Austin
fromThe Nation
1 week agoWater Infrastructure in Texas Is Failing. A Surge of New Funding Can Fix It.
Houston loses over 30 billion gallons of water annually due to aging infrastructure, leading to severe water quality and access issues.
The largest share, $235 million, will be used to rehabilitate the Delta-Mendota Canal, which carries water to farmlands. An additional $200 million will help continue repairs on the Friant-Kern Canal, another key conduit for water in the valley. Sinking ground, an effect of heavy groundwater pumping, has damaged segments of the Friant-Kern Canal and reduced its capacity.
After 55 days of construction, which involved enough gravel to cover four football fields and enough fuel to power a dozen homes for a whole year, the pipe is once again funneling sewage from Fairfax and Loudoun Counties to the Blue Plains Advanced Water Treatment Plant in Southwest DC.
A Victorian drinking fountain has been restored to its original location following conservation, but it is not fully functional and cannot dispense drinking water. The Princes Circus fountain was installed in 1879 to commemorate Queen Victoria's 60th year on the throne, but was originally in a different location. It used to be a bit further north, on the junction of New Oxford Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, opposite Coptic Street. In 2003, it was moved to sit in a fenced-off island space outside the Shaftesbury Theatre.
Over the past three years, cases have more than doubled, with over 230,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths so far this year on the continent. Those cases are spread across 23 countries, up from 15 affected countries in 2022, according to Africa CDC. It's a disease that is easily treatable yet deadly. It can kill someone in a matter of hours if good medical care is not provided promptly.
MOCCASIN, Tuolumne County - At the base of a steep grade in the Sierra Nevada off a highway that leads into Yosemite National Park is an unincorporated community with 63 people and not much else. There's no grocery store or gas station in Moccasin, but it has a stately pink powerhouse and a quaint row of Spanish Colonial-style cottages topped with red-tiled roofs. The lawns are lush and the air smells of mountain pine.
We’re done with barriers. Our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future.