The 2013 Regional Stormwater Summit hosted by the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office, Pure Oakland Water and Lawrence Technological University (LTU) will be held at on Friday, Oct. 4, on the university’s campus, 21000 West 10 Mile Road, Southfield.
The $20 registration fee includes continental breakfast and lunch. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the concluding remarks are scheduled for 3:45 p.m. For information and online registration, click on the events tab at http://www.oakgov.com/water/
The conference is intended for regional and local elected officials and staff, industry providers, environmental groups, educators and students, as well as the general public. Anyone interested in the new EPA regulations, sustainability, cutting-edge water projects, planning and related environmental concerns is encouraged to attend.
The summit will be convened by Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash. LTU President Virinder Moudgil and Civil Engineering Professor Donald Carpenter will serve as the hosts.
Topics include:
• EPA’s proposed stormwater rulemaking.
• Michigan’s phase II stormwater permit application.
• Shifting from gray to green infrastructure in the Rouge River watershed.
• SEMCOG initiatives.
• LTU’s stormwater best management practices.
• A panel discussion on stormwater utility funding.
• Climate change in southeast Michigan.
The keynote speaker will be Jim Smullen, senior vice president at Camp, Dresser and McKee, who has 30 years’ experience in surface water resources engineering with a specialization in stormwater runoff research and planning. He has served as the project manager for the Philadelphia wet weather and source water protection programs support contract since its inception in 1994. He oversaw the development of the Green City, Clean Water program, the first long-term CSO control plan in the United States relying entirely upon green stormwater infrastructure.
For a related story about efforts to protect water resources in Oakland County, see http://www.candgnews.com/news/pure-oakland-water-tackles-fracking
Lawrence Tech is home to numerous examples of LID best management practices, including a green roof, a bioswale, porous pavers, naturalized areas, cisterns and rain gardens. These features will be detailed at stops along the stormwater management educational trail. Lawrence Tech’s campus master plan calls for additional features to reduce stormwater runoff, which will be added to the educational trail as they are implemented.
Carpenter is the founder and director of the Great Lakes Stormwater Management Institute at Lawrence Tech, and he is one of Michigan’s leading proponents of low-impact development (LID), which is a process for sustainable development and redevelopment that conserves and protects natural resources.
Lawrence Technological University, www.ltu.edu, is a private university founded in 1932 that offers more than 100 programs through the doctoral level in its Colleges of Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Management. PayScale lists Lawrence Tech among the nation’s top 7 percent of universities for return on undergraduate tuition investment, and highest in the Detroit metropolitan area. Lawrence Tech is also listed in the top tier of Midwestern universities by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review. Students benefit from small class sizes and experienced faculty who provide a real-world, hands-on, “theory and practice” education with an emphasis on leadership. Activities on Lawrence Tech’s 102-acre campus include over 60 student clubs and organizations and a growing roster of NAIA varsity sports.