drinking water

Texas lawmakers convened in a rapidly growing part of West Texas to sign new legislation aimed at addressing a looming water crisis across the state.

If you're thirsty for knowledge, it's time to drink up: public water supplies are federally required to make water quality reports available by the end of June.

Gov. Greg Abbott has made water a priority for this legislative session. Lawmakers will debate whether to invest more into new water supplies or repairing old, leaking pipes around Texas.

Nonprofit, public policy organizations including Texas 2036 and the Texas Water Association have made water infrastructure one of their priorities this legislative session.

Recent studies have found elevated levels of nitrate in drinking water correlates with health issues like cancer and thyroid disease — even below what current federal standards deem as safe. But health research necessary to take federal action is slow-going, and some environmental health experts are concerned officials aren’t acting fast enough.

Native American communities often lack the resources to upgrade drinking and wastewater infrastructure. The Santee Sioux Nation in Nebraska is an extreme example — living without safe drinking water for four years.

About a quarter of the United States’s irrigated cropland sits on top of the Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains. But water levels are dropping, and states are taking different approaches to monitoring how much groundwater irrigators are pumping out.

Ever wondered whether your well water would win a blue ribbon? The OSU Extension isn’t handing out prizes, but it is providing free well water testing at county fairs across the state.

The water in these four unincorporated communities near Lubbock has been undrinkable for years, residents say. They hope to win $3 million in state grants to improve their systems.

A New York Times analysis of nearly 85,000 water wells across the United States shows underground aquifers are being depleted across much of the country, including in Oklahoma.