Water Symposium Schedule

ANTHROPOLOGY & WATER: Spa Cultures, Dreaming & Healing Waters – Dr. Jonathan DeVierville, St. Philips College.
Our ancient ancestors knew Dreams as mirrors and windows of their Souls. Sumerians, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans as well as indigenous Peoples around the Planet frequented thermal-mineral springs, wells and pools for re-creation, dreaming and healing. Designed for rest, sleep and relaxation, these naturally watered sacred sites helped encourage, facilitate and integrate creative wellness and regenerative deep dreaming. Participants will be introduced to this ancient healing legacy.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 9:00 am)

ARCHITECTURE & WATER: Architecture & Water: A Critical Balance into the Future! – Gabriel Durand-Hollis, FAIA, Principal with DHR Architects and Adrianna Swindle owner of ASA, Accessibility Specialist.
The two presenters offer different perspectives on how water has impacted the formation of cities, both in a historical sense and in the context of modern architecture. Important attention is given to new developments in water conservation, storage and recycling in current architectural practice and exciting research forecast what is in our future. Obviously architecture deals with water in its various states. When we are building spaces there must strike a balance between too much water and too little water.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 1:00 pm)

ART & WATER II: An Exhibit & Experiment – Liz Ward, Trinity University along with students.
(Ongoing throughout the Symposium.)

ART & WATER III: Ebru - A Turkish Form of Painting on Water
Ebru is a process of dripping dyes upon water, shaping the colors in every which way with various tools and finally, transferring the final composition to paper that is laid over the water. Upon contact the dyes cleave to the paper, leaving the water blank as in the beginning, thus, each print is one-of-a-kind. This on-going expression of art will continue throughout the WATER Symposium and is available for participation by all those in attendance. (Ongoing throughout the Symposium.)

ART & WATER IV: Water as an Inspiration in Contemporary Art – David S. Rubin, The Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art, San Antonio Museum of Art.
A visual exploration of the ways in which contemporary artists have used water as an image, often for symbolic or metaphoric purposes, in a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, and digital media. The presentation will include works by San Antonio artists recently featured in the San Antonio Museum of Art exhibition, Waterflow. (Monday, February 15 at 1:00 PM.)

CIVICS & WATER: Who Controls Your Water – Sally Bolster, League of Women Voters, along with Mr. Robert R. Puente (President/CEO, SAWS); Suzanne B. Scott (San Antonio River Authority General Manager); Velma Reyes Danielson (Edwards Aquifer Authority General Manager); Brad Groves (Trinity-Glen Rose Water Conservation District President of the Board); Kerry McCollough (District Planner for BexarMet). Panel discussion.
(Monday, 15 February at 7:00 pm)

CIVIL ENGINEERING & WATER: From Rain to Drain – Lynne Christopher & Greg Wukasch, San Antonio Water System.
Ever wondered where your water comes from when you turn on the tap or where it goes when you’re finished with it? Find out about the workings of a water system. Learn how your water gets to you and where it goes after the flush. How is wastewater “recycled” and what happens to the bi-products of the process? Experience first hand some of the challenges that SAWS faces daily from main breaks to the GREASE MONSTER!
(Monday, February 15 at 9:00 a.m.)

COSMOLOGY & WATER: The Deep History of Water - Sr. Linda Gibler, OP, PhD
The story of water from the Beginning, 13.7 billion years ago to now, including how hydrogen was formed in the first milliseconds of creation, to how long it took for oxygen to form in stars, to their combination as water in space and water’s subsequent role in star birth, including our Sun. (When we look at Orion, we are looking at millions of oceans of water.) I could say something about how water drenches our Solar System and how we come to have so much of it on Earth. I could end with the role water played in the first life on Earth and all life ever since. Linda Gibler, OP, is the Associate Academic Dean at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio and the science editor of the Collins Foundation Press. Overwhelmed by the first Hubble deep field picture, Linda, a Dominican Sister of Houston, became enchanted with the magnificence of the universe and intrigued by the images’ significance for a Catholic understanding of God. In 1999, she began formal study of cosmology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where she completed a MA and then a PhD in Philosophy and Religion with an emphasis in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness
(Monday, February 15 at 9:00 a.m.).

CREATIVITY & WATER: Flowing from Expression to Empowered Action - Dianne Monroe
This highly experiential workshop combines two fields new to San Antonio. Expressive Art is a way of opening our creativity to explore our inner worlds. The Work that Reconnects (developed by internationally acclaimed systems theorist and environmental scholar Joanna Macy – www.JoannaMacy.net) is a form of group work that reconnects people with our planet and one another in a way that strengthens their ability to act on behalf of meaningful change. This workshop combines elements of both to offer participants the opportunity to explore their personal connections with water in a way that enlivens and enriches their sense of passion and purpose. Dianne Monroe is a writer, photographer and Expressive Arts Facilitator who offers a range of experiential and transformational-learning based workshops. Her workshops flow from the power of creativity and are rooted in our connection with the natural world and its wisdom. Dianne has studied with Joanna Macy and now brings her internationally recognized approach to South Texas.
(Monday, February 15 at 1:00 PM.)

ECOLOGY & WATER: Conservation From Rain Catchment to Gray Water – Elise Garcia & Carol Coston, Santuario SisterFarm.
Santuario Sisterfarm is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Latina women and Dominican Sisters and co-directed by Adrian Dominican Sisters Carol Coston, OP and Elise D. García, OP. Located in the Hill Country of south-central Texas and rooted in the rich multicultural legacy of the Borderlands, Santuario Sisterfarm is dedicated to inspiriting the work of transforming human relationships with Earth and among ourselves, from dominance to co-creative partnerships.
(Monday, February 15 at 11:00 a.m.)

ECONOMICS & WATER: A Local Perspective – Carol Patterson, Director of the Edwards Aquifer Authority (District 1), and Kirk Patterson, attorney & EARIP Steering Committee member.
The San Antonio/Edwards Aquifer Region is facing critical choices on how to meet future water supply and springflow needs. Achieving an efficient, affordable, and fair balance of these goals requires looking at alternative solutions. We will cover the major plans and proposals of the region, including SAWS, the EARIP, and the Region L part of the Texas Water Plan.
(Monday, February 15 at 5:00 p.m.)

ELECTRICITY & WATER: Playing for Keeps – Dr. Lauren Ross, Director of the Glenrose Project.
Every person on the planet is part of a global bet on water and electrical infrastructure and the stakes are high. Yet, in the midst of growing awareness around climate change and water shortages, as a culture we are largely ignorant of the intersection of these challenges. Workshop participants will compete for cupcakes in a fast-paced, educational, and winner-take-all game to meet global energy and water needs without bankrupting natural resources.
(Monday, February 15 at 7:00 pm)

ENERGY & WATER: New Ways of Deriving Energy from Water- Panel Discussion: Dr. Kyle Murray, UTSA, along with Janet Abbott Spa Waters of the Americas 501c3. Alyssa Burgin moderating.
Texas has a long history as an energy provider through agriculture and oil. During the oil exploration era, hot mineralized waters were found and many of these resources became health destinations and famous for thier healing waters. With current interest in geothermal - heat from the earth- as considered the best renewable energy resource, we will discuss how geothermal mineral waters are becoming a geothermal direct use consideration for wellness facilities, greenhouses, aqua culture to name a few. We will also discuss the geology of Texas heated earth, aquifers and water chemistry.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 1:00 p.m.)


FASHION DESIGN & WATER:WATER FALLS FASHION SHOW
CoCo and ReyBey Productions present The Water Falls Fashion Show. In this exhibit you will see high school designers from all over San Antonio showcase their talent - inspired by water.
(Sunday, February 14 at 5:30 pm.)

GEOPOLITICS & WATER: Trickle Down from Source to Ocean - Headwaters Coalition
Every river has a source, and all rivers flow through many natural and human communities, to the ocean that connects us all. Using the San Antonio River as an example, session leaders will explain the "anatomy" and "biology" of rivers, especially how a river begins at its headwaters, how tributaries flow into a mainstem, and how that mainstem river progresses to its end. Through dialogue, participants will explore what this may mean to all of us in terms of social justice, natural resource management, and to or moral obligation to earth care.

GLOBALIZATION & WATER: The Story of the Thirsty – Paul Darilek, Living Water International.
883 million people lack access to clean drinking water. A child dies of diarrhea every fifteen seconds. But the hope of the matter is that you can do something about it--and have a blast doing it. The Story of the Thirsty is a multi-media presentation--part education, part film, part poetry, part advocacy opportunity, all fun--featuring the work of Living Water International, a non-profit that provides clean drinking water to the world's poorest people in 25 countries. It's a chance to learn, to be moved and, if you like, to get involved.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 5:00 pm.)

HISTORY & WATER: Chronology of Efforts to Manage the Edwards Aquifer – Dr. John Donahue, Trinity University.
The presenter draws upon his involvement as a stakeholder in water management issues over the Edwards Aquifer in Central Texas in which local actors participate with state and federal agencies to manage groundwater withdrawals.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 3:00 pm.)

HYDROLOGY & WATER I: The Hydro-illogical Cycle in Texas - Raymond Slade, Jr.
Raymond Slade, Jr. retired from the U.S. Geological Survey with 33 years of experience as a hydrologist, serving the last 6 years as the Surface-Water Specialist for Texas. During his career with the USGS, he authored about 75 reports on Texas water resources, with subjects including floods and droughts, hydrology of rural and urban watersheds, and water quality of surface and ground water. In cooperation with the City of Austin, he developed and supervised a long-term investigation of Barton Springs and associated Edwards aquifer and authored about 25 reports on the hydrology and water-quality of the springs and aquifer.

HYDROLOGY & WATER II: Intro to South-Central Texas – George Ozuna, Deputy Director, USGS Texas Water Science Center.
Learn the basics from a hydrologist who has worked in this area his entire career. This educational offering includes an overview of the water cycle, a discussion of flood and drought in Central Texas, and basic hydrology of the Edwards Aquifer.
(Monday, February 15 at 11:00 AM.)

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & WATER: Texas-Mexico Water Issues – Jay Johnson-Castro, Director, Rio Grande International Study Center.
Along the banks of the Rio Grande, from the Colorado Rockies to the Gulf of Mexico, millions of inhabitants, and within the Rio Grande watershed, there are literally hundreds of governmental agencies from the local to the international levels, as well as institutions and non-governmental organizations that have some focus on the Rio Grande as a source or resource. Equally, there are hundreds of entities that endeavor to exploit and threaten the quantity and quality of the very waters that millions of people depend on for survival. Yet, in 2010, there is only one initiative to form an alliance that would to protect the waters of the Rio Grande, its watershed, environment and cultures from such threats and exploitation. We will discuss some of the treats to the Rio Grande, including major threats that originate from prominent and wealthy sources within the State of Texas and the Texas laws that, if left unchallenged, would ultimately prevent the Rio Grande from reaching the estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 9:00 am)

LAND USE & WATER: Human Impact on the Edwards Aquifer – Annalisa Peace, Executive Director, Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance and David K. Langford, Vice President Emeritus, Texas Wildlife Association.
The Edwards Aquifer presents a special challenge in that it is a “karst” aquifer. Learn all about why our regional groundwater supplies are particularly fragile, how they are being compromised, how this wonderful natural system works to provide us with one of the world’s cleanest and most reliable water supplies and what we need to do to ensure that we have good quality water for years to come. Plenty of opportunity for Q&A to discuss aquifer related to current events.
(Monday, February 15 at 1:00 pm)

LANDSCAPE DESIGN & WATER: Xeriscape - Water Saving Plants in Texas – Melissa Miller, Chair of the Native Landscape Certification Program of the San Antonio Native Plant Society.
If you want to conserve water in your landscape, first consider what part of Texas you are in, as the state has eleven major ecoregions. Then consider the micro-climates you have. Plants native to your ecoregion have evolved there for eons and know best how to survive the extremes on their own. Learn about the native plants that have already been in cultivation, some for hundreds of years, or are easy to grow, that will work on your property.

(Monday, February 15 at 5:00 pm)

LAW & WATER II: Hot Issues in Recent Cases – Mary Q. Kelly, Greg Ellis (TX Alliance of Groundwater Districts), and Steve Kosub (SAWS Legal).
According to Mark Twain, "whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over." This is especially true here in Texas . Learn why from a panel of three of the top legal experts in the field of water law in a discussion of legal issues that determine how water is allocated in Texas and within our region. Mary Q. Kelly (Gardner Law Firm) will present a Basic Overview of Texas Water Law; Greg Ellis (Director of the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts) will discuss Hot Issues in recent cases; Steve Kosub (Legal Counsel for SAWS) will guide us through Legal Applications of Future Water Planning. The presentations will be followed by a spirited Q & A session moderated by Mary Q. Kelly .

(Tuesday, February 16 at 11:00 am)

LAW & WATER I: Water is a Birthright– Larry Joe Doherty, environmental attorney.
Larry Joe Doherty, an attorney and civic activist well-versed in matters related to ethics, takes on the ethics of water consumption, and, specifically, water commodification. Is water a human right, as believed by water activists, or is water a commodity, like oil, which some can profit from at the expense of others. A very timely presentation as companies jockey to privatize your water rights.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 9:00 am)

MUSIC & WATER: Music IN Water – Brother Mike Sullivan, S.M., DMA, St. Mary’s University.
A survey of music compositions inspired by water, in all its forms, beginning with Medieval chants, symphonic literature, folks songs, works songs, popular music, and all points in between. The presentation will include numerous recordings and video.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 3:00 pm)

OCEANIC STUDIES & WATER: Environmental Freshwater Inflows and Salinity in Coastal Bays – John S. Adams, Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science & Coastal Bend Bays
The demand for freshwater is an issue that has been part of the public discussion for at least 150 years. A famous quote, attributed to Mark Twain, asserts the “Whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.” As human populations expand, the various enterprises and activities that come with that expansion, including agriculture and ranching operations, steam based power generation, municipal and industrial demand, and recreational uses, all depend on a limited and finite water supply. The environmental flows of freshwater that are left over may reach the bays and estuaries along the coast, assuming that they are not captured by dams and reservoirs. The importance of freshwater reaching the estuaries has traditionally taken a back seat to the importance of freshwater reaching coastal communities for their industrial, municipal, and agricultural needs.
(Monday, February 15 at 3:00 pm)

OUTER SPACE & WATER: From Earth & Beyond! Jacqueline Havelka, NASA’s Life Sciences Data Archive
This presentation will observe water from the unique perspective of outer space. Participants will learn about NASA’s discoveries about water on Earth and other planets. Over the last decade, new observations of our Milky Way galaxy show that water is more abundant than expected. Other learnings will be about the crucial importance of water as a life support system in spacecrafts, and unique ways astronauts will ensure that they have water to live and work. A visual presentation with some of the spectacular pictures that have been taken in outer space and on other planets will be shown.
(Monday, February 15 at 9:00 a.m.)

PEACE & WATER: Flowing Toward Nonviolent and Sustainable Communities –
Dr. Randall Amster, Prescott College; Executive Director, Peace & Justice Studies Association
Against the seemingly intractable trends of militarization and resource conflict stand examples of people and communities managing scarce resources peacefully and sustainably. In the desert southwest, in fact, one of the last great “common pool resource” systems in North America provides irrigation water and open grazing land to farmers and pastoralists alike. Derived from the imported culture of Spanish settlers and combined with the best practices of the native peoples of the region, this acequia system serves as a powerful example of how we might envision people working together not only with each other but with the land itself, thus demonstrating the potential of effective techniques for conflict transformation at levels of engagement ranging from the interpersonal to the environmental. This interactive workshop will present an alternative acequia-inspired vision for managing resource conflict, with an eye toward generating concrete plans of action for use in local communities everywhere. The lesson is that if relatively “poor” people confronted with extreme scarcity in arid regions can create a stable, cooperative, and nonviolent system for managing water, then certainly we can likewise find ways to do so with all of the tools at our disposal.

(Monday, February 15 at 5:00 pm)

POETRY & WATER: Water as Refuge & Reunion – Cyra Dumitru, poet & instructor at St. Mary’s University.
This interactive session combines the reading of original poems by Dumitru with writing exercises. We will explore water as a source of inspiration for our own flow of words. We will tap into our memories and imagination as sources of content. The emphasis will be upon the process of playful, quick writing followed by shaping, and opportunities to share. Designed for anyone who loves water and words.
(Tuesday, February 16 at 1:00 pm)

POLITICAL SCIENCE & WATER I: Whose Water Is It? Urban vs. Agricultural Water Use – Mike Mecke.
Mike Mecke recently retired as the AgriLife Extension water programs specialist at Fort Stockton, Texas. (Tuesday, February 16 at 11:00 am)

POLITICAL SCIENCE & WATER II: Water & Conflict – Dr. Celine Jacquemin, Amir Samandi & Leona Pallansch, St. Mary's University
Challenges of water and conflict in the Middle East and on the African continent.

(Tuesday, February 16 at 3:00 am)

PSYCHOLOGY & WATER: The Living Waters of the Psyche – Alan Drymala, LPC, LMFT, Jungian psychotherapist.
Water is the pre-eminent symbol for the unconscious. We will reflect together on our watery relation to this psychic wellspring, examining our language and our dreams, as well as fairy tale and alchemical images. C.G. Jung believed that the fate of humanity rested on how many individuals would establish a conscious and living relationship to this source.

PUBLIC HEALTH & WATER: Biologic, Organic and Inorganic Contaminants – Geary Schnidel, P.G..
The US EPA has recognized karst aquifer as one of the most vulnerable aquifer types. The Edwards Aquifer is a highly developed karst aquifer containing caves, sinkholes, sinking streams, rapid groundwater velocities and a wide diversity of aquifer fauna. In 1984, an outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis, caused by a water borne pathogen, occurred in the community of Braun Station near San Antonio affecting approximately 200 people. Learn about water quality from a public health prospective including a discussion on water quality sampling, water quality parameters, maximum contaminant limits, why and how we treat water, the importance of access to clean drinking water, and common threats and case histories.
(Monday, February 15 at 11:00 AM.)

SPIRITUALITY & WATER: Barbie Gorelick, Sylvia Maddox, and Narjis Pierre of the Tri-Faith Dialogue of San Antonio.
The Abrahamic Faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all view WATER in a most sacred way. Come hear members of the Core Team of the Tri-Faith Dialogue of San Antonio share information and thoughts on the role of WATER in their faith traditions. There will be plenty of time for questions, and of course, dialogue! (Monday, February 15 at 3:00 p.m.)

THEOLOGY & WATER: What’s in the sacred texts? – Dr. Norm Beck, Texas Lutheran University, moderator.
Panel Discussion
(Monday, 15 February at 7:00 pm)

URBAN STUDIES & WATER: San Antonio Running Dry! – Char Miller, W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis, Pomona College, California.
As the WATER Symposium’s featured speaker, Char will set contemporary San Antonio and Water in a wider context along with select readings from his just-released 2 companion volume books, Water in the 21st-Century West and River Basins of the American West published by Oregon State U Press. Book-signing to follow. (Sunday, February 14 at 6:30 p.m.)