the nation. They routinely reshare old success stories each year disguised as 'new' stories. Let's look at a warm rebuilding story from Hurricane Harvey: reshared in '21, '22, and twice in '24.
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