The Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District is hosting its 14th annual Bell County Water Symposium. This year’s event will be held November 18, 2014 beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Central Texas Council of Governments Building at 2180 N. Main Street, Belton, TX. Co-sponsors include Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service; Lloyd Gosselink Attorneys at Law; HALFF Associates; LBG-Guyton & Associates, Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the Bell County Engineers Office.

This year’s keynote address will focus on the “WATER-ENERGY NEXUS” and will be given by Michael J. Nasi, Partner at Jackson Walker LLP. Mike is the founder of the firm’s Climate Change and Carbon Management group and is also active in the firm’s Environmental and Energy practice areas. Mr. Nasi’s law practice primarily focuses on regulatory permitting in the air, water, injection well, reclamation, and waste programs for facilities in the renewable energy, electric power generation, mining, steel manufacturing, and brownfield redevelopment industries. His presentation will help stakeholders understanding the difference in water use vs water consumption by the Power Generating Industry thus critical to Bell County. Nasir is a leader who is active in state and federal energy, regulatory and related tax policy development, and works on behalf of individual companies and associations. He practices before the EPA, TCEQ, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Texas
Legislature.

Clearwater UWCD is also very excited to unveil our 3-D Model of the Groundwater Resources and Geology of Bell County. This tool will be demonstrated to the audience and will illustrate how this model can help landowners and businesses make more informed decisions on groundwater resources.

In addition, the symposium will have speakers from Brazos River Authority, Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts, United States Geological Survey Water Science Team, Texas Water Development Board, Baylor University Hydrogeology Department, LBG-Guyton and Associates, and Allan Standen Groundwater Resource Consulting. The topics and discussions will provide attendees insight into the challenges that local leadership is faced with due to our growing population, cost of infrastructure, and demand on current water resources.

Topics include the following:

• Clearwater UWCD Annual Update
• Is the Legislature Concerned about Groundwater?
• TWDB and The State Water Planning Process?
• Who Supplies Water and to Who in Central Texas.
• Drought of Record? (2011 to 2014)
• What we know about the Edwards BFZ Aquifer in Bell County
• Life after the Endangered Species Designation
• New Understanding of the Northern Segment of the Edwards BFZ?• Understanding the Geochemistry of the Edwards BFZ

The water symposium is open to the public free of charge. Please RSVP to the Clearwater Office at 254-933-0120 by November 14, 2014.