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Most Popular Stories
- A plan to end night swimming at Barton Springs is over before it ever began
- Austin moves forward with plan for parks over I-35
- External review finds data inconsistencies in APD reporting on use of force
- Downtown report: Office vacancies up, infrastructure growth continues
- Audit cites city failures to address discrimination, harassment
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Environment
Some Austin waterways unsafe for swimming
According to a new report from the Environment Texas Research and Policy Center and the Frontier Group, many of the state’s creeks, rivers and beaches are too polluted for swimming or wading – and that includes the Colorado River at…
Environment • By Jo Clifton • Aug 30, 2018
Austin Water lays the path forward for the next 100 years of water conservation
There’s no denying it: The climate as we know it is changing, but access to water sources is not. Three years ago the second iteration of the Water Forward Task Force convened in an effort to draft a 100-year water…
Water • By Jessi Devenyns • Aug 6, 2018
Reporter's Notebook: Grave concerns
We only know how to bury ledes… A very strongly worded memo from the Parks and Recreation Department’s Acting Director Kimberly McNeeley warns that failure to extend a contract for interment and burial services in city cemeteries could have serious…
Parks • By Elizabeth Pagano • Jul 30, 2018
Rowing center contract bounced back to committee
After reviewing the reworked terms of the Austin Rowing Club’s new contract extension, the Parks and Recreation Board suggested that they go back to the drawing board. City Council voted unanimously in June to give the Austin Rowing Club the…
Parks • By Jessi Devenyns • Jul 26, 2018
City's new flood plain maps would affect building regulations
New federal data on Austin’s rainfall patterns will cause the city to expand the size of areas in the 100-year flood plain and likely lead to a change in development requirements for properties exposed to flash-flooding risk. The city’s Watershed…
Environment • By Chad Swiatecki • Jul 20, 2018
Where are Austin Energy's generation metrics?
For three years, the Electric Utility Commission has not received an annual performance report from Austin Energy. Concerned about the lack of the familiar financial and operational reporting format, Commissioner Michael Osborne has repeatedly discussed its merits and requested its…
Energy • By Jessi Devenyns • Jul 19, 2018
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Commissioners: Water bills should be overseen by Austin Water
Following the water bill fiasco from last fall, Austin Energy and Austin Water teamed up on a working group to uncover the puzzling reasons behind the unusual spikes. Although the group started off with one question, Commissioner Mickey Maia reported…
Water • By Jessi Devenyns • Jul 18, 2018
Most groups, Dripping Springs reach settlement
More than two and a half years after the city of Dripping Springs filed a request for a wastewater discharge permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that alarmed environmentalists and nearby landowners about potential damage to Onion Creek,…
Environment • By Jo Clifton • Jul 6, 2018
Austin's electric vehicle programming is revving up
Thanks to the city’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2050 and Austin Energy’s commitment to adding 330 plug-in electric vehicles by 2020, Travis County recently passed Harris and Dallas counties and now has more electric vehicles than either. Now…
Energy • By Jessi Devenyns • Jun 25, 2018
Environmental Commission paves another path for Zilker parking
After members of the Environmental Commission postponed a vote on a proposed Zilker Park landscaping project to gain a deeper understanding of the environmental suitability, two weeks later the tone of their response was not much different from their initial…
Parks • By Jessi Devenyns • Jun 22, 2018
Council-mandated energy studies have already quietly begun
After clamoring from the public and a push from the Electric Utility Commission last month to have Austin Energy come back with the scopes of work for the list of required studies included in City Council’s ambitious renewable energy plan,…
Energy • By Jessi Devenyns • Jun 20, 2018
City seeks input to tee up Dougherty redevelopment at Butler Shores
Voters will decide in November if the city will receive bond funds to build a replacement for the Dougherty Arts Center, but a public forum next week is intended to give city leaders input on their plan to build a…
