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Event:

Villanova Environmental Law Journal Symposium

Topic:

Water Law Reform in Pennsylvania: Plans, Goals and Predictions

Date:

November 13, 2004 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.*

* Registration begins and a continental breakfast will be served at 8:15, with lunch to follow the Symposium at 12:00 p.m.

Location:

Villanova University School of Law
299 North Spring Mill Road
Villanova, Pennsylvania 19087

Description:

Pennsylvania has never had a water resources planning program that involves all stakeholders in an effort to identify current water use and availability as well as future need. The goal of the Act is to prepare and update a comprehensive State Water Plan. The Act establishes a water resources planning program in the Department of Environmental Protection, involving stakeholders at both the regional and statewide level. The State Water Plan should provide information on current water availability and use, as well as future use and demand levels. The Act provides for the registration of major water withdrawals exceeding 10,000 gallons per day in order to gather the data necessary to assess current water demands. The Plan also seeks to identify as critical water planning areas, and develop critical area resource plans for areas where water demand is expected to exceed the available supply.

The planning process utilizes committees of stakeholders in each of the six major river basin regions - (1) the Ohio River watershed, (2) the Lake Erie and Genesee River watershed, (3) the Potomac River watershed, (4) the Juniata River and Lower Susquehanna River watersheds, and the Gunpowder, Northeast and Elk Creek Watersheds, (5) West Branch Susquehanna River subbasin and the upper Susquehanna, middle susquehanna and Chemung subbasins, and (6) the Delaware River watershed. Committees from each region will also work with a Statewide Water Resources Committee to create both regional plans and a State Water Plan.

The speakers will discuss the current state of, and issues related to water law in Pennsylvania, and discuss what is being done in response: namely, the recent passage of a planning statute, the Water Resources Planning Act. The speakers will discuss the planning process and comment on the objectives and likely impact of the planning statute.

Speakers:

Invited Speaker:
Edward G. Rendell
Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Professor Joseph W. Dellapenna
Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law
Villanova, Pennsylvania

Joseph W. Dellapenna is Professor of Law at Villanova University, in Villanova, Pennsylvania. He has taught at law schools in the United States and abroad for 36 years. He has practiced, taught, and written about managing the water environment, both in the United States and internationally, for this entire period. He teaches a course on Managing the Water Environment, as well as courses on Admiralty, Chinese Law, Comparative Law, and Transnational Litigation. He has also taught Contracts, Environmental Law, International Trade Law, Law of the Sea, Natural Resources Law, Ocean and Coastal Management Law, and Public International Law.

Professor Dellapenna is Director of the Model Water Code Project of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Rapporteur of the Water Resources Committee of the International Law Association. As Director of the Model Water Code Project, he has led in the drafting of the Appropriative Rights Model Water Code and the Regulated Riparian Model Water Code, and supervised the preparation of Model Agreements for Sharing and Use of Transboundary Waters and Model Water Regulations for Administration and Trading in Humid Areas. As Rapporteur, he is led the revision of the Helsinki Rules, the generally recognized summary of the customary international law of transboundary waters, which resulted in the International Law Association’s approval in August 2004 of the Berlin Rules to replace the Helsinki Rules. He has served as a consultant on water management problems to the Directory-General of Natural Resources (Direcçao-Geral dos Recursos Naturals) in Portugal and has consulted in the United States and abroad on problems of water management. He contributed nearly the whole of volumes 1 and 3, part of volumes 2 and 6, and the annual supplements for volume 5, of the treatise WATERS AND WATER RIGHTS, the standard reference on water law in the United States.

Professor Dellapenna has served as a consultant to governments on three continents regarding the reform of water law. He represented the Connecticut Water Works Association in the case of City of Waterbury v. Town of Washington, 260 Conn. 506, 802 A.2d 1102 (2002), successfully persuading the Connecticut Supreme Court to adopt a significant reinterpretation of Connecticut water law. His work on transnational litigation has been cited several times by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Professor Dellapenna received a B.B.A. with Distinction from the University of Michigan in 1965, a J.D. cum laude from the Detroit College of Law in 1968, an LL.M. in Public International and Comparative Law from the George Washington University in 1969, and an LL.M. (Environmental Law) from Columbia University in 1974. He has been a member of the faculty of the University of Cincinnati and of Willamette University. He has been a Fulbright Senior Professor in the Republic of China, the People’s Republic of China, and Portugal. He is the only person to have held Fulbright lectureships on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

R. Timothy Weston
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Mr. Weston is a partner in the Harrisburg office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart llp, with a practice focusing in environmental counseling and litigation, administrative and legislative issues. A 1972 cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School, Mr. Weston served for eight years as Assistant Attorney General in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, providing counsel for a wide range of natural resource and environmental protection programs, including the Pennsylvania State Water Plan and water resource management activities. From 1979 to 1987, Mr. Weston served as Associate Deputy Secretary for Resources Management in the Department of Environmental Resources, responsible for overseeing the water resources, engineering, and project development programs of the Commonwealth. During his tenure with DER, Mr. Weston was actively involved in the development, drafting and subsequent negotiation of major environmental legislation, including the Pennsylvania Dam Safety and Encroachments Act, Flood Plain Management Act, Storm Water Management Act, and Water Facilities Loan Board enabling legislation. From 1980-87, Mr. Weston was Pennsylvania's Commissioner on the Delaware, Susquehanna and Ohio River Basin Commissions, serving various terms as Chair of both DRBC and SRBC. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the National Counsel on Water Policy, the association of state water resource administrators and managers.

Since entering private practice, Mr. Weston has continued active involvement in a wide range of water related matters. Among other efforts, he served as counsel to the “water resources coalition” - an affiliation of the Pennsylvania Chamber, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, Pa. Association of Conservation District Directors, and other interests - in the development, drafting and advocacy of the Water Resources Planning Act of 2002. He currently serves as co-chair of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry’s Water Work Group and a member of the Chamber’s Environmental Committee. On the national level, he was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers task group that developed the model eastern states water rights code, and a reviewer for the forthcoming ASCE model practices guidance on Transboundary Sharing of Water in Times of Water Scarcity. Mr. Weston has represented both private clients and government agencies in a number of precedent setting water law cases.

A nationally recognized practitioner in the field of water law and natural resources management, Mr. Weston was honored with a listing in Best Lawyers in America. He has published various articles in the field, including R.T. Weston & J.R. Burcat, Legal Aspects of Pennsylvania Water Management, in Water Resources in Pennsylvania: Availability, Quality and Management (S.K. Majumdar, E.W. Miller, R.R. Parizek, eds.), Pa. Academy of Science Press (1990); R.T. Weston, Gone with the Water - Drainage Rights and Storm Water Management in Pennsylvania, 22 Villanova Law Review 901-982 (1977); R.T. Weston and M. Gang, Law of Ground Water in Pennsylvania, 80 Dickinson Law Review 11-63 (1976); R.T. Weston and J.R. Gray, Legal Control of Consumptive Water Use in Pennsylvania Power Plants, 80 Dickinson Law Review 353-409 (1976); R.T. Weston, Public Rights in Pennsylvania Waters, 49 Temple Law Quarterly 515-557 (1976).

Kenneth J. Warren
Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mr. Warren is a partner in Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen LLP's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania office and serves as Chair of its Environmental Practice Group. He is the Immediate Past Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. He has handled numerous environmental cases including enforcement actions, administrative appeals, Superfund cases, citizen suits, toxic torts and commercial disputes in courts and tribunals across the county, and has also represented industrial, commercial and real estate businesses in complex environmental regulatory and transactional matters. His practice includes representing clients on water law issues and he serves as outside general counsel to the Delaware River Basin Commission, a federal-interstate agency managing the water resources in the Delaware River Basin. He is listed for environmental law. in the Best Lawyers in America, International Who's Who of Environmental Lawyers and Chambers USA America's Leading Lawyers for Business. He is an industry stakeholder representative on the Executive Council of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Mr. Warren has written numerous articles on environmental law and has been a frequent speaker on environmental topics for sections of the American Bar Association and other groups.

Mr. Warren received his B.A. magna cum laude, with honors in history, from Brown University in 1975, and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1979 where he served on the law review. He served as law clerk for the Honorable Joseph L. McGlynn, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1980.

Moderator:

John M. Hyson
Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law
Villanova, Pennsylvania

Professor Hyson teaches courses in environmental law and administrative law. He has written numerous articles in the fields of environmental law and land use planning. His book, Private Cost Recovery Actions Under CERCLA, was published by the Environmental Law Institute in 2003.

Schedule:

November 13, 2004 - Villanova University School of Law

8:15 - Registration and Continental Breakfast, Law School Cafeteria

9:00 - Presentation, Room 29

12:00 - Lunch will be served in the Law School Cafeteria

Attending the Program:

The Symposium will be held at the Villanova University School of Law, 299 North Spring Mill Road, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085. The Law School is located approximately 15 miles west of Philadelphia’s downtown, in the heart of Philadelphia’s Main Line. Free parking will be available for Symposium participants.

CLE Credits:

This program has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for three (3) substantive credits.

Registration:

General registration, including full program, materials, Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education certificate, breakfast and lunch, is $25. Registration is free for Villanova Law students and faculty. You may register at the Law School on the day of the event, or you may register in advance. For advance registration, please complete and return the registration form, with payment, to: Villanova Environmental Law Journal, Villanova University School of Law, 299 North Spring Mill Road, Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085.

Continuing Legal Education Financial Hardship Policy:

Program registrants who are unable to afford continuing legal education program course registration fees due to financial hardship may petition for registration fee waivers or discounted program fees. A petition for a reduced fee shall be filed at the same time the attorney pre-registers for the program, and state why the normal fee associated with the program causes the lawyer a financial hardship. The petition must be signed by the lawyer. The law school’s CLE coordinator may waive or reduce the fee for the CLE program at his/her discretion.

Villanova University School of Law is a Catholic and Augustinian institution that seeks to reflect the spirit of St. Augustine by the cultivation of knowledge, by respect for individual differences and by adherence to the principle that mutual love and respect should animate every aspect of the law school’s life.

Advance Registration Form:

To download/view the advance registration form - Click Here.

Brochure:

To download/view the brochure for this event - Click Here.

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