Capital Highlights Week of December 23 – 27, 2024

Abbott unveils new border strategy

Gov. Greg Abbott said last Thursday the state is initiating a billboard campaign across Central America and border cities in northern Mexico to discourage migrants from attempting to enter Texas, the Austin American-Statesman reported.
The billboards are in multiple languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian. They tell stories of migrants being sexually assaulted while trying to enter the United States.
“This is tough medicine,” Abbott said. “But we want no more rape trees in Texas. Do not make the dangerous trek to Texas.” He was referring to the ashes of a tree where migrant women were sexually assaulted by human traffickers and left to die, according to the Statesman.
Abbott is seeking another $3 billion in the next legislative session for Operation Lone Star. Since launching in March 2021, the state has spent $11 billion to deter migrants and fortify the border.

Regulators: More than 250 new cases of groundwater contamination

Nearly every county in Texas has at least one case of groundwater contamination, according to an annual report outlined in The Texas Tribune. The  latest report compiles 2,870 open cases of groundwater contamination, some of which go back decades, according to the Texas Groundwater Protection Committee.
During 2023, 252 new cases were reported that could affect public drinking water. In addition, 289 property owners were notified that such contamination could affect their private wells.
The state relies on groundwater from aquifers for roughly 55% of its water supply. Voters in 2023 approved a $1 billion fund to develop more water resources, including desalination of brackish groundwater.
“Any groundwater contamination is a cause for concern,” said Adam Foster, director of the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts. “It needs to be reported properly and addressed.”
Groundwater contamination falls under the purview of either the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or the Railroad Commission, depending on its source, with the former handling 80% of the cases.
The single most common source of groundwater pollution in Texas is gas stations, which make up a third of all cases. A map of groundwater contamination cases can be found on the TCEQ site by going here: https://tinyurl.com/375xrerk.

New space institute is up and running

The Texas A&M Space Institute, to be located next door to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, recently broke ground on a 400,000-square-foot facility. The $200 million facility is funded by 2023 legislation creating the Texas Space Commission with the purpose of keeping Texas at the forefront of the space program, the Texas Standard reported.
Institute Director Dr. Nancy Currie-Gregg, a former astronaut and an engineering professor, noted the U.S. and Texas face competition from many other nations with their own space programs. Among the projects to be tackled at the new institute will be rover and spacesuit development, and possibly developing concepts for a space hospital.
“It’s really meant for collaboration between academics, industry and government to achieve government goals or to achieve, just quite frankly, commercial space goals,” she told the Standard. “But it’s all about collaboration.”
Currie-Gregg added the long-term goal is traveling to Mars, but first “we really need to return to the lunar surface.”

Investigation: Big truck oversight has waned

An investigation by the Austin American-Statesman indicates commercial vehicles are being stopped for safety inspections far less than they used to be, even as commercial traffic has increased. The Statesman found that random roadside safety inspections dopped 20% statewide over the past decade.
The reasons include staffing at state and local law enforcement agencies failing to keep pace with the state’s growth and thousands of Department of Public Safety troopers being sent to the border for Operation Lone Star and other immigration-related issues.
DPS spokeswoman Sheridan Nolen acknowledged that the border assignments have hamstrung commercial vehicles oversight operations. The agency plans to ask the Legislature for more money in the next session.
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles reported the number of commercial vehicles operating solely within state lines rose to 459,000 last year from 340,000 in 2013.
At least one Republican elected official is critical of the decrease in safety inspections.
“With the safety concerns that we have, I think that pulling officers off for Operation Lone Star or any other gimmick is just bad governance,” Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett, from Odessa, said.

School districts asked to refund $16 million to feds

Federal officials are asking Texas schools to return $16 million they say was billed incorrectly to Medicaid, The Tribune reported.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sent an email recently to 572 school districts in the state asking them to return anywhere from $100 to $800,000 for services billed in 2011. A 2017 audit found Texas schools had improperly billed the agency 238 times.
The state has already paid the $16 million and now is required by law to recoup its costs from the districts, many of which are struggling financially.
“Because this comes in the middle of a budget year, it makes planning for schools virtually impossible,” said Brian Woods, director of advocacy at the Texas Association of School Administrators. “Had this clawback been known prior to schools approving their budgets in the summer of 2024, then at least it could have been planned for, right?”
More than 40 schools owe more than $100,000 while more than half owe less than $10,000.

RRC adopts new oil and gas waste management rules

The Texas Railroad Commission has adopted a “significant overhaul” of rules and regulations for oil and gas waste management facilities in Texas. It is the first overhaul of the agency’s waste management rules in four decades.
The adopted rules enhance the RRC’s oversight of waste management facilities, with staff dedicated to environmental permit compliance, according to the news release.
“The oil and gas industry has evolved dramatically since the 1980s. After a years-long process, and with thoughtful and thorough deliberation from the public, agency experts, and industry stakeholders, I am proud to report the Railroad Commission has passed its first overhaul of waste management rules in 40 years,” said Chairman Christi Craddick. 
The new rules can be found on the RRC’s website: rrc.texas.gov.

Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: [email protected]