A Bermudian researcher teaching in Texas may no longer be by the ocean, but she is still focusing on water.

Joni Charles, a professor at Texas State University, has spent years researching how groundwater is regulated and protected.

“I have always been interested in environmental economics,” she said. “Water is a big topic all over now, but especially in Texas because it’s a fast-growing state and some cities are ranked among the fastest growing in the US.

“Central Texas is one of those areas. They are also environmentally conscious. We have a research institute on our campus, so I have been able to collaborate on several projects.”

“Growing up around the ocean, I love being around the water. It’s calming and soothing. I always knew we had a very unique water catchment system, but I was never exposed to anything more than the fact it was unique. My dissertation was in natural resources, and that always interested me. Not just water, but how conservation and sustainability is viewed.”

Ms Charles said her research had taken a broad approach to the subject, looking closely at what the public think about groundwater, their relationship with regulatory authorities and challenges faced by those authorities.

“In Texas we have two management regimes,” she explained. “We have a judicially enforced system, which basically says if you drill into water below your property, you have a right to it.

“Then, over the years, a regulatory aspect came in where the state said they needed some kind of oversight, and they have a lot of local regulatory oversight agencies.

“Groundwater is locally managed, and there is a lot of it, it just needs to be managed well.”

While the circumstances in Bermuda are somewhat different, she said: “The similarities are that you still need to engage the public. You need to have some structured way of approaching conservation of water and bringing people into that effort.

“The goals in Texas are to conserve, preserve and protect. I think that it needs to go beyond watch how much you flush and watch how long your showers are. That is an important aspect of it, but preserving the quality of the water is also key.

“I know there is some attention paid to that here in terms of cleaning water tanks, but what we do in the States is watch things like how people change their oil on their driveway, or picking up after your dog. These types of things preserve quality.”