TGWA STAFF
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The Texas Groundwater Association is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024-2025 TGWA Scholarship Foundation awards. This year, 34 deserving students were awarded scholarships totaling more than $25,000. 

These scholarships represent our continued commitment to supporting the next generation of leaders and professionals in our state. 

The TGWA Scholarship Foundation awards are made possible by generous donors and the spirited participation of buyers at our annual auction who bid on items and purchase raffle tickets.

This year's Scholarship Foundation auction will be hosted on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas, in conjunction with the 2025 TGWA Convention. 

To see the full list of awardees, visit tgwa.org/scholarship-foundation. 

TGWA is accepting nominations for annual awards that will be presented during the 2025 Convention in Lubbock. 

Each year the Texas Groundwater Association recognizes individual members who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence and have contributed to growth of the water well industry in Texas.

Complete this form to nominate an individual. Nominations are due by November 15, 2024. 

For a list of past awardees, visit tgwa.org/member-awards.  

On April 10, 2024, the Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR) released a notice on the continuing education requirements for renewing a water well drillers or pump installers license. Here is the notice from TDLR:

The one-year Water Well Driller and Pump Installer licenses will switch to a two-year license starting on March 1, 2025. Starting on March 1, 2025, licensees will be required to complete 8 hours of continuing education – including 1 hour of instruction covering the Water Well Driller/Pump Installer statutes and rules – during that two-year license term.

Licensees who currently hold a one-year license and will renew that license before February 28, 2025, must complete 4 hours of continuing education and will be issued a two-year license. The next time they renew their license, they will have to complete the 8 hours of continuing education.
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Interim Executive Director Brian E. Francis signed an executive memo allowing TDLR to continue to accept the four hours of continuing education for one-year licensees instead of requiring them to complete the 8 hours.

The TGWA Board of Directors and staff would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the Felder family as they mourn the passing of their beloved patriarch Raymond Felder.

Raymond Dean Felder, 82, of Angleton, Texas passed away peacefully in Houston, Texas, on February 13, 2024, with loved ones by his side. He was born on January 29, 1942, to Daniel Clarence and Alice Cornelia (Van Brook) Felder in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Angleton High School in 1960 and went on to study at Southwest Business College in Houston. He married Vera Elizabeth Reagan in 1961, and they made their home and raised their three children in Angleton for 31 years. 

Raymond was employed at Pfeiffer Electric and Dow Chemical and eventually obtained his master electrician license (IBEW 716) while drilling and servicing water wells on the weekends with his father. He obtained his master water well driller and pump installer’s license and took over the reins of the water well business around 1973. Over the years, Raymond was involved with and served on various boards and was a past president of the Texas Groundwater Association.

TGWA is excited to announce the hiring of Roberto “Bobby” A. Bazan Jr. as its new
Executive Director, effective January 3, 2023. Bobby is currently the Water Resource
Management Specialist at the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District,
where he has worked to manage a monitoring well network, analyze groundwater data,
and engage in outreach and education related to water wells and aquifers for nearly a
decade.
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Prior to his time at the groundwater district, Bobby worked as a hydrologist for the U.S.
Forest Service – Rocky Mountain Research Station. He is a graduate of Texas A&M
University, where he holds a B.S. in Agricultural Systems Management and an M.S. in
Water Management and Hydrological Science. He is also a graduate of the Texas
Water Foundation’s Texas Water Leaders Program and currently serves as an officer of
the Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts.