Between recording sessions in KUTX's music studio a while back, sound engineer Jake Perlman brought up something decidedly un-rock-and-roll: his gas bill.

The first few months of the year, Perlman said, he paid about double what he had paid during the same months the previous year � despite using less gas at times.

“I could not make heads or tales over why the gas bill was so high all of a sudden," he said.

Darrell Kirkland reached out to KUT News with the same problem: "I've never heard of a utility, at least for my bill, actually doubling it."

People have been voicing the same complaints in online forums like and .

“Why the increase?� they ask. "Will rates keep going up?�

The answers to both questions are not likely to please the askers.

A rate hike long in the making

The story of Austin's most recent gas rate increase starts last year. That’s when Texas Gas Service, the for-profit utility that provides gas to Austin, told City Council and state regulators it needed to make more money.

The utility said the need was based on a few reasons: to invest in new infrastructure and maintain its current gas delivery system, and to guarantee shareholders a return on investment.

“Then there’s the impacts of inflation that we’ve all experienced over the past several years,� Stacey McTaggart, its rates and regulatory director, told council members.

At the time, the utility said it expected to collect an estimated $25.8 million in added revenue annually from the rate changes.

It said it expected customers' bills to rise “under 15%" on average. Others predicted bills would go up much more than that.

Over the summer, Austin and a coalition of cities served by Texas Gas pushed back against the proposal. Critics accused the utility of, essentially, fleecing a customer base that has no other option for where it gets gas.

Months of negotiations followed.

In the end, the cities agreed to a somewhat scaled-back "settlement" deal that still included rate increases, but made commercial and industrial customers share the burden with residential payers.

In Austin, City Council members fumed over the higher rates, voting against them at City Hall. But the city did not formally challenge them at the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state regulator with authority over gas rates.

Why?

Council Member Ryan Alter said Railroad commissioners had sided with Texas Gas Service in similar rate negotiations in the past, and City Council was confident the utility would prevail again.

“We decided that we would not support the proposal,� Alter said. “But [we recognized] that if we broke away and had a whole separate rate case before the Railroad Commission, we were most likely going to get a worse result for customers than what was on the table.�

The rates were approved by the Railroad Commission in November and went into effect at the beginning of the year.

That’s when customers started noticing.

All those little line items add up

When people see a sharp increase in their bills, they often take a closer look. In the case of gas bills, there is a lot to look at. Each one comes with a list of different fees and charges that add up to your monthly payment.

Since the rate hike went into effect, Austinites are noticing how some of those line items have jumped in cost.

One charge that was up significantly this winter is the “cost of gas� charge. That's because natural gas commodity prices were higher this year than last, and those costs are passed through directly to the ratepayer.

Another big driver in the current higher bills is something listed as a “delivery charge.� This seems to be a kind of a catchall for a lot of different things.

KUT reached out to Texas Gas Service and sought independent analysis from longtime utility attorney Alfredo Herrera. Both said the delivery charge includes payments for operating and managing the utility system, covering the cost of depreciation of utility assets and covering some tax expenses.

Texas Gas Service profits also come from the “delivery charge.�

Investing in the infrastructure and maintenance and bringing in more profit were all things the utility wanted to raise rates to do, so it’s no surprise that this line item has increased.

But, Herrera said, the “delivery charge� is a strange place to pack all those different expenses.

“Maybe they call it a delivery charge because they are delivering the gas? I don't know why they call it a delivery charge,� he said after taking a look at some recent bills. “That is a very odd nomenclature, at least odd to me.�

Of course, to many ratepayers, the name is less important than the charge itself.

'Gold plating'?

“If it’s too high, it's too high no matter where you get it from,� Paul Robbins, a local environmentalist and consumer advocate, said when asked about the delivery charge increase.

As a member of Austin’s Resource Management Commission, Robbins has long questioned Texas Gas' rate structure and frequent rate hikes.

, the gas company raised its operating expenses 63% between 2019 and 2023 over the last four years, while its customer base increased by only 5% in that same timeframe.

“I cannot make sense of it. It’s like, are they building a bridge to nowhere?� he said. “Are they padding? Are they gold plating things so that they can claim an expense and then claim a capital return on an expense that may not be needed?�

“The question has never been put to rest for me,� he said.

Texas Gas Service denied KUT’s request for an interview, but a spokesperson did answer questions by email.

In that exchange, Safeena Khanmohamed reiterated the need to raise rates to keep the gas system reliable and highlighted different options customers have in how they pay.

“Residential Customers can choose between small or large residential rates based on usage and lifestyle,� Khanmohamed wrote. “Small Residential Customers pay a higher volumetric delivery rate and a lower customer charge. Large Residential Customers pay a lower volumetric delivery rate and a higher customer charge.�

Herrera said because less of a “large residential� customer’s bill comes from gas usage and more from fixed charges, a customer who uses a lot of gas may be able to lower their monthly bill by choosing to be charged under the “large residential� tier.

Likewise, a person who uses less gas may be able to pay less by opting to be charged as a “small residential� customer.

“I don't know how that's worked out, whether in practice it actually works for customers or not,� Herrera said, “but that's the theory behind it.�

Finally, the utility pointed to the higher commodity prices for natural gas this year, reflected in the “cost of gas� charge as another reason for higher bills.

But that’s not likely to quell customer discontent over prices, especially since rates are set to go up again.

More rate hikes on the way

In February, after the rate hikes approved last year went into effect, Texas Gas Service announced its intention to raise rates again.

This rate increase is allowed under a state "Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program," also called a GRIP program, which lets utilities increase bills to recoup losses on system investment without the same degree of public involvement.

Texas Gas Service says customers should expect to see those higher rates in their bills in June, further upsetting critics and ratepayers.

“No sooner has the ink gone dry on the last increase when they have asked for this new GRIP increase,� Robbins said.

In the short run, Robbins believes the higher rates are here to stay.

In the long run, he said, the city needs to explore partnering with a different for-profit gas utility to get a better deal. Alternatively, the city could take over local gas service outright and run it like it does the electric and water utilities.

That's an idea Council Member Alter and others have been talking about as well.

“That’s not something that would be easy or that I’m even here to say we’re ready to do or willing to do,� he said. “But you do see San Antonio has their own gas utility, and of everybody in the state whose rates have not seen this dramatic increase it’s San Antonio’s.�

But, he said, any major change in the way Austin gets its gas would have to wait until 2026 when the city's long-term contract with Texas Gas Service is set to expire.

Water levels in Bexar County hit a historic low on Friday, prompting the Edwards Aquifer Authority to declare that will limit the amount of water people can use in surrounding counties, includint Hays.

The Stage 5 restrictions are the strictest level of water cutbacks the Edwards Aquifer Authority can implement. The cities and entities that have contracts with the agency will be further limited in how much water they can pull from the aquifer.

In Hays County alone, there are 68 active permits that include dozens of privately owned wells and contracts with the City of Kyle, City of San Marcos, Texas State University, Aqua Texas, and the Crystal Clear Special Utility District.

All those entities will see a 44% reduction in the amount of water they are allowed to use -- up 4% from restrictions put in place when the area hit Stage 4 in September.

The Edwards Aquifer Authority has implemented various levels of water regulation to help deal with drought.

Most of the Edwards Aquifer region is currently under exceptional drought conditions, according to the , but the aquifer authority said water levels haven't been this low since 1956 during the state's historic drought.

Despite increasing the restrictions to Stage 5, the agency said it can only monitor and enforce pumping permits. It's up to cities and water utilities to implement and enforce local water restrictions, which could include limiting outdoor plant watering, filling pools with water and at-home car washing.

The agency said residents and businesses within these impacted counties should follow the limits placed by their water providers.

These Stage 5 regulations also impact the following counties: Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal, Medina, Bexar, and parts of Atascosa.

Earlier this month Jesse Ramazami was out for a midnight walk near his home in Manor when he noticed something strange moving across the sky.

It appeared to be on fire, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake.

“I've seen a really big meteor before, but definitely nothing like this,� he said. “It was definitely shocking.�

Ramazami did what most of us would do. He pulled out his phone and started recording.

The video he took and later , captured an object, or objects, that were slower moving than a typical shooting star. They seemed to be not only burning, but breaking into pieces.

“I've seen videos of rockets breaking up, de-orbiting, and it reminded me of that,� he said.

What could this mystery be?

Some online commenters were reminded of “A Quiet Place,� a science fiction movie set after the arrival of murderous aliens on earth.

Others speculated that the video recorded a long defunct Russian space probe burning up on re-entry.

As it turns out, the fireball was of human origin, and it was made right here in the United States.

KUT reached out to UT Austin’s McDonald Observatory to try to identify the object. Within a day, Stephen Hummel, the observatory’s dark skies coordinator had an answer.

“We believe it to be a particular satellite called Capella 10,� he said.

Private eyes in the sky

Building and launching satellites has become vastly more affordable in recent years, leading governments and private companies to launch ever more orbiters.

There was a record 2,849 .

A growing number of those satellites belong to startup companies that advertise surveillance or intelligence services.

These private spy satellites can monitor everything from environmental conditions to shipping traffic to military troop movements for governmental and commercial customers.

is one such firm.

According to the company’s website, Capella’s satellites are built to deliver, “actionable Earth observation data to solve your most pressing challenges.�

“Our in-house designed, built, and operated SAR satellite constellation provides 24/7/365 global insights to meet your mission-critical needs,� the website advertises.

In 2018, the company began launching a group of “synthetic aperture radar� or SAR satellites designed to more effectively see through cloud cover to the earth’s surface.

The SAR satellites were funded, in part, by a Department of Defense program

The Cappella 10, the tenth such satellite put into orbit, .

But, according , the Capella satellites have been falling back to the ground sooner than expected.

The earlier-than-expected “de-orbiting� is “due to the combination of increased drag due to much higher solar activity than predicted by NOAA and less than expected performance from our 3rd party propulsion system,� Capella CEO Payam Banazadeh wrote to TechCrunch.

Space sleuthing

Hummel said he teamed up with Jonathan McDowell with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to identify the object.

After determining the time and location where Ramazami took his video, they compared the information with a database that tracks where and when orbiting satellites are expected to come back to earth.

The Capella 10 fit the bill for what Ramazami saw on May 5.

Hummel said the slow movement of the object captured in Ramazami’s video also fit the design of the Capella satellite.

It is “larger than a typical communications satellite, and it has a large antenna about three and a half meters across, which I would think would create some extra drag,� Hummel said.

When reached for comment, Cappella Space agreed with Hummel’s conclusion.

“This event does align with our deorbit plan for Capella-10, so it is likely,� said Sarah Preston, a marketing and communications manager at the company. “Given the size of the satellite, it is also very likely there was little debris and most of it burned up upon reentry.�

An increasingly common sight

Hummel said images like the one captured by Ramazami will only become more common as more manmade space objects return to earth.

Last fall, residents of Dallas recorded the likely descent of some "space junk" back into the atmosphere, mistaking it for a meteor shower .

Earlier this month, debris from a failed SpaceX launch from South Texas was videotaped over the Caribbean and

“I think probably one of my most common calls is: what is this thing in the sky?� Hummel said. “Nine times out of 10 it turns out to be a satellite or a rocket.�

And the tenth time?

“I've never seen UFOs,� he said. “I've seen some strange things in the sky, but they've always had explanations.�

When satellite operators have control of their satellites, they typically steer them to fall into the ocean to avoid dangerous debris falling on land.

But, Hummel said, the increase in man-made objects re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere raises concerns beyond falling space junk.

For one thing, burning satellites deposit “aluminum and copper and other metals in the upper atmosphere,� upon re-entry, he said. “That might be changing the composition of the upper atmosphere, including perhaps recreating holes in the ozone layer."

Since posting his video, Ramazami said he’s heard of people seeing the object as far away as Houston, making him wonder if any potential debris ended up in the Gulf of Mexico, the body of water between Mexico and the United States that the Trump administration renamed as the Gulf of America earlier this year.

“I'm just glad I saw it,� Ramazami said. “I'm a little disappointed that I looked at it through a phone when it was going on. But now I'm kind of happy that everyone's going to get to see it.�

Fencing in the area around Rio Vista Park in San Marcos went up this week and will stay in place through Labor Day as the city attempts to keep trash out of the river during the busy summer season.

The San Marcos City Council gave the go ahead on Tuesday to install the temporary fencing ahead of Memorial Day weekend. The decision came after large crowds last summer made it difficult for the city to enforce park ordinances, including the single-use container ban that went into effect last year.

The education campaign for the "can ban" ordinance " ended up being a little bit lackluster and ineffective," Council Member Alyssa Garza said.

The campaign included online posts and park signs, but council members said the language was difficult to understand and didn't make clear what items were banned.

Council Member Matthew Mendoza said people want the single-use container ban to be enforced and for park grounds to be patrolled by either marshals or park rangers.

Those visiting Rio Vista Park this summer will see chain-link fencing around the park's perimeter with several staffed entrances.

Park ambassadors will be stationed at these "access points" to share information about park ordinances and keep an eye out for any banned containers or unsafe behavior.

While locals are more familiar with the rules, city officials hope this will help out-of-town visitors follow the rules.

" About 70% of our weekend participants are from out of town," Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales said. "A lot of them primarily are from Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin."

According to , the number of people visiting San Marcos during the summer and visiting the riverfront parks has gone up, with 2024 being a record year for the city.

Gonzales said these out-of-towners often don't know the rules that include no public display of alcohol, no glass and restrictions on single-use containers.

Council members are also considering implementing visitor fees at the river's access points for non-residents. San Marcos residents would not have to pay.

City officials said the revenue from the fees could help offset the cost of cleaning, maintaining and securing riverfront parks during the busiest times of the year, and they would include opportunities for public input before implementing a park fee.

Of all the tips on how to protect your dogs in the heat, Austin veterinarian Kacey Joseph has one big one to proclaim:

“Obviously, avoid the midday walk.�

Walking your dog during the hottest time of day can lead to heatstroke, heat exhaustion and burned paw pads.

But there’s an easy way to avoid those dangers.

If it’s above 85 degrees, "stick your hand to the asphalt and hold it there. If you can stay there for 10 seconds or longer, you might be OK,� Joseph said. “But if it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for your dog.�

Some dogs may need it to be even cooler. Lean dogs with short coats and long noses are more resilient in the heat. But heavier dogs, those with lots of fur and the “smushed face� breeds � like pugs and English bulldogs � are more prone to heat exhaustion.

Dogs on weight-loss journeys are also more prone to heat exhaustion, Joseph said.

If it’s cool enough for a walk but still on the hot side, dog shoes, UV-blocking T-shirts and dog-safe sunscreen (yes, these all exist) can make the heat more manageable.

Joseph said she also sees dogs with heat exhaustion or heatstroke after being left unattended in hot cars.

If your dog is panting excessively, hanging its tongue out a lot, stumbling or acting strange, it’s time to go inside and cool off. Putting a wet towel over your dog and ice in its bowl can help.

If you don’t have time in the early morning or late evening to walk your dog, don’t sweat it. There are safer, air-conditioned ways to get your dog the exercise and mental stimulation it needs.

“A busy mind for a dog is the best thing,� Joseph said. “A short, 10-minute training session can be equal to a 30-minute walk. It does make them that tired.�

Joseph said playing with your dog outside in the shade or buying them puzzles or brain games are good alternatives.

Those early morning walks and brain puzzles are something dog owners might want to get used to. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.

After a springtime of breezy, cool mornings and dry air, a heat wave hit Austin like a train last week. Those triple-digit highs and thick humid days are likely a taste of things to come, as Central Texas moves closer to what are typically its hottest months of the year.

But, forecasters say, that doesn’t mean the summer will bring a repeat of record-breaking heat waves like the one in 2023 that delivered 45 days in a row of triple-digit highs.

“The signals that I'm seeing right now don't call for a summer as hot as 2023,� Mack Morris, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service's Austin/San Antonio office said. “However, it will be warmer than normal. It will be hot.�

Morris � who recently presented the seasonal outlook for June, July and August � said rain will be a deciding factor in how quickly things heat up.

Austin is currently about 4 inches below average rainfall for the year, and the recent heat wave served to further dry the soil.

“With continued drought conditions, it doesn't really take long to dry the soils out in the month of June,� Morris said. “With drier soils, temperatures usually heat up a lot faster.�

But, forecasters say, there could be some rain ahead � including next Sunday and Monday.

“May is, in Austin, typically the wettest month for the year,� Mary Wasson, a meteorologist for the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle said. “We [could] get a quick 5-inch rain total, and that would put us where we should be for the month and kind of eat away at the deficit for the year.�

If we do get more rain, Morris said, it should keep triple digits at bay a little longer. But that could also increase humidity, leading to a higher “feels-like� temperature.

Rain becomes increasingly less likely in the summer.

“We're not way into those summertime hot and dry days yet,� Morris said. “But I do think we aren't going to see any more mornings in the 40s and 50s.�

Only a few weeks after Austin City Council passed a requiring various regulations on , a new 2-gigawatt data center is coming to Lockhart. Tract, a Colorado-based developer, has secured 1,500 acres for a “megasite� in Caldwell County, only about six miles away from famous barbecue joints Smitty’s Market, Kreuz Market and Black’s. It has received enthusiastic support from Gov. Greg Abbott, who said in a statement that it will “create good-paying jobs, bolster the state’s power grid, and enhance our technology infrastructure.�

However, data centers threaten to have a detrimental effect on Texas� energy infrastructure. Data centers, which operate 24/7 and provide computing power for cloud operations and AI, require cooling units, fans and tons of water to operate. They account for almost 2% of overall global energy demand. Indeed, Texas energy demand is projected to nearly double by 2030, mostly thanks to data centers and cryptomining facilities, which account for about 50% of that expected demand.

As President Trump took office in January, he announced that Texas will be a cornerstone of his $500 billion Stargate initiative, with 10 data centers already under construction and 10 more planned. In a on energy planning in April, Tom Oney, vice president of external affairs for the Lower Colorado River Authority, warned that data centers were a concern, saying: “The amount of load that’s coming to this area is something that we’re struggling with every day. ERCOT is putting out the alarm bell, and I think it’s right, because there’s not enough wires to move that kind of megawatts.�

To address the environmental effects of multiplying data centers in the Austin area, City Council’s resolution requires audits overseen by humans, and it mandates an environmental study by Austin Energy, Austin Water and the city climate and budget offices over the next decade. It also requires the utilities to report an assessment of the impact to utility rates and strains on resources, and include recommendations on “ways to increase clean energy usage and water efficiency, address risks to the power grid, and minimize waste.�

In a , Tract writes that it has secured equipment from Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative for an initial 360 megawatts of energy to begin in 2028. It has also committed to helping fund road improvements on FM 2720 as part of a community investment, according to Judge Hoppy Haden, who said it “shows they are invested in the future of Caldwell County.�

Tract’s CEO Grant van Rooyen said the center will be used for cloud and AI training, but is “unique� for these kinds of operations because it “sits at the intersection of transmission infrastructure, robust natural gas infrastructure and long-haul fiber.�

The Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee has recommended this session that data centers and other facilities that require large loads be to “offset their impact on the grid by adding on-site power systems or participating in programs to curtail electricity usage during peak demand periods.� To that end, by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford � which has already won Senate approval and is currently in the House Committee on State Affairs � would put restraints on the state’s energy market. Its goal is to protect residential customers from bearing the cost burden of another grid catastrophe by putting in place more stringent restrictions on operations with significant demand.

Until SB 6 is passed, those commitments remain up to the discretion of companies like Tract, which states in its press release that the campus will come with “provisions for supplemental on-site generation.�

Austin could see record-breaking heat this week as triple-digit temperatures return to the area earlier than usual. The city is setting up cooling centers for people who need to beat the heat.

Homeless Strategy Officer David Gray says the city opened libraries and rec centers � more than 40 � Monday for people needing a place to cool down.

Gray says he and other city staff saw this heat wave coming and notified thousands about the activation. Staff expect the centers will be open through the week.

"We sent out our text alert to close to 4,000 people experiencing homelessness to make sure that they know that hot weather is coming," he said. "[And] make sure they know where they can go to beat the heat and to stay cool and stay safe."

AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County is also offering respite at its across the Austin area.

Gray says the cooling centers are crucial for people experiencing homelessness � just as the city's cold weather shelters are a lifeline for Austinites outdoors when the city freezes over in the winter.

“This is a critical part of our work," he said. "[We're] making sure that when there are weather extremes, that we're prepared for it and that we can help people who are unsheltered homeless prepare for it."

Officials are urging folks to stay hydrated and, if possible, stay inside. The forecast for the week shows triple-digit temperatures are possible through at least Saturday.

The cool air you felt if you went outside Monday morning? It might not be like that again in Austin for months.

That's because an unusually powerful heat wave is barreling towards Central Texas.

The National Weather Service is predicting highs of 102 on Tuesday, 104 on Wednesday and 102 again on Thursday and has issued a heat advisory through Wednesday.

Orlando Bermúdez, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said the sudden shift in temperatures is due to “a perfect recipe� of wind patterns.

Those patterns are pushing hot air over the mountains of Northern Mexico into Texas. As that air drops in altitude in a process known as “downsloping,� it will become drier and hotter as it enters the state.

“It happens later in July. It happens in August,� Bermudez said. “But this early? That's what is making this kind of a headline.�

Hot days in May are becoming more common as greenhouse gasses, released by the burning of fossil fuels, warm the Earth's atmosphere.

Austin is no exception.

Records show that Austin has seen triple digits in May in only eight years since records started in 1898. But five of those instances happened this century.

Early heat waves are often more dangerous

When extreme heat arrives suddenly, after months of milder weather, it can lead to higher incidents of heat exhaustion and stroke, and .

"If you're not used to the heat, you're more susceptible to heat-related illnesses,� according to the Mayo Clinic. "The body needs time to get used to higher temperatures.�

As the temperature rises, the National Weather Service is urging people to practice including limiting outdoor activity, staying hydrated and taking frequent breaks if you need to be outside.

The rise in extreme temperatures over the last few decades has prompted city officials in Austin and elsewhere to create local labor protections, like mandated water breaks for construction workers. But those efforts were blocked by state lawmakers.

The city of Austin is encouraging people without access to air conditioning to use its libraries and parks and recreation facilities as cooling centers during regular operating hours. You can find a map of cooling centers below or

Depending on where the temperatures end up this week, Austin could meet or break its record for hottest May day ever recorded, currently 104 degrees.

Is this a preview of what's to come this summer?

Hot spring weather can set Texas up for hotter summers as well.

Spring heat dries the soil out early, allowing the ground to heat more quickly in June and July.

That super heated earth can even create what the state climatologist has called �a climate feedback loop,� discouraging rainfall and encouraging even hotter and drier weather.

This is what happened in 2023, when a cool spring was quickly replaced by one of the hottest summers in Texas history.

Despite recent rain storms, much of Texas, including Central Texas, leaving the earth primed to dry out quickly should uncommon heat persist.

This story was originally told live at the Paramount Theatre on April 3, 2024.

If you’ve visited East Austin around Springdale and Airport Boulevard in the last several years, you’ve likely noticed apartment blocks, offices and cafes sit where truck depots, warehouses and vacant lots once sprawled.

At seven-years-old, Springdale General � a studio, retail and business campus � is the most established of the new arrivals. Across the street, a five-story apartment complex, The Goodwin, is still getting its finishing touches.

Next door, the wavy glass facade of the Springdale Green office building projects a smooth modernity. A sign in front advertises space for lease.

“You’d never think that it was just some big industrial lot for a long time,� said Andi Acevedo, a neighbor who has watched the buildings go up with interest and some concern.

Many of these blocks used to encompass something called “tank farms� � the focus of one of the greatest environmental controversies in Austin’s history. There were toxic spills, lawsuits, protests � all stuff Acevedo learned after she moved down the street several years ago.

This history has left her with a lot of questions. But the biggest one, which she put to KUT’s ATXplained project, is pretty simple: Is the land safe to be on?

It’s a question Austinites will likely be asking more often, as infill development takes place on city lots formerly occupied by polluting industries and businesses. Developers and public officials say existing rules ensure health and safety, but those rules allow some contamination to remain.

The battle over tank farms

Despite the name, tank farms are not farms at all. They are facilities where crude oil, gasoline and jet fuel are stored in big tanks before they go to gas stations, airports or wherever else petrochemicals are used.

The first tank farm came into this part of East Austin in the 1950s. You can find old aerial photos showing how that tank farm was soon joined by others, more and more being built right in the same area.

This was by design.

The land was near the old Mueller Airport, which needed fuel. There was pipeline access, and, crucially, the city had made the zoning inviting for this kind of industry.

"The siting of hazardous facilities was open to whoever wanted to locate in that area,� said Sylvia Herrera, a longtime environmental activist who grew up near the tank farms. “So you have hazardous facilities next to schools. You have hazardous facilities next to residences.�

Those schools and residences were likely occupied by working-class, Black and brown communities, like the one Herrera grew up in.

This was also by design.

For decades, the same city zoning that had put heavy industry on the East Side also pushed those communities there.

"That was all impacting the communities� health,� Herrera said.

The policies are now recognized as a textbook example of environmental racism. But, she said, a lot of people back then didn't understand the pollution they were being exposed to.

That started to change in December 1991.

At the time, Herrera was a single mother of two, living a couple blocks away from the tank farms when she noticed something in the newspaper.

“There was a public notice, in small print of course, saying that Mobil [Oil] wanted to build another tank,� she remembered.

Along with the notice was a list of the chemicals the tank would emit into the air: benzene, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, gasoline and diesel fumes.

It occurred to Herrera that the notice was just for that one particular tank.

“You start counting all the tanks that were already there,� she said, “and you can imagine all the pollution that was coming out of there.�

Herrera was a member of a local environmental group called PODER. It decided to do a health survey of the neighborhood to see what kind of impact the tanks were having. Members went door to door asking residents if they were experiencing problems.

What they found was frightening.

People reported “migraine headaches, respiratory problems like asthma or coughing and having nosebleeds and so forth,� Herrera recalled. “It was three-fourths of the community that was having the same symptoms!�

Neighbors started organizing to kick out some of the biggest companies in the world � Chevron, Citgo, Mobil Oil, Exxon.

“We didn’t have any money,� Herrera said. “Here we were fighting these oil giants. But people had the will.�

They held protests outside the tank farms, put pressure on state politicians and raised their voices at City Council meetings.

The deeper Herrera and others dug, the worse the oil companies looked. Toxic waste had seeped from the tanks into the earth and the groundwater under the community. The public had been kept in the dark about dangerous air emissions.

The AGÕæÈË°Ù¼ÒÀÖ County Attorney even opened criminal investigations.

For those living nearby, the tank farms had become an existential threat. For the oil companies, they had become the source of some very bad publicity.

One by one, the “oil giants� agreed to shut down their tanks and move.

That's how a group of East Austin activists took on some of the world’s largest oil companies and won. It's the kind of victory that rarely happens and has since become an important part of Austin’s history, celebrated by city government, studied by academics and .

But for Herrara, the story is bittersweet.

For one thing, she said, much of the community that fought that battle has been displaced.

“All these areas have become gentrified,� she said. “And so it’s sad to see, because it’s not progress for our community.�

For another thing, some of the contamination stayed in the ground � even after the tank farms were dismantled.

That was allowed because of a deal the oil companies made with the state. Instead of fully cleaning up the land, the companies put deed restrictions on the properties that, regulators said, would protect the public from potential toxic exposure. The deed restrictions allowed only industrial or commercial use.

Simply put, no one could ever live there.

The church vs. the oil company

While they did not return the land to its original condition, the former tank farm owners did hope the earth might heal itself.

The process, sometimes called “self attenuation,� assumes that rainwater might naturally flush toxins out of the soil.

“They just left these properties and let the rainwater do what the rainwater was going to do and let the earth do what the earth does," David Gottfried, a lawyer who works on real estate cases, told KUT in an interview back in 2016. "And they would monitor it.�

He said for years the oil companies tested the groundwater and treated the water that came up dirty.

Many of the lots sat empty. Then one day in January 2000, a group came along that wanted to buy. They were a religious congregation called La Voz de la Piedra Angular, The Voice of the Cornerstone.

“They purchased the property to establish their church,� said Gottfried, who went on to represent them.

While many found the former tank farm land undesirable, he said, for this particular church, it was perfect. That may have been because the congregation had some unique beliefs about how much time there was left for them to build.

“They believed in the apocalypse,� he said. “They needed a very large piece of property, because they believed that the apocalypse [was] coming."

So they took one of the huge warehouses that stood on the land and converted it into a place of worship, installing a stage and altar. They put in a kitchen and offices to run businesses out of the property.

“Then behind the building,� Gottfried said, “they made a baptismal pool and they were performing baptisms.�

According to court documents, the church had converted an old fuel tank into the pool. Gottfried didn’t remember it that way. But, regardless, the baptisms caught the attention of the site's former owner: Exxon.

“Exxon was very unhappy about that,� he said.

Even though the company no longer owned this property, it still had the power to enforce the land-use restrictions it had put in place. It also had reason to � if someone got sick due to the pollution left on site, it could be sued.

The church had not been informed of any land-use rules when it moved in, Gottfried said. But that didn’t stop Exxon from suing. The oil company wanted the church gone.

“They were just minimizing their liability,� Gottfried said. “My position on that is that if Exxon really wanted to minimize their liability � they should have cleaned it up!�

Gottfried argued the church should be able, at least, to stay and pray. He pointed out that commercial activity was allowed under the deed, and that there was nothing specifically prohibiting religious services.

Gottfried remembered the judge agreeing that the church could hold a shareholder meeting there.

“I said, ‘And after that shareholder meeting can they all stand up and join hands and recite the Lord’s Prayer?’� he recalled. “She said ‘no,� and we lost the case.�

The church is still around, just not in that location. I called the pastor to get a comment for the story, but he didn’t want to talk.

Why?

“Está en el pasado,� he said. It’s in the past.

But to this day, the case remains an example of how what’s allowed on polluted land can be as much a legal question as an environmental one.

Testing for toxins

After Acevedo learned about the toxic legacy of the tank farms, she tried to look into what clean-up work had been done ahead of all the new construction.

“There's not a lot of good information,� she said. “It left me with a lot of questions.�

Questions like: “How does a place where people aren’t allowed to live become suitable for so many other uses?�

KUT requested an interview with Austin’s Planning Department, which approves new development, and Austin’s Watershed Protection department, which handles many environmental matters.

Both said no.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency that oversees Texas environmental policy, answered some questions on background but also denied an interview request.

Fortunately, Michael Whellan, an attorney who worked for the developer of the Springdale Green office project was available.

“First and foremost, this is a city process,� he said. “The only control the state has was its involvement in cleaning up the site. That's through the TCEQ.�

After the church left in 2007, the TCEQ decided that the groundwater pollution at the site no longer posed a threat to neighboring lots. So, regulators told Exxon it could stop monitoring and treating the site.

“All water monitoring wells had to be capped and shut down,� Whellan said.

Exxon appears to have gotten the deed restrictions changed about seven years later to make it easier to build on the land, still barring any residential use.

By 2020, a real estate boom had hit Austin. Parts of East Austin, once on the city’s outskirts, were now considered central. The former tank farm land was hot property.

The developers that bought Springdale Green took soil samples as part of the building process.Those samples showed the soil quality had not changed much since Exxon left in 2007.

But, after looking at the test results, the TCEQ said the soil would be OK to use as “fill� beneath the new construction.

The city approved planning and building permits for the property. And work began on Springdale Green.

Whellan said that work required a lot more cleanup just to start construction. For example, a pipeline was found that one of the oil companies had neglected to declare with state regulators. It cost the developer over $250,000 to have it removed, he said.

For Whellan and many others, the lot’s redevelopment is an example to be followed, a success story of urban planning.

He said the developer created a stormwater drainage system to mitigate flood risk in the surrounding streets, removed invasive species and invested in an affordable housing fund. The Springdale Green project also got gold certification from SITES, a group that recognizes “sustainable and resilient landscapes and other outdoor spaces.�

All across Austin there are contaminated areas that used to house everything from old factories to gas stations that could be put to new use.

“We have to continue to identify where these sites are, make sure they get cleaned to at least commercial standards, and not remain vacant," Whellan said. 

But others, like Acevedo, remain uneasy.

“On this side [of the street] there's a ban on building residential units,� she pointed out. “But then like directly across the street there's residential properties being built.�

“I hope that it doesn't cause any health problems for anyone.�

The fact is, in a system where polluting companies are allowed to leave without cleaning up completely, that anxiety will likely remain.

Yard garden?

There was another way to gauge the long-term impact of the tank farms in Acevedo’s neighborhood: test the soil for toxins.

KUT sent soil samples taken from her backyard to a private lab that specializes in testing for dangerous metals and petrochemicals. The results showed earth that was free of any major contamination.

While the tests provide only one small data point in one backyard, they appeared to assuage some of her concerns.

She said she may even start a vegetable garden.