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3/24/2008 Spring 2008 Graduate Seminar Series JOINT SEMINAR WITH THE WATER INSTITUTE Thursday, March 27, 2008, Location: Emerson Alumni Hall, Room 209 3:00 pm 50 Minute Seminar The Anti-Speculation Doctrine in Water Law: Ghost-busting, Trust-busting, or Ensuring Reasonable,Beneficial Use? Sandra Zellmer, Natural Resource and Water Law Professor and Havelone Research Chair University of Nebraska College of Law ABSTRACT From Texas tycoon T. Boone Pickens to corporate conglomerate Nestlé Co., grandiose schemes to profit from large-scale, transbasin water transfers have proliferated in the past decade. Reactions range from outrage at the commoditization of this precious resource to support for letting the market and its pricing signals move water to the most efficient use. On the international front, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have encouraged nations, particularly those in the developing world, to conform to a market paradigm by privatizing and thereby maximizing use of their water supplies. Affected communities are often less than enthusiastic. Throughout the world, attempts to privatize water resources have triggered a “morality play of rights versus markets, human need versus corporate greed.” James Salzman, Thirst: A Short History of Drinking Water, 18 Yale J.L.H. 94, 96 (2006). The controversy is not limited to developing countries. However, prohibitions against speculation have inhibited outright commoditization of water in the United States. To speculate is to “assume a business risk in hope of gain; especially to buy or sell in expectation of profiting from market fluctuations.” MERRIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE DICTIONARY (2007), http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/Speculate. Speculation is a relatively common investment practice for real property (land), stocks, bonds, grain, gold, and other precious minerals. When it comes to water, however, speculation is taboo. In the West, the prior appropriation doctrine limits the ability to hoard water for speculative purposes by requiring that water be put to continuous beneficial use. Users who fail to do so forfeit their rights. Under the eastern system of riparian water law, the possibility of speculation is limited by a number of factors, including the duty of riparian owners to share, the reasonable use doctrine, and common law prohibitions against off tract and out-of-watershed usage. The various anti-speculation provisions are intended to keep the reviled Robber Barons of yesteryear in their place and prevent them from coming back to haunt us as modern-day Water Barons. This talk considers whether restrictions against speculation in water serve a continuing public purpose or, conversely, are an archaic relic of times past. Is there a current need to prevent speculation and monopolistic behavior (trust-busting), or are we merely chasing ghostly apparitions of fictitious Water Barons while discouraging socially beneficial water transfers? Many scholars of law and economics argue that restraints on water transfers should be removed to allow water marketing to take its place among an array of collaborative, conservation-oriented strategies for water management. Yet because market forces tend to focus only on short planning cycles and fail to prevent the imposition of harmful externalities on non-parties, market transactions have significant potential to compromise the needs of current and future generations of water users and to undermine governmental authority over essential water resources. To the extent that society envisions water marketing as a tool to reallocate water supplies, governments must continue to play a significant role in overseeing water transfers – particularly speculative transactions that fail to put water to reasonable, beneficial uses – to ensure that the interests of affected third parties are protected and that water remains available for the public good. Thus, rescission of the anti-speculation doctrine would be unwise. BIO-SKETCH Sandra Zellmer is Professor and Havelone Research Chair at the University of Nebraska College of Law in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. Zellmer received her LL.M in environmental law from the George Washington University National Law Center, and her JD from the University of South Dakota School of Law. She teaches and writes about natural resources, water conservation and use, environmental law, property, and related topics. Prior to teaching, Zellmer was a trial attorney for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, litigating public lands and environmental issues for various federal agencies. She also practiced law at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and clerked for the Honorable William W. Justice, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas.

3/4/2008 Spring 2008 Graduate Seminar Series: Arsenic hyperaccumulation by Chinese Brake Fern: Mechanisms and applications Lena Q. Ma, Professor Soil and Water Science Department University of florida Friday, March 7, 2008, Location 386 NEB 2:45 pm Reception 3:00 pm 50-Minute Seminar Abstract Arsenic is of great environmental concern due to its extensive contamination and carcinogenic toxicity. Past human activities have resulted in tens of thousands of arsenic contaminated sites worldwide. Our group reported the first-known arsenic hyperaccumulator Chinese Brake fern (Pteris vittata) in Nature in 2001, which has potential to phytoremediate arsenic-contaminated sites. Our research is to understand the mechanisms of arsenic uptake, translocation, distribution, and detoxification by P. vittata and optimize its arsenic hyperaccumulation for phytoremediation application. Our research approaches involve an integration of greenhouse studies (soil and hydroponic), chemical speciation (HPLC-ICP-MS), electron microscope analysis (SEM and TEM), advanced spectroscopy (XAS), and pilot-scale field demonstration. P. vittata is an efficient arsenic hyperaccumulator with a bioconcentration factor (arsenic concentration ratio of plant to soil) of up to 200 and a translocation factor of up to 42 (arsenic concentration ratio in fronds to roots). The fern was efficient in taking up arsenic from uncontaminated (up to 755 ppm in fronds) as well as contaminated soils (up to 2.1% in fronds). The uptake was from both roots and fronds and by live and excised plants regardless arsenic species (organic/inorganic or arsenate/arsenite) and concentrations (0.5 to 1,600 ppm). The plant’s ability to produce large quantities of root exudates (to solubilize soil arsenic), to produce large root biomass (>fronds), to effectively translocate arsenic to the fronds (up to 95%), and to reduce arsenic from arsenate-AsO43- to arsenite-AsO2- (up to 100% arsenite present in fronds) in the fronds have all contributed to its capability to hyperaccumulate arsenic. Our pilot-scale field demonstration shows that the plant was effective in reducing 14% arsenic from the soil after one season. In addition to its incredible arsenic hyperaccumulation capability, P. vittata also has many desirable attributes as a hyperaccumulator. This plant has a great potential for phytoremediation of arsenic-contaminated soils and water. Bio-sketch Lena Q. Ma is a Professor in the Soil and Water Science Department at the University of Florida. She earned M.S. and Ph.D degrees from Colorado State University. Her research focuses on biogeochemistry of trace metals emphasizing soil contamination and remediation, especially phytoremediation. She received the Discovery 2001 Award from the Royal Geographical Society and Discovery Networks Europe after reporting the first-known arsenic hyperaccumulator in Nature. She is a fellow of American Society of Agronomy and American Society of Soil Science.

2/19/2008 EES Alum Ane Deister Joins Brown and Caldwell as Vice President, Water Resources and Executive Services engineering and consulting firm Brown and Caldwell announced today that Ane Deister has joined the firm as Vice President, Water Resources and Executive Services. Deister, who was general manager for the El Dorado Irrigation District, is leading the company's national initiative on conservation and planning for drought and climate change. She also is working with a number of utility executives and their boards to develop strategic programs. Deister, who served on the National Drought Policy Commission during the Clinton administration, was recently appointed restoration administrator for the settlement agreement between Friant Water Users Authority and the Natural Resources Defense Council to restore the San Joaquin River. She also served on the California Water Commission, Governor's Recycled Water Task Force, and the Executive Committee of both the Association of California Water Agencies and Regional Water Authority, where she also served as vice chair. She is a vice president and board member for the Urban Water Institute and on the Board of Trustees for the national AWWA Water Resources Division. "Ane has excellent insight and experience gained from more than 30 years in public service," says Cindy Paulson, senior vice president and national water resources practice leader for Brown and Caldwell. "Now in the private sector, she is able to broaden her scope, making her expertise available to many more agencies and municipalities." As general manager with EID, Deister led a 300-person organization that provides water, wastewater, recycled water, and hydropower services to more than 100,000 people in the Sierra foothills northeast of Sacramento. Prior to EID she was the assistant to the GM for Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, which serves more than 18 million people in six counties. She has worked for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas, Calif., the South Florida Water Management District, and numerous state and federal agencies. Deister earned bachelor's and master's degrees in Biology at the University of South Florida, as well as a master's in Environmental and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida. Ane received her MS from UF in 1975. Established in 1947, Brown and Caldwell is a multi-disciplined environmental engineering and consulting firm. The employee-owned company is headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., and employs more than 1,500 people in 45 offices nationwide. Engineering News-Record ranks Brown and Caldwell 48th among the nation's top 500 engineering firms, 36th among the Top 200 environmental firms, 21st largest in the Water Supply market and 8th largest in the Sewer/Waste market. SOURCE: Brown and Caldwell

2/12/2008 Congratulations! EES students receive scholarships Fred & Lilly Wilkes Graduate Research Scholarship awarded to Seungjun Lee for research on "Effect of disturbance in self-organizing systems." Mr. Lee is currently pursuing his PhD with Dr. Mark Brown. Nilo & Norma Priede Graduate Research Scholarship awarded to Matthew Joiner for research on "Optimization of Activated Carbon for the Removal of Phenol in Water." Mr. Joiner is currently pursuing his ME with Dr. David Mazyck Sally and William Glick Graduate Research Scholarship awarded to two students this year: Sandra K. Gaynor who is currently pursuing her PhD with Dr. Timothy Townsend, and Seungjun Lee who is currently pursuing his PhD with Dr. Mark Brown.

12/10/2007 University of Florida Teams Place First and Second in National Student Design Competition The Florida Water Environment Association (FWEA) is proud to announce that the University of Florida (UF) tied in first-place along with a team from University of North Dakota, as winner of the 2007 Water Environment Federation Design Competition. The event took place on October 14th in San Diego during WEFTEC®.07, the Water Environment Federation's 80th annual technical exhibition and conference. This team was one of two teams submitted by UF, the other team placed second. The project assignment, "Design Alternatives for the Expansion of the STAR System in Tampa Florida" was selected from a pool of six WEF student chapter design teams from across North America. Read More>>

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