Nearly 150 groundwater professionals are gathering today for the start of the NGWA conference, Managed Aquifer Recharge: Unleashing Resiliency, Protecting Groundwater Quality, in San Antonio, Texas.
The two-day event is designed to provide a forum for sharing lessons from existing projects to develop successful recharge projects addressing water supply resilience and groundwater quality.
The event opens with a keynote address by Robert E. Mace, Ph.D., PG, of Texas State University. The title of the presentation is “Managed Aquifer Recharge Is MARvelous for Responding to Supply Uncertainty.” In it, he will show how Texas is a great example of quickly adopting policy changes, assessing the potential, and implementing MAR projects to meet current and future water needs.
Facilitated by a policy analysis, legislative changes, and several successful projects, plans for MAR in Texas have increased from 26,000 acre-feet per year in the 2002 State Water Plan to 193,000 acre-feet per year in the 2022 State Water Plan. Mace will go over several current and future MAR projects throughout the state.
There will also be 24 presentations broken into concurrent sessions during the day, poster presentations, and a panel on permitting and regulatory compliance.
One of the presentations is from NGWA Manger of Regulatory Affairs Chuck Job. His talk, “Managed Aquifer Recharge Project Financing,” is part of the Issues in MAR session.
The panel features Todd Halihan, Ph.D., Boone Pickens School of Geology, Oklahoma State University; Kathy Alexander, Ph.D., Water Availability Division, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; Remington Buyer, Idaho Department of Water Resources; Timothy Parker, PG, CEG, CHG, Ramboll USA; and Scott Tarbutton, Office of Columbia River, Washington Department of Ecology.
The event has eight sponsors and exhibitors that NGWA thanks for its support of the event: 3R Valve, Baski Inc., GEI Consultants Inc., GeoSystems Analysis Inc., Johnson Screens, Mount Sopris Instruments Inc., OTT Hydromet, and Roscoe Moss Co.
NGWA highlighted MAR in a special issue of Groundwater® in 2022. Click here to learn more about NGWA’s work regarding MAR.