Environment

Lake Meredith, near Amarillo is a municipal water source for eleven cities, including Lubbock. Last month it was designated by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department as “fully infested” with invasive zebra mussels. Our Samantha Larned reports the mussels are known to impact infrastructure, such as pipes used for water treatment.

Lake Meredith, near Amarillo, was recently designated as “fully infested” with invasive zebra mussels. The mussels have been spreading across Texas for more than 15 years and Lake Meredith is the north-most body of water in the state to be infected. TPWD says the mussels have the potential to damage treatment equipment in what is a municipal water source for the region, but water officials with the lake say they're prepared.

In some parts of Kansas, groundwater is polluted with enough nitrates that it can fulfill some of the fertilizing needs for farmers.

New federal rules for dicamba aim to help cotton and soybean farmers control weeds. But the herbicide, which can kill other crops and trees, remains controversial.

Repairs to vital infrastructure were abruptly put on hold with little explanation, impacting the park's most popular area.

Scaled quail – also known as blue quail and “cottontops” – are quintessential creatures of the arid grasslands and the dominant quail species in West Texas. Researchers at Alpine’s Borderlands Research Institute are learing how adaptable these seemingly vulnerable creatures are.

The West Texas Veterans State Cemetery is open for burial services starting today. KTTZ’s Riley Wilson reports Burials may take place Monday through Friday from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm, with the main office being open from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. A pre-registration packet with more information can be found here. An environmental group wants the federal government to consider the health impacts of legal nitrate contamination in public drinking water. Harvest Public Media’s Celia Llopis-Jepsen has more on the report finding nearly one-fifth of Americans rely on community water supplies that showed elevated nitrate in recent years.

Since news first surfaced late last year that border walls could be built for the first time in the Big Bend region of West Texas, the story has been marked by shifting, unannounced changes and few clearly communicated details from the Trump administration.

Representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have started meeting with Big Bend area landowners about the prospect of border walls on their land. Landowners say they're concerned about flood risks and the destruction of archeological sites.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its map of planned border wall projects to add vehicle barriers and patrol roads to portions of Big Bend National Park on Tuesday. It's not clear if the barriers would be temporary or permanent.