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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with Brian Richter, President of Sustainable Waters, a global organization focused on water scarcity challenges.

Brian Richter has been a global water science and conservation leader for over 30 years. At Sustainable Waters, he promotes sustainable water use and management with governments, corporations, universities, and local communities. He previously served as Director of the Global Water Program of The Nature Conservancy, an international conservation organization. Richter has consulted on more than 170 water projects worldwide. He serves as a water advisor to some of the world’s largest corporations, investment banks, and the United Nations and has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. He teaches Water Sustainability at the University of Virginia.

Richter has developed scientific tools and methods to support river protection and restoration efforts, including the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration software used worldwide by water managers and scientists. Brian was featured in a BBC documentary with David Attenborough on “How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?” He has published many scientific papers on the importance of ecologically sustainable water management in international journals. He co-authored a book with Sandra Postel entitled Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature. His latest book, Chasing Water: A Guide for Moving from Scarcity to Sustainability, has been published in five languages.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with Dr. Manny Teodoro, Professor for the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, about issues facing the drinking water industry.

Dr. Manny Teodoro's research stands at the nexus of politics, public policy, and public management. He works mainly on American environmental policy design, evaluation, and implementation. This line of research includes explorations of public verse private utility management and regulatory implementation as a matter of environmental justice. On the public management side, his work emphasizes professional labor markets as predictors of innovation and organizational performance.

Dr. Teodoro's 2011 book, Bureaucratic Ambition (Johns Hopkins University Press), argues that career concerns shape organizational innovation and democratic governance. His 2022 book, The Profits of Distrust (with Samantha Zuhlke, David Switzer, Cambridge University Press), links the meteoric rise of the commercial drinking water industry to distrust in government and a broader withdrawal from civic life.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks about water-related bills that passed during the 88th Session of the Texas Legislature with Jeremy Mazur, Senior Policy Advisor for Texas 2036, Sarah Schlessinger, Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Water Foundation, and Carlos Rubinstein, Principal at RSAH2O, LLC, and Perry Fowler, Executive Director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network (TWIN).

Rubinstein was appointed chairman of the Texas Water Development Board from 2013-2015. During his tenure, he oversaw the implementation of the $2 billion State Water Infrastructure Fund for Texas. Rubinstein also served as a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ) from 2009–2013. He has also served as deputy executive director of TCEQ and Rio Grande Watermaster.

As the Executive Director of the TXWIN, Fowler leads the organization’s efforts to build a strong, sustainable, and competitive Texas water infrastructure construction market through policy development, education, and advocacy. He is also the Principal of Fowler Group Texas, LLC providing lobbying, government affairs, business consulting, association, and coalition management services.

Mazur directs Texas 2036’s work in the area of natural resources, which includes water, oil and gas, and energy. He also directs research and policy development in water. His current projects include studying water markets, developing a strategic implementation plan for recent federal water legislation, and improving the state’s infrastructure and resilience to extreme weather.

Schlessinger previously worked in groundwater policy and regulation and has experience with international nonprofits and disaster response. In addition to her role as Executive Director of the Texas Water Foundation, she currently serves as an appointed member of the Water Conservation Advisory Council and as a board member for Texas Water Trade.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with Texas Tribune reporters Jayme Lozano Carver and Alejandra Martinez about the Tribune’s Broken Pipes series, which examines the state's deteriorating water infrastructure.

Jayme Lozano Carver is the Texas Tribune's first Lubbock-based reporter, covering the South Plains and Panhandle through a partnership with Report for America. She previously worked for Texas Tech Public Media, Lubbock's NPR station, where she spearheaded "Rural Healthcare: The Other Texas Drought," a series for PBS' "Frontline" on rural hospital closures in Texas. She also covered a broad range of topics for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, including climate change, agriculture, entertainment, and health care. Born in Levelland, Carver is a native of the South Plains area and studied at South Plains College and Texas Tech University. She loves to talk about her cats, horror movies, and pro wrestling.

Alejandra Martinez joined the Texas Tribune in the fall of 2022 as a Dallas-based environmental reporter. She was previously an accountability reporter at KERA, where she began as a Report for America Corps Member and then covered Dallas City Hall. Before that, she worked as an associate producer at WLRN, South Florida's public radio station. Martinez studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and interned at KUT and NPR's Latino USA. She's a native of the Aldine area of Harris County and speaks fluent Spanish.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with Kevin Kluge, Water Conservation Manager for Austin Water, about programs offered by Austin Water that help customers conserve water.

As Water Conservation Manager, Kluge oversees a range of water conservation programs, including incentives, irrigation evaluations, commercial efficiency assessments, and water waste enforcement. Prior to his position with Austin Water, he spent 20 years with the Texas Water Development Board, culminating in the role of Director of Conservation and Innovative Water Technologies. Kevin holds a Master of Science in Natural Resource Utilization and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks about water and the 88th Session of the Texas Legislature with Perry Fowler, Executive Director of the Texas Water Infrastructure Network (TXWIN), Sarah Schlessinger, Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Water Foundation, and Jeremy Mazur, Senior Policy Advisor for Texas 2036.

As the Executive Director of the TXWIN, Fowler leads the organization’s efforts to build a strong, sustainable, and competitive Texas water infrastructure construction market through policy development, education, and advocacy. He is also the Principal of Fowler Group Texas, LLC providing lobbying, government affairs, business consulting, association, and coalition management services. 

Mazur directs Texas 2036’s work in the area of natural resources, which includes water, oil and gas, and energy.  Since joining Texas 2036 in September 2021,. Mazur also directs research and policy development in water. His current projects include a study on water markets, developing a strategic implementation plan for recent federal water legislation, and improving the state’s infrastructure and resilience to extreme weather.

Schlessinger previously worked in groundwater policy and regulation and has experience with international nonprofits and disaster response. In addition to being the Executive Director of the Texas Water Foundation she currently serves as an appointed member of the Water Conservation Advisory Council and as a board member for Texas Water Trade.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with Lori Olson, Executive Director of the Texas Land Trust Council, about two bills, HB 3165 and HJR 138, in the current legislative session that, if passed, would create the Texas Land and Water Conservation Fund. 

Olson has served as the Executive Director of the Texas Land Trust Council since July 2011, working to strengthen the coalition of land and water conservation organizations working across Texas. In her work with the Council, she engages in state and federal advocacy, strategic outreach and research projects that promote the many benefits of conservation, and offers training and technical assistance, including hosting the annual Texas Land Conservation Conference. Olson has over two decades of experience in land conservation, working with land trusts in Oregon, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas.

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Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with David Baker and Robin Gary with the Watershed Association (WA) about the ongoing drought's impacts on Jacob's Well and the Trinity Aquifer.

Baker is an artist, conservationist, and environmental advocate equally at ease with a brush in his studio or envisioning an environmental canvas the size of the Texas Hill Country. Since moving his family to the iconic Jacob’s Well Spring near Wimberley in 1988, he has dedicated his life and boundless creative energy to the land, water and building a conservation network across Cypress Creek, the Blanco River watershed, and the Texas Hill Country. He founded the WA in 1996 and has since served as the Executive Director, having assembled more than 400 acres of owned and managed conserved lands surrounding Jacob’s Well in honor of protecting it and the waters that feed it.

Before joining the WA, Gary worked as a geographer for the U.S. Geological Survey's Texas Water Science Center doing data management, spatial analysis, and GIS, and was part of the team that helped establish the spring flow gauging station at Jacob's Well. She also served as the Public Information and Education Coordinator for the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District where she helped build an impactful and collaborative educational program, supported and educated well owners and groundwater users, and researched methods to assess groundwater use, well drilling trends, and aquifer dynamics.

Photo by Todd Votteler (3/27/2023).

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Texas Water Journal and Texas+Water Editor-in-Chief Dr. Todd Votteler talks with Carlos Rubinstein, Principal at RSAH2O, LLC, and Vanessa Puig-Williams, Director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Texas Water Program, about flaws in Texas' groundwater planning process and the water legislation in the 88th Texas Legislature.

Rubinstein was appointed chairman of the Texas Water Development Board from 2013-2015. During his tenure, he oversaw the implementation of the $2 billion State Water Infrastructure Fund for Texas. Rubinstein also served as a commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ) from 2009–2013. He has also served as deputy executive director of TCEQ and as Rio Grande Watermaster. 

Puig-Williams leads EDF’s efforts to advance sustainable groundwater management in Texas. Prior to joining EDF, she was the Executive Director of the Trinity Edwards Springs Protection Association. As a water and environmental attorney, she has advised landowners and nonprofits on issues related to land and water conservation and practiced in the environmental division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office.

Take a deep dive into the world of water with those making  waves!

Also, just a note that Talk+Water has been ranked as one of the top water podcasts in the world by FeedSpot and MillionPodcasts!