November 2012 is packed with conferences in the region (and beyond) dealing with the Great Lakes, water, and environmental law. Here’s a quick guide to the highlights:
Twelfth Annual Great Lakes Water Conference, University of Toledo College of Law, November 2, 2012. This is the leading annual Great Lakes law conference, and the keynote speaker should be terrific. Tom Henry, the award-winning environmental writer for the Toledo Blade, has covered every Great Lakes issue (and has been getting quotes from other speakers at this annual conference) longer than most of us have been in the business. Now it will be his turn at the microphone, and I think he’ll have quite a bit to say. Panel topics include the new Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, mercury pollution, and Great Lakes compact implementation, all with superb speakers. Details in the conference brochure.
I’m bummed to miss the Toledo conference and Tom Henry’s keynote, but I’ll be Salt Lake City, Utah talking about… the Great Lakes. I’m spending the week at the University of Utah as the Wallace Stegner Center Young Scholar. On Wednesday October 31, I’ll be downtown giving a public talk for the Utah bar, The Law of the Great Lakes - Ninety Percent of North America’s Available Freshwater and Not a Drop for Utah. The next day, I’ll be speaking at the S.J. Quinney College of Law on Interstate Groundwater Law: Equitable Apportionment of Transboundary Resources and Implications for the Snake Valley Aquifer Dispute.
Another event far from the Great Lakes but very relevant is Securing Water Supplies for the Future: Risks, Challenges & Opportunities, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, November 9, 2012. Fantastic line up of speakers.
Back to Michigan, for the State Bar Environmental Law Section conference - Michigan’s Environment in 2012 and Beyond: Developments and Emerging Issues in the Management and Regulation of Air, Water, Energy, and Waste, Lansing, November 14, 2012. Professor Nick Schroeck, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center, is the featured luncheon speaker, giving a Great Lakes water law and policy update.
The Law and Policy of Hydraulic Fracturing: Addressing the Issues of the Natural Gas Boom, Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland), November 16, 2012. This symposium, sponsored by the Case Western Reserve Law Review, will feature a full day of legal experts discussing fracking. I expect lots of healthy debate, with speakers from diverse perspectives on this controversial issue. Registration and a live webcast are available online.
