American Bar Association Energy and Resources Committees

Water Quality and Wetlands Committee

2010-2011 Committee Co-Chairs:

Carol L. Lear, Chevron USA Inc., Houston, TX
Philip G. Mancusi-Ungaro, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Atlanta, GA

2009-2010 Committee Awards

This Committee was recognized with the following award within the Environmental Committees. (more)

• 2009-2010 Best Programs Award

Message from the Chair

Thank you for the interest you have shown in water quality and wetlands issues by viewing 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 the calendar year, summarized here:

Past Programs:

September 23-26, 2009, Baltimore, MD - 17th Section Fall Meeting: The ABA Environment, Energy, and Resources Law Summit, includes at least one panel on water pollution or wetlands
February 17-19, 2010 - 28th Annual Water Law Conference, San Diego, CA
March 18-21, 2010 - 39th Annual Conference on Environmental Law, New location: Salt Lake City, UT
May 20-21, 2010 - 2010 Eastern Water Resources Conference, Orlando, FL
September 29 - October 2, 2010 - 18th Section Fall Meeting, New Orleans, LA

Future Programs:

February 23-25, 2011 - 29th Annual Water Law Conference, San Diego, CA
March 17-19, 2011 - 40th Annual Conference on Environmental Law, Salt Lake City, UT

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. QT topics have included current issues such as Rapanos, the Rapanos Guidance, and stormwater issues.

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 contact any of us about a topic of interest to you.

We see several key emergent legal and policy issues this year, including the interpretations of the Coeur Alaska opinion, ongoing post-Rapanos litigation, stormwater enforcement and new construction regulations, EPA’s enforcement initiative, permitting trends, TMDL developments, whole effluent toxicity program implementation, watershed quality (pollutant) trading, water transfer litigation and developments, litigation regarding Florida’s numeric criteria for nutrients, and potential Congressional action regarding the definition of “waters of the United States.”

We invite all Committee members to become involved in Committee and Section activities – there are multiple ways to do so that 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 the Newsletter Co-Editors Tara Duhy, Blaine Early, Beth Gotthelf, Jeff Kray, or Amanda Neidert. If you are interested in helping to organize a brownbag lunch or other innovative type of forum on a timely topic, contact Kim Connolly or Larry Liebesman, Program Co-Vice Chairs, who will be happy to explore creative and timely ideas for future programming. For those of you interested in participating in our Public Service activities, contact Francine Ffolkes or Royal Gardner, our Public Service Co-Vice Chairs. Finally, if, after reading this webpage 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 Dick Brownell, the Membership Vice Chair.

Our thanks as well to all who have volunteered so far to contribute to our 2009 year-end review, edited by Pinar Dogru and Neal Johnston.

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