Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources

Water Quality & Wetlands Committee

2007-2008 Committee Chair:
John Milner
[jmilner@brunini.com]

Save the Date!

2008 Eastern Water Resources Conference: Eastern Water Law – A Climate of Change
May 1-2, 2008
Omni Charlotte Hotel
Charlotte, NC

The Eastern Water Resources Conference will be of interest to anyone involved in water issues in the eastern United States, including lawyers, consultants, developers, businesses utilizing large quantities of waters, public utilities, government policy makers and planners, tribal governments and academics. There will be many opportunities to meet and talk with the speakers and fellow attendees interested in eastern water rights issues. (more)

Message from the Chair

Thank you for the interest you have shown in water quality and wetlands issues by reviewing this message. The Water Quality and Wetlands (WQ&W) Committee keeps up to date on issues involving the Clean Water Act and other laws related to water pollution and wetlands, as well as relevant regulations, policies and legal decisions.

This year the Committee will continue to be a national forum on cutting edge issues affecting water quality and wetlands. We will continue to bring to your attention new and developing trends in this area of environmental law by sponsoring educational programs and national CLEs, and through the publication of timely news articles, and the Year In Review. The WQ&W Committee is involved in several major conferences during the course of any calendar year, summarized here:

Spring (usually March), Annual Keystone Conference, includes at least one panel on water pollution issues. Over recent years these have involved updates on Clean Water Act jurisdiction, innovative programs like water quality trading and other hot topics.
Spring (usually May), Annual Wetlands Law & Regulation, a two-day conference concentrating on wetlands issues, co-sponsored with ALI-ABA and the Environmental Law Institute.
Fall (September or October), SEER Fall Meeting, includes at least one panel on water pollution or wetlands.
Fall (October or November), Annual Clean Water Act Course, a two-day conference covering general Clean Water Act programs, co-sponsored with ALI-ABA and the Environmental Law Institute.

We welcome the ideas of members regarding these national programs. The WQ&W Committee also hosts quick teleconferences (QT) to bring members information on new issues. We hope you found value in our February 7th QT on the Nuts and Bolts of Conducting a Jurisdictional Determination using the Rapanos Guidance: What is the Impact on YourPractice?; see above for more details.

We encourage committee members to suggest topics for quick teleconferences or brown bag lunch sessions. The WQ&W participates with other SEER publications and regularly issues a newsletter on recent developments. Our committee seeks input from its members on the many significant water quality issues arising nationally, regionally, and locally - those innovations, cases and decisions that can assist your fellow practitioners. Please join us with a short write up of an interesting item for the next newsletter.

We see several key emergent legal and policy issues this year, including the interpretations of the USEPA and the Corps of Engineers post-Rapanos, stormwater enforcement and permitting trends,TMDL developments , the future of mixing zones, whole effluent toxicity program guidance, watershed quality (pollutant) trading, enforcement trends, water transfer litigation and proposed rule and Clean Water Restoration Act legislation.

We invite all Committee members to become involved in Committee and Section activities – there are multiple ways to do so and fit the time you can volunteer to advance the state of the practice. The Committee is always looking for volunteers to contribute articles for our newsletter. Sign up for our next edition by contacting Newsletter Editor Steve Kelton. If you are interested in sponsoring a brownbag lunch or other innovative type of forum on a timely topic, contact a Program Co-Vice Chair (look to the right, and click) who will be happy to explore creative and timely ideas for future programming. For those of you interested in participating in the Public Service Project in the public schools, contact a Public Service Co-Vice Chair. Finally, if, after reading this newsletter edition, you’d like to join the Committee for the first time, we’d be delighted to invite you aboard and urge you to contact a Membership Co-Vice Chair.

Our thanks as well to all who contributed to our year-end review, edited by Wilson S. Buntin, and subject to release shortly.

We look forward to working with you on a regular basis.