Speakers:
Keynotes:
The Honorable Bruce Babbitt
Bruce Babbitt served as United States Secretary of the Interior from 1993-2001,
governor of Arizona from 1978-1987, and attorney general of Arizona from
1975 to 1978. In 2006 he was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors
of World Wildlife Fund. He is the author of Cities in the Wilderness:
a New Vision of Land Use in America, published in 2005, a book that sheds
light on the federal role in land use and lays out a new vision for land
use in the United States. As governor of Arizona, Babbitt brought new
attention to the importance of managing natural resources, including
water resources. In his eight years as Secretary of the Interior, Babbitt
led the establishment of forest planning in the Pacific Northwest, pioneered
the use of habitat conservation plans for the protection of endangered
and threatened species, began restoration of the Florida Everglades,
helped President Clinton establish 22 national monuments, and re-emphasized
the natural role of fire in wild land forest ecosystems. Under his watch,
wolves were restored to Yellowstone National Park.
The Honorable Beverly Perdue
Beverly Perdue is the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. Throughout
Perdue's tenure as an elected official she has demonstrated tremendous
leadership and fiscal responsibility in writing state budgets, managing
state government and being a tireless advocate for quality jobs, public
schools, and health care. Lt. Governor Perdue has supported investments
to the thriving biotechnology sector in North Carolina-now the #3 ranked
biotech state in America. Prior to her election as Lt. Governor in 2000,
Perdue served in the North Carolina House of Representatives for two
terms and the North Carolina Senate for five terms. During Perdue's last
six years in the Senate, she served as one of the state's chief budget
writers-the first woman to hold this position. Under her leadership,
the General Assembly made teacher pay a priority along with Governor
Hunt's Excellent Schools Act and Smart Start. She was a key leader in
the fight for clean water and clean air and was the legislator who led
the debate that created the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
Panelists:
Chris Beacham
Chris Beacham, Assistant Secretary for Policy, Research & Strategic Planning
for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, is an economist, policy analyst
and planner with 25 years experience working with local, state and federal governments
and private companies. He has worked within non-profit organizations, universities
and for profit consulting firms and led the Research Office at the North Carolina
Rural Economic Development Center before joining the Department of Commerce in
2004.
Heather Cooley
Heather Cooley is a Research Associate with The Pacific Institute. Ms. Cooley's
research interests include water privatization, water conservation and efficiency,
desalination, and climate change. Ms. Cooley holds a B.S. in Molecular Environmental
Biology from UC Berkeley and an M.S. in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley.
Prior to joining the Pacific Institute, Ms. Cooley worked at Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory studying climate and land-use change and carbon cycling.
Barbara Goldberg
Barbara Goldberg has been a water and environmental attorney for over 25 years.
Most of her career was spent in Arizona developing and implementing water policies.
She was one of the original authors of the Arizona Groundwater Code, which
was groundbreaking in western water law and has been in effect since 1980. Barbara
was also involved in multi-state Colorado River water issues, water marketing,
stream adjudications, Indian water rights settlement agreements, water quality
regulations and water utility privatization. Barbara now lives in Raleigh and
works for RTI International in RTP.
Wink Hastings
Wink Hastings is a registered professional landscape architect with the
National Park Service, Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program
assigned to the Chesapeake Bay Program in Annapolis, Maryland. In his current
position, Mr. Hastings assists citizens, local governments and special
interest groups with watershed management and strategic conservation planning;
all of which contribute toward the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake
Bay. Mr. Hastings is a frequent instructor for the national training course
entitled, Strategic Conservation Planning Using a Green Infrastructure
Approach offered by The Conservation Fund as well as targeted workshops
designed for specific communities. Most recently, Mr. Hastings assisted
in the organization of the National Roundtable on Linking Lands for Nature
and People (sponsored by The Conservation Fund) and the Chesapeake Bay
Watershed Forum (sponsored by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation). Prior to joining the National Park Service
in 1988, Mr. Hastings held positions with the USDA Forest Service, Bureau
of Reclamation and Bureau of Land Management in various field locations
as well as Washington, D. C.
Jeff Hughes
Jeff Hughes has 20 years of experience assisting local communities address the
finance and policy challenges linked to the provision of environmental services.
Hughes currently serves as the director of the University of North Carolina's
Environmental Finance Center. His professional experience
includes direct water utility management, research, consulting, advising foreign
governments on water finance issues, university teaching and professional continuing
education. His specialties include rate setting and assessing the household
impacts of environmental service payments. He is the author of numerous reports,
guides, and articles that focus on rate setting. His recent research and policy
analysis activities include a national EPA supported project to examine how
utilities use data to make financially sustainable policy decisions; a 13 state
study of water system capital needs, funding, and household affordability;
and several state-wide water rate and financial capacity analyses. He
is also responsible for the design and delivery of the utility finance sessions
offered at the National Water and Wastewater Leadership Executive Education
Program. Hughes is involved in a range of state and national organizations
that focus on utility issues including holding a seat on the NC water operator's
certification board and serving as a standing expert witness to the EPA Environmental
Finance Advisory Board.
Mark Kieser
Mr. Kieser has been serving as the Acting Chair of the Environmental Trading
Network (ETN) since 2001. The ETN is a non-profit clearinghouse for water quality
trading program information. Mr. Kieser is also Senior Scientist and principal
of the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based firm of Kieser & Associates, LLC. He
has 22 years of environmental consulting experience in addition to three years
of academic research on water resource issues. Kieser has been involved in
water quality trading program and policy development for over a decade. He
led one of the five EPA supported water quality trading projects in the U.S.
in the late 1990s and served on the state of Michigan Water Quality Trading
Workgroup that developed the framework for Michigan's water quality trading
rules. Mr. Kieser is now leading a variety of trading projects in the U.S.
focused on: state-wide and watershed trading program development; agricultural
credit banking schemes; trading applications for urban storm water; electronic
water quality trading registries; and, restoration of natural flow regimes
in tributaries to the Great Lakes. Mr. Kieser holds a B.S. degree in
biological sciences from Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio) and an M.S.
degree from Michigan Technological University in biological sciences.
Sydney Miller
Sydney Miller is the Water Resources Program Manager at Triangle
J Council of Governments. Sydney and his
staff provide comprehensive planning and management services for water resources
to local governments, state and federal agencies, and nongovernmental organizations.
Some examples of their ongoing programs are the Upper Neuse and Upper Cape
Fear River Basin Associations, the Clean Water Education Partnership and
the Triangle Area Water Supply Monitoring Project. Recently completed projects
include the Little Lick Creek Local Watershed Plan, the Cape Fear River Basin
Hydrologic Model, and the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative Conservation
Plan. Sydney holds a BA degree from Cornell University and a Master of Regional
Planning degree from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC),
and is a Fellow of the Natural Resources Leadership Institute. Sydney previously
served at the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division
of Water Resources (DWR). Jordan Lake has been a consistent thread in Sydney's
water resources career. At UNC, DWR, and the Triangle J COG, he has been
heavily involved in managing Jordan Lake's allocation, long-range supply
planning, hydrologic modeling, and nutrient and drought management.
Linda Pearsall
Director, Natural Heritage Program, NC Office of Conservation and Community
Affairs.
Linda earned her degrees at West Virginia University and Ohio State. She
has been involved in land conservation throughout most of her 25 year
career which includes work in West Virginia, Tennessee, Hawaii, and
North Carolina. To supplement expertise in the selection and design
of nature preserves, Linda has experience with fund raising and policy
development. While at NC Natural Heritage, Linda established
a Freshwater Conservation Team and begun development of a statewide
conservation plan. In addition to the NC Natural Heritage Program,
the Office of Planning and Conservation includes the Albermarle Pamlico
National Estaury Program, the Conservation Tax Credit and Grant Fund
Programs, and the Stewardship Program.
Curtis Richardson
Curtis J. Richardson is Professor of Resource Ecology, Nicholas School of the
Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University. Dr. Richardson earned his
degrees from the State University of New York and the University of Tennessee.
His research interests in applied ecology are centered on long-term ecosystem
response to large-scale perturbations such as acid rain, toxic materials, trace
metals, flooding or nutrient additions. His main interests are in phosphorus
nutrient dynamics in wetlands, the effects of environmental stress on plant
metabolism and growth response, and wetland restoration. As Director of the
Wetland Center since its inception in 1989, Dr. Richardson has conducted a
$12 million research effort on the ecological basis for a phosphorus threshold
in the Everglades and sustaining ecosystem structure and function. Since 2003,
he has been a scientific advisor to the USAID-sponsored project to restore
the marshlands in southern Iraq. He has been listed in Who’s Who in Science
annually since 1989 and was elected President of the Society of Wetland Scientists
in 1987-88. He has served on countless editorial review committees for many
peer-reviewed scientific journals. In 2006, he received the National Wetlands
Award from the Environmental Law Institute. Dr. Richardson is a Fellow of the
Society of Wetland Scientists, the Soil Science Society of America, and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Len Shabman
After three decades on the faculty at Virginia Tech, Len Shabman joined
Resources for the Future, Washington DC, in 2002 as a resident scholar.
His special interest is in expanding the contributions of economic analysis
to the formation of water and related land resource policy. Shabman's present
research is focused on development of evaluation proto¬cols for large-scale
ecosystem restoration projects, with special focuse on the Everglades and
Coastal Louisiana. His research also includes permitting under Section
404 of the Clean Water Act, integrating water quality standard setting
with the Total Maximum Daily Load program, and creation of market-based
incentives for wa¬ter quality management. He currently serves as a
member of the National Re¬search Council's Water Science and Technology
Board and is the Arthur Maass-Gilbert White Scholar at the Institute for
Water Resources at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Avner Vengosh
Avner Vengosh is Associate Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the
Nicholas School of Environment and Earth Sciences and the head of the Laboratory
for Environmental Analysis of RadioNuclides (LEARN) at Duke University.
Vengosh completed his PhD in Environmental Geochemistry in 1990 at the
Australian National University. In 2005, Vengosh joined Duke University.
Before that, Vengosh taught geochemistry and isotope hydrology at Ben Gurion
University in Israel. Vengosh’s research aims to link environmental
geochemistry, advanced isotope geochemistry, and applied hydrology in order
to understand the sources and mechanisms of water contamination. Current
research includes the study the occurrence of naturally occurring contaminants
(radium, radon, arsenic) in groundwater from North Carolina, salinization
and natural radionuclide distribution in water resources in the Middle
East. Research on groundwater resources in North Carolina and the Middle
East has direct implications for water management and policy. Vengosh has
served as an Associate Editor of the journals Water Resources Research and Applied
Geochemistry.
Richard Whisnant
Richard Whisnant is Associate Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC-Chapel
Hill School of Government, and is the faculty adviser and past director of
the UNC Environmental Finance Center (www.efc.unc.edu).
He teaches environmental and administrative law as well as public policy analysis.
He holds degrees from Harvard University (J.D. cum laude and Masters
in Public Policy) and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(B.A. in philosophy with highest honors). From 1993 to 1998, he was General
Counsel to the N.C. Dept. of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. He
has practiced environmental law in the private sector as well as on behalf
of public interest environmental law firms. He served as law clerk to the Hon.
Sam J. Ervin, III, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and
as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is past President of the Conservation
Trust of North Carolina, Inc. Richard’s publications include Rule Making
in North Carolina (2005), Cleanup Law of North Carolina (2003) and Local Government
for Environmental Policymakers (2002), as well as North Carolina’s model
Phase II and universal stormwater ordinances.
Moderators:
Dave Moreau
Dave Moreau is currently a Professor in the Department of City and Regional
Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, serves as Chairman
of the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission, a Committee
Member of the New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection Projects, and as
the Director of the Water Resources Research Institute. His publications
include work in systems analysis, planning and management of urban water
systems, management of water supplies during droughts, and planning and
evaluation of watershed management programs. He has chaired the board of
a local water and sewer authority, worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, chaired several state-level environmental committees and commissions,
and served on national advisory committees. Dr. Moreau has also served
as the Department of City and Regional Planning chair, has been an associate
dean of the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, and served as WRRI director
from 1983 to 1995.
Bill Holman
Bill Holman is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Nicholas Institute. He has
extensive experience in legislative and administrative policy making at
the state level. He worked as Executive Director of the NC Clean Water
Management Trust Fund – a $100 million per year clean water incentives
program -- from 2001 – 2006. He served as Governor Jim Hunt’s
Secretary of the Department of Environment & Natural Resources from
1999 – 2000 and as an Assistant Secretary from 1998 – 1999.
Holman lobbied the NC General Assembly on behalf of the Conservation Council
of NC, NC Chapter of the Sierra Club, NC Chapter of the American Planning
Association, NC Public Transportation Association and others from 1979 – 1997.
Holman lives in Raleigh with his wife Stephanie Bass. He graduated magna
cum laude with a BS in biology from NC State University in 1978. He completed
hiking the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia in 1975.
Jonathan Howes
Jonathan Howes is an adjunct professor of public policy at University of
North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the Chairman of the North Carolina Parks
and Recreation Trust Fund Authority. Howes served as the Secretary of the
North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources
from 1993-1997, under Governor James Hunt. While Secretary he led the state's
efforts to improve its parks, launched a comprehensive program of environmental
education, and secured appropriations for the North Carolina Museum of
Natural Sciences and expansion of the state's aquaria on the coast. From
1970 to 1992, Howes worked for the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, where he served as Director of the Center for Urban and Regional
Studies and as a professor in city and regional planning. Before 1970,
Howes was Director of the Urban Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and held
top policy positions in the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
and the Housing and Home Finance Agency. He has also served as Mayor of
Chapel Hill, President of the NC League of Municipalities, Chairman of
the Triangle J Council of Governments and President of the National Association
of Regional Councils. Howes is a UNC-Chapel Hill Carolina Speaker on the
topic of “North Carolina’s Environment: Can We Sustain It?”
Jim Salzman
Jim Salzman holds joint appointments as a Professor of Law and as the Nicholas
Institute Professor of Environmental Policy at Duke University. An Honors
graduate of Yale College (History) and Harvard University (J.D. and M.Sc.
in Engineering), prior to academia he worked in Paris in the Environment
Directorate of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) and in London as the European Environmental Manager for Johnson
Wax. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he has lectured
on environmental policy in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.
He has served as a visiting professor at Stanford, Harvard, Yale, and Macquarie
University in Australia. He has written extensively on the legal and institutional
issues involved in creating markets for ecosystem services, including co-authored
pieces with Gretchen Daily, Paul Ehrlich, Geoff Heal and Barton Thompson,
jr. From 1998-2000 he was the Principal Investigator on an EPA STAR grant
exploring the statutory authority for EPA to conserve ecosystem services
and EPA’s practices on the ground. From 2002-2003, he served as a
Fulbright Senior Scholar in Australia, working with the Sydney Catchment
Authority to develop an ecosystem services market for water purification.
He has been actively recently in helping create the first global marketplace
for ecosystem services, on the web at <www.ecosystemmarketplace.com>.