One Water: Cutting Costs and Protecting Our Aquifers

David Baker visited the cypress lined banks of the Medina River twenty eight years ago and fell in love with the Texas Hill Country. He vowed to make this special region his home and has lived in Wimberley, Texas at Jacob’s Well Spring since 1988. David is an artist and land steward who has two children, Jacob and Jessica, who grew up swimming in the ice cold spring water coming from deep within the earth at Jacob’s Well, the second longest underwater cave in Texas. He built a magical sculptural home on the site of an old barn on the property and established a beautiful preserve and nature retreat to share this sacred site with the community and the people of Texas. He has become an environmental educator and advocate along with his wife, Ellen, who has an acupuncture and healing practice in Austin and manages the Retreat at Jacob’s Well with David.

David grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and began studying art and design in 1977.  He won a football scholarship to the University of Missouri at Columbia & later went on to study painting and sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute.

In 1990, David acquired twenty five acres at Jacob’s Well with a dream of unifying the fragmented parcels around the Well into a single preserve.

Judge Ruben Becerra, a long-time resident of San Marcos, is the first Latino Hays County Judge in its 170-year history.  Judge Becerra has served on the San Marcos Planning and Zoning Commission, Art Commission, Parks and Recreation Board, San Marcos CISD Bond Oversight Committee, San Marcos Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, Gary Job Corps Community Relations Council, San Marcos Chamber of Commerce, and Texas Bobcat Athletic Foundation.

As County Judge, he is on the Capitol Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) Executive Committee, CARTS Board of Directors, CAPCOG Criminal Justice Executive Committee, Central Texas Clean Air Coalition Board, Clean Air Force Board, Chair of the Election Commission, Member of the Election Board, Records Management Officer and Chief Budget Officer.

Judge Becerra recently celebrated his 26^th wedding anniversary with his wife, Monica Mendez Becerra.  They have two sons.  Ruben Jr. works in the family medical supply business providing prosthetics and orthotics to military veterans and breast cancer survivors and Cristian manages the family’s restaurant, Gil’s Broiler and Manske Roll, the oldest restaurant in San Marcos.

Ted joined O’Connell Robertson nearly 19 years ago. In that time, he has become regarded as one of the most knowledgeable mechanical designers for education and healthcare environments in the Central Texas region. One of fewer than 300 individuals in the United States to earn a Healthcare Facility Design Professional (HFDP) designation from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), Ted is appreciated for the high level of service he provides to clients. He holds a Higher National Diploma in Building Services Engineering from Brighton University in the United Kingdom and has combined his collective professional experiences from the UK, Zimbabwe, and the United States to solve complex engineering problems in medical and educational environments.

Nick Dornak is the Director of Watershed Services at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment in San Marcos, TX. With 20 years of experience in watershed planning, research and stakeholder engagement, Nick operates at the nexus of science and policy to inform decisions and advance best practices for protecting water resources. Nick’s agricultural roots and environmental curiosities have each been uniquely shaped by the rugged caliche soils of the South Texas cattle ranch where he grew up and where he now visits as much as possible (but not enough) with his children.

Nick received his B.S. in Agricultural Development/Animal Science from Texas A&M University and an M.S. in Rangeland Ecology and Watershed Management from the University of Wyoming. He lives with his wife, Carrie, three children, Aiden, Emery and Townes Edward and a variety of other critters in Driftwood, TX.

Robin Havens Gary serves at the Senior Public Information and Education Coordinator for the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District.  Robin graduated with a Masters degree from the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Geography and the Environment in 2005 where her research focused on human-environment interaction in karst landscapes.  Before joining the District in 2009, she worked as a geographer for the U.S. Geological Survey, Texas Water Science Center for 5 years doing data management, spatial analysis, and GIS for a variety of local, regional, and international projects.

Dr. Fouad Jaber is an associate professor and integrated water resources management extension specialist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension located at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Dallas.

Dr. Jaber received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Purdue University with emphasis in Natural and Environmental Resources Engineering.

He has published more than 24 refereed journal articles and more than 100 conference proceedings papers in addition to extension publications and governmental reports.

He has been conducting research and extension programs related to stormwater management, stream restoration, non-point source pollution management from the urban environment and water quality studies since 2002 with funding exceeding two million dollars.

Dr. Jaber is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

A native Texan, Dennis grew up in Austin and attended the University of Texas twice, earning a BS in Biology (1999) and an MS in Civil Engineering (2004). An avid outdoors enthusiast, he developed a strong sense of community with and stewardship of the natural environment early on, and pursues his professional calling at the physical interface of civilization and its natural environment; civil engineering. Outside of engineering, Dennis explores Austin’s restaurant scene and travels frequently with his wife Lisa. He can also frequently be found on a bike or in the woods on a trail run or a hunt.

Robert Mace is the Interim Executive Director and Chief Water Policy Officer at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and a Professor of Practice in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. Robert has over 30 years of experience in hydrology, hydrogeology, stakeholder processes, and water policy, mostly in Texas.

Before joining Texas State University in 2017, Robert worked at the Texas Water Development Board for 18 years ending his career there as the Deputy Executive Administrator for the Water Science & Conservation office. While at the Board, Robert worked on understanding groundwater and surface-water resources in Texas; advancing water conservation and innovative water technologies such as desalination, aquifer storage and recovery, reuse, and rainwater harvesting; regional and state water planning; and protecting Texans from floods. Prior to joining the Texas Water Development Board, Robert worked nine years at the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin as a hydrologist and research scientist.

Robert has a B.S. in Geophysics and an M.S. in Hydrology from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and a Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from The University of Texas at Austin.

His residential consumption of water is under 30 gallons per person per day (and would be lower if his wife was more cooperative!).