Ari M. Michelsen
President, American Water Resources Association
AgriLife Research Center at El Paso
Texas A&M University System, El Paso, TX

Martha B. Corrozi Narvaez
Conference General Co-Chair
University of Delaware, Water Resources Agency, Newark, DE

Kathleen P. Hale
Conference General Co-Chair
New Jersey Water Supply Authority, Somerville, NJ

Jim Eisenhardt
Conference Technical Program Chair
Johnson Mirmiran and Thompson, Newark, DE

Michael Richter
Water Resources Advocate and
former Goal Tender for the New York Rangers
New York, NY

Panel Moderator:  Cheryl Ulrich
Weston Solutions, Atlantic Beach, FL

Panel Participants
Carol R. Collier, Delaware River Basin Commission, West Trenton, NJ
Tony Willardson, Western States Water Council, Midvale, UT
Dennis Barnett, Tetra Tech, Inc., Atlanta, GA

 
Water is the most critical and strategic resource on earth, yet we have no US national policy for water management. What is needed to develop a water vision and strategy that can provide an overarching direction for water management and be accepted by both eastern and western states?  The panel will lay out the problems, concerns and potential paths forward. Speaker time will be limited to allow dialogue with each other and the audience.

Panel Moderator:  Robert Ryan
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

Panel Participants
Richard S. Dovey, President, Atlantic County Utilities Authority, Atlantic City, NJ
Paul Kohl, Manager of Research and Energy, Philadelphia Water Department, Philadelphia, PA
Ben A. LePage, Senior Environmental and Remediation Project Manager,
PECO Energy Company, Philadelphia, PA
Dennis Palmer, Executive Director and Chief Engineer, Landis Sewerage Authority, Vineland, NJ

This panel discussion, sponsored by the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Section of AWRA, will focus on how water and wastewater utilities are leading the way toward sustainability through conservation and alternative energy sources. 

Water and wastewater management are highly energy intensive processes.  According to the Electric Power Research Institute, water and wastewater treatment account for nearly 4% of the total U.S. electricity demand and electrical use makes up the majority of the marginal cost of treating and distributing potable water.  Reducing energy costs can result in savings to rate payers as well as reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, moving us further toward sustainability.  This panel discussion session will focus on process changes that have been undertaken by utilities in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area to reduce energy needs and on ways in which utilities have sustainably generated energy on-site using traditional alternative energy sources such as solar and wind as well as energy sources that may be unique to the industry such as biogas generation from digesters.  The panel will also discuss how these actions can be transferred to other sites.   

Panel Moderator:  John Wells
Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, St. Paul, MN

Panel Participants 
Sally Claggett, Chesapeake Bay Program Coordinator, USDA Forest Service, Annapolis, MD
R. John Dawes, Executive Director, Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, Alexandria PA
Daniel Van Abs, Senior Director of Planning and Science, New Jersey Highlands Council, Chester, NJ
Clinton S. Willson, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

In January 2010, the AWRA Board adopted a position statement recommending that water resources management goals, policies and rules be organized around the concept of place, where “place” means basins, watersheds or aquifer systems. The idea is that policymakers should “encourage policies and collaborations that promote hydrologic system-based planning and management.” The panel will discuss experiences with the management of watersheds and aquifers across the nation to illustrate the essential nature of the hydrologic approach and to identify the differences that region, agency, scale and scope may make.

This panel is sponsored by the Policy Technical Committee and represents one of the two “Position Statements” adopted in January 2010 by the AWRA Board of Directors on water issues of public policy significance.

Moderator:  J. Bailey Smith
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District (CENAP-PL-PC), Philadelphia, PA

Panel Participants
Scott Douglas, State of New Jersey, New Jersey Department of Transportation, Trenton, NJ
Danielle Kreeger, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Wilmington, DE
Bob Tudor - Delaware River Basin Commission, Trenton, NJ

This panel discussion will explore the opportunities and challenges associated with Regional Sediment Management Planning/Implementation for the Delaware Estuary/Basin. The US ACE has been granted funding to develop a Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan for the Delaware Estuary/Basin. Regional Sediment Management is a federal initiative that is gaining momentum nationally. Regional Sediment Management approaches/plans have been initiated across the country, in particular in the coastal areas. Examples include Coastal California, the Columbia River, and more locally the New York/New Jersey Harbor. RSM is a tool being applied in a variety of manners. Regional Sediment Management is an initiative that considers sediment as a resource in our watersheds/rivers/streams/wetlands. Plans to manage sediment in our basin (from source to outlet) are prepared so that policy makers and funding agents can collaborate to meet multiple objectives within a watershed. Recommendations from the plan are then implemented to achieve the broader goals. RSM planning requires all of the disciplines that AWRA members bring to the organization. RSM inherently requires multi-discipline technical input, programmatic input, regulatory input, and creative/collaborative partnerships to achieve goals. The US Army Corps of Engineers has established a RSM Workgroup comprised of several federal agencies, each of the states within the basin (DE, PA, NJ), non-profits, major municipalities, and commercial interests. The RSM Workgroup has conducted a number of technical sessions to understand the dynamics, needs, and opportunities of the estuary/basin and developed an outline for the plan. The RSM Workgroup has been charged with preparing a plan with recommendations for implementation by summer/fall 2011. The purpose of the panel session is to generate discussion in this national forum of multi-disciplined experts on potential challenges and opportunities in preparing and ultimately implementing this plan in the Delaware Estuary/Basin. The panelists will provide a brief overview of the RSM process and the Delaware Estuary/Basin system followed by a series of challenge questions for the group and audience to consider in achieving the panel's goals. 
 

Moderator:  Brenda O. Bateman
Oregon Water Resources Department, Salem, OR

Panel Participants
Mark Bateman, Director of Research, IW Financial
Dave Stangis, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, Campbell’s Soup Co.
Julie Fox Gorte, Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing, Pax World

Sustainability investing is an umbrella term that includes values-based and socially responsible investment (SRI).  Sustainability investors evaluate how companies behave as global citizens, what they produce, and how they produce, package, transport and market products.  Increasingly, water is part of this evaluation—as an input, a commodity, a service, and sometimes a waste stream.  This panel will assess the tools and methods that investors use to reward and penalize publicly-traded companies whose business has some bearing on the world of water.

Dr. Brenda Bateman, who will moderate the panel, chairs AWRA’s Policy Technical Committee and serves as Senior Policy Coordinator for Oregon’s Water Resources Department.  She has worked in the SRI industry assessing renewable energy, human rights, and labor conditions.

Dr. Julie Gorte is Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Pax World, a recognized leader in the field of sustainable investing.  Pax World launched the first Socially Responsible Investment mutual fund, “The Pax World Balanced Fund” in 1971, and integrates environmental, social, and governance factors into its investment analysis and decision-making.

Dave Stangis is Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at the Campbell Soup Co, the world's largest soup manufacturer, and owner of brands such as Pepperidge Farm, V8, Pace, Prego and Swanson.  He will discuss his interactions with investors over the years on the topic of water, noting the tactics that investors use to further their agendas on water, including performance measurement and information disclosure.  Previously, Mr. Stangis also served in a similar role at Intel Corp.

Mark Bateman is the Director of Research for IW Financial (IWF), an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research firm, providing investors with data about 3,000 publicly traded U.S. companies across a broad spectrum of issues.  In 2009, Mr. Bateman co-authored the study The Road Not Yet Taken:  the State of U.S. Corporate Environmental Policy and Management.  He will discuss the current state of water-related information disclosure and policies among U.S. companies and will describe how investors are incorporating water issues into their decision-making.
 

Moderator:  Kenneth Najjar
Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), West Trenton, NJ

Panel Participants
Chuck Barcsz, National Park Service, Division Chief, Wild & Scenic Rivers, Northeast Region
Kenneth Najjar, DRBC, Planning and IT Branch Manager
Robert Limbeck, DRBC, Watershed Scientist
Chad Pindar, DRBC, Project Review Section Supervisor
 Feng Shi, DRBC, Water Resources Modeler

Antidegradation of the nation's surface waters is an element of the Clean Water Act that requires an approved policy and implementation procedure as one of three major components of a Water Quality Standards program. Yet implementation of antidegradation is lagging behind other programs. This panel will explore antidegradation policy and provide a case study of implementation in the Delaware River Basin (DRB). Antidegradation of rivers possessing high water quality is among the top goals of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers program. The National Park Service (NPS) leads the effort to protect and manage surface waters designated under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Among the rivers designated are three reaches of the Delaware River between Hancock, NY and Trenton, NJ. The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is an interstate agency that manages the water resources of the DRB, which provides water to 16 million people and is home to 8 million residents. DRBC established an antidegradation program known as Special Protection Waters (SPW) to maintain high existing water quality (EWQ) and healthy watersheds in the entire non-tidal Delaware River from Hancock to Trenton. To implement the program DRBC adopted regulations in the 1990s to control point and non-point source pollutant loadings to SPW. In order to manage the program a water quality monitoring and assessment program using a control-point approach was developed. Site-specific quantitative water quality targets based on EWQ have been assigned to control points in the river and at tributary confluences. Implementation of the SPW program includes analysis of new or expanding discharges against targets to assure that EWQ is maintained in the river. Due to the increasing number of applications in the SPW watershed, review of projects has shifted from single project analyses to cumulative impact analyses using models that consider all watershed influences on water quality. 

SESSION 37:  Wetlands/Lakes - Management and Restoration II

Panel Moderator:  Carol R. Collier
Executive Director, Delaware River Basin Commission, West Trenton, NJ

Panel Participants
Aaron Lien, Pinchot Institute for Conservation, Washington, DC
Sally Corrigan, Director of the Office of Community Planning, Milford, PA
Sean McGuinness, Superintendent of the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, Beach Lake, PA
Eric Olsen, The Nature Conservancy, Skylands Program Manager and
 Chair of the Common Waters Initiative, Chester, NJ

In 1600 BC, Emperor Yu of China stated: "to protect your rivers, protect your mountains." This is still true today, and there are many factors threatening the headwater mountains of the Delaware River. The Delaware Basin supplies water to over 15 million people including the City of Philadelphia.  The integrity of the water supply is threatened by changes in the headwaters due to increasing residential and commercial development and natural gas well drilling. The panel members, who each have an important role to play in the protection of the headwaters, will discuss their innovative collaborative process that brings together community leaders from three different states, educates the public, and prioritizes lands to be preserved and areas for restoration. There will be time for discussion.

Panel Moderator:  Carol R. Collier
Executive Director, Delaware River Basin Commission, West Trenton, NJ

Panel Participants
James Richenderfer, Director, Technical Programs, Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC)
Joseph K. Hoffman, Executive Director, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River, Rockville, Maryland
Cherie Schultz, Director of CO-OP Operations, Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin Commission
Brigadier General Peter A. "Duke" DeLuca, Commander, USACE North Atlantic Division (NAD) Pennsylvania Commissioner
Lori Mohr, Pennsyvania Department of Environmental Protection - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

The Mid-Atlantic Region has three interstate/federal river basin commissions covering portions of seven states. Their mission is to manage the water resources of their respective basins, without regard to political boundaries. Panel members- commissioners and staff of the three agencies - will discuss the increasingly complex issues of water supply allocation including human use and ecological flows, impact of natural gas well drilling and climate change, changing relationships with state regulatory programs, and moving toward integrated water resources management.  Formal comments will be kept to a minimum to encourage open dialogue. 

Closing remarks, Q&A

Panel Moderator:  Kenneth Najjar
Delaware River Basin Commission, West Trenton, NJ

Panel Participants
Kenneth Najjar, Planning and IT Branch Manager, Delaware River Basin Commission
Andrew Chastain-Howley, Regional Director, Miya Water
George Kunkel, Assistant Chief, Water conveyance, Philadelphia Water Department
David Sayers, IT and Water Use Section Supervisor, Delaware River Basin Commission

Water systems lose a staggering six billion gallons of water per day nationally, enough water to supply the needs of the ten largest cities in the US! While water efficiency measures by end users have been shown to reduce system demands, these efforts are often offset by growing system losses due to aging water distribution infrastructure. The key to addressing this problem is accountability for treated water as it moves from source to customer. This panel session will define the role that water loss reduction can play in water management. The panel will present the current state of water loss practices and show how new methods can help tackle water system losses and save millions of dollars in lost revenue. The session will focus on the new water loss control approach developed by the International Water Association (IWA) and American Water Works Association (AWWA) for performing distribution system water audits and system upgrades. Significant developments that have occurred in the area of water accountability in recent years include the release of Free AWWA Water Audit Software, which will be presented and demonstrated. The Philadelphia Water Department's successful experience implementing the IWA/ AWWA water audit methodology will be profiled. Philadelphia, which created the first public water supply in 1801, is again leading the industry by being the first utility in the US to employ the new methodology in 2000. The panel will conclude with an overview of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) regulatory changes in the area of water loss management. These regulations were passed in 2009 and come into full effect in 2012. The DRBC is one of only a handful of regulatory agencies in the US that has embraced the new water loss control approach in recognition of the benefits that controlling water losses can play in water resources management.

Panel Moderator - Martha Corrozi Narvaez
University of Delaware, Institute for Public Administration, Water Resources Agency, Newark, DE

Panel Participants
Ed A. Theriot, Louis Berger Group, New Orleans, LA
Danielle Kreeger, Partnership for the Delware Estuary, Wilmington, DE
Jamie Shallenberger, Princeton Hydro, Ringoes, NJ
Speaker #4

In recent months the nexus between water and energy has been profiled in various media outlets, in particular as it relates to oil and natural gas and created significant discussion on water policy and energy policy and the connections between them.  Examples include our traditional source of energy (oil) and the effects of the BP oil spill along the Gulf Coast waters and desires to tap alternative fuels such as natural gas (the Marcellus Shale fields) and the potential impacts to water quality resulting from this exploration in the Northeast United States.  Panelists will provide view points on the opportunities and challenges that these two examples present for affecting water and energy policy and their nexus as the national debate on energy policy and alternative approaches continues.

Wissahickon Creek Infiltration Basin and Riparian Corridor
Yong-Woo Lee, Mark R. Flaherty

Stream Restoration Feasibility and Design at Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, PA
Ellen McClure, Rick Howley, Gary Emmanuel