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Upcoming Conference on Future of Water in North Carolina

Duke experts among participants to discuss practical measures for ensuring adequate supplies of safe, clean water

As North Carolina's population grows in coming decades, will the state continue to have enough safe, clean water to meet its needs?

 

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and more than 200 representatives from government, industry and environmental organizations will examine the issue at "The Future of Water in North Carolina: Strategies for Sustaining Abundant and Clean Water," a March 1 conference sponsored by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University.

 

The daylong conference will be held at the McKimmon Center at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

 

Experts from Duke, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and environmental agencies will lead conference participants in panel discussions to identify practical measures that can be taken now to ensure adequate supplies of safe, clean water.

 

Perdue will discuss state perspectives on the issue at 9:10 a.m. Babbitt will present the conference keynote lunch address at 1 p.m.

 

"Clean and safe water is vital to economic, environmental and human health, but it is undervalued and under pressure," said conference co-organizer Bill Holman, senior visiting fellow at the Nicholas Institute. "A main objective of this conference is to begin a conversation about how to accommodate a projected 4 million additional residents in North Carolina while protecting water resources."

 

Increasing protection of source waters, wetlands and other valuable water resources; improving efficiency of water use; revising regulatory and pricing options; and renovating aging water-treatment facilities are among the possible strategies conference participants will discuss, Holman said.

 

Click here for more information, including a list of panelists, panel topics and times, and a working paper presenting an overview of the issue.