2025 Water Wonks Hour Lecture Series #3: Opportunities in Subdivision Regulation: what groundwater conservation districts, counties, cities and residents can do to protect groundwater in the region
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Lecture #3: Opportunities in Subdivision Regulation: what groundwater conservation districts, counties, cities and residents can do to protect groundwater in the region
Bio: In her role as Water Program Manager at the Hill Country Alliance, Marisa works with local Hill Country partners, including grassroots advocates and elected officials, to promote policies and projects that advance water supply resilience and protect groundwater and surface water flows. She got her start in Texas water as a program strategist for the Texas Water Foundation. She currently serves as an alternate for the Water Conservation Advisory Council and Region L Regional Water Planning Group. Marisa received her Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment, where she specialized in water resource management and policy. Her graduate research focused on Texas groundwater management and community water planning.
Synopsis: Growth is putting unprecedented pressure on water resources in many parts of the state.. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Texas Hill Country, a region with some of the fastest growing counties in the nation. As one of the groups working to bring together a diverse coalition of partners to preserve the … clean and abundant waters … of the Texas Hill Country, the Hill Country Alliance (HCA) recently introduced its guide titled “Tools for Managing Groundwater in the Texas Hill Country”.
The guide points out “water is the lifeblood of the Texas Hill Country — but the real credit for our region’s success is the water we cannot see: … groundwater. In addition to being a source of drinking water, this groundwater feeds rivers. Twelve of the state’s 15 major rivers have their headwaters in the Hill Country. As new development is placing increasing demands on the aquifers that feed these rivers at a time when the region is experiencing more frequent drought, most of this growth is happening in unincorporated areas where regulation is limited. In this presentation Marisa will explain, like groundwater itself, knowing who can do what to manage groundwater can feel evasive and mysterious and how their new guide can help to demystify the available tools for groundwater management and make groundwater planning and management more accessible across the Hill Country.
