Meadows Research Institute for West Texas Water

10/12/2026

Happy to support this great cause! Check out all the auction items, including this fabulous tour with our fascinating expert, Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk.

It's our biggest fundraiser of the year! Each year we do an online auction featuring amazing items donated by people in our Big Bend community and this one item is one you don't want to miss!

Have you ever looked at the amazing Big Bend landscape and wondered how it all got there? Now you have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to spend the day learning all about the geology of Big Bend Ranch State park taught to you by an actual expert.

Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk has been researching and enjoying the Geology of this region for over three decades and has a wealth of knowledge to share. Kevin is the senior research scientist at the Meadows Research Institute for West Texas Water, at Sul Ross State University and serves on the board of Friends of Big Bend Ranch State Park. You will never think of Big Bend the same way again!

To bid on this and our other items visit the auction webpage!

https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/94534/auctions/208333/auction_items/7211237

10/08/2026

Following a successful first trip in February, Institute staff will soon participate in another gain/loss river science excursion on the Lower Pecos River. The team will measure flow and water chemistry, take water samples and observe the habitat along the Pecos from Imperial to Amistad Reservoir.

Our crew will be completing the lower section of the river from near Pandale to near Langtry in the "Lower Canyons” of the Pecos. Colleagues from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and other scientists will be collecting similar data in the upstream portions between this area and Imperial.

Sul Ross State University Southwest Research Institute

09/30/2026

Will a promised El Niño bring Texas relief from record heat?

🌡️ The summer of 2026 was the warmest on record for the United States. From June through August, below-normal rainfall and above-normal temperatures contributed to widespread drought conditions and increased wildfire activity across many parts of the country.

In Texas, parts of central, southern, and western regions experienced above-average temperatures, while much of the rest of the state experienced much above average temps.

Looking ahead, there may be some relief this fall and winter. Forecasts indicate the potential development of a strong El Niño pattern, which typically increases the likelihood of wetter-than-normal conditions across the southern United States.

Learn more from Drought.gov: https://www.drought.gov/news/drought-summer-2026-12-maps-and-graphs-2026-09-16

09/30/2026

For the third year, our own Dr. Jesse Kelsch offered local expertise to a new group of member volunteers for the Tierra Grande Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists. They host a rigorous training program across multiple disciplines every fall over four weekends. Jesse led a guided hike across two igneous rock formations exposed at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens, followed by a talk about regional geology, the Trans-Pecos Magmatic Province, and the importance of the Igneous Aquifer to the Trans-Pecos. She gave participants a peek at her new research, offering insight into how little is known about the aquifer’s capacity.

Sul Ross State University Texas Master Naturalist Tierra Grande Chapter Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute

09/23/2026

With the help of the Friends of Big Bend Ranch State Park, we purchased a replacement pump for the Escondido bird blind trough. Gabe Pastrano, Pat Goodson and Sean Halstead (of FoBBRSP) helped install the new pump to supply the trough with water.

Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk and three Sul Ross students — Kai Hastings, Devin Winter and Cole Payne — returned a week later to check on the status of the new pump.

Sul Ross State University Friends of Big Bend Ranch State Park Borderlands Research Institute

09/22/2026

Air quality is often overlooked in water resource assessment, but it’s critically important for the overall health of West Texas’ watersheds and aquifers.

Trained by TCEQ staff, our staff and students — Dr. Kevin Urbanczyk, Carissa Chambers, Tina Neufeld and Tommy Reyes — conducted maintenance work on Big Bend National Park air quality samplers, which collect data on particulates in the atmosphere. It’s valuable workforce training for the students.

Why are atmospheric particulates important? They can have a significant impact on precipitation, such as contributing to acid rain. These particulates may be deposited directly on the ground through dry deposition, or through precipitation that falls to the land surface, perhaps entering a river or an aquifer.

Sul Ross State University Big Bend National Park Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

09/15/2026

It takes more than one storm to stop a drought.

09/08/2026

centers are rapidly becoming part of the water conversation in Texas, so naturally the topic was of great interest at Water in the Desert 2026.

Hydrogeologist Dr. Marcus Gary of the Bureau of Economic Geology and water infrastructure consultant Adam Conner explored what the expanding digital infrastructure behind artificial intelligence, cloud computing and online commerce could mean for water use in West Texas

Roughly 40 percent of the world’s data centers are in the United States, Gary said. Texas alone accounts for about 10 percent of those facilities, placing the state squarely in the center of a rapidly growing industry.

“Zoom in even more,” he said, “and West Texas is being targeted pretty heavily because of the energy resources that exist out here.”

One factor that has only recently begun receiving more attention is water.

“The water issue is really just starting to come to a head,” Gary said, noting that policymakers are increasingly recognizing the need to consider water availability alongside energy and infrastructure.

“This is new to everybody,” Conner said. “This is something the state of Texas is having to learn on the fly.”

For West Texas communities already navigating water scarcity, the arrival of data centers adds another layer to the region’s complex water landscape. How that story unfolds, the speakers suggested, will depend largely on how communities, regulators and industry work together in the years ahead.

See the entire conversation on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FujO

Sul Ross State University The Meadows Foundation Borderlands Research Institute

08/31/2026

Our research scientist, Dr. Jesse M. Kelsch, and graduate student Amanda Piper (photographer, so not shown in the photos) just completed some fieldwork at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute. They were interested in one of the Trans-Pecos igneous rock units, the Sleeping Lion formation, exhibiting fractures that appear to result more from Rio Grande rift-related tectonic stresses than the usual cooling stresses that volcanic rocks undergo.

“These may be regional patterns that could dictate how groundwater moves and is stored in parts of the Igneous Aquifer,” Kelsch says.

Sul Ross State University Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute

08/25/2026

Produced water — the mixture that returns to the surface during oil and gas production — was once something oil and gas operators “didn’t want anything to do with,” Amy Hardberger told attendees at Water in the Desert 2026. “Isn’t it interesting what time will do?”

Hardberger, director of the Center for Water Law and Policy at Texas Tech School of Law, and freshwater ecologist Dr. Scott Collins outlined how produced water — long treated strictly as a waste product — has become one of the most closely watched water issues in West Texas.

Read the synopsis on our website or watch the session in its entirety on our YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLKYbZtM9nI&t=1499s

(Brenda Ladd Photography)

Sul Ross State University Borderlands Research Institute The Meadows Foundation