MILWAUKEE — Marquette University Law School’s Water Law and Policy Initiative will host “Resolving the Tension Between Agriculture and Water Quality in the Dairy State,” a morning conference looking at the path forward for agriculture and water resources to coexist in Wisconsin, on Tuesday, March 18, beginning at 9 a.m. at Eckstein Hall, 1215 W. Michigan St.
Wisconsin is known for its invaluable array of water resources, on the one hand, and its tradition as an agricultural powerhouse on the other. These two aspects of the state’s identity are often in tension. For example, the federal government’s most recent National Water Quality Assessment concluded that agriculture is the leading cause of adverse water quality impacts on rivers and streams and the third-leading cause of such impacts on lakes.
This conference will feature a keynote address by Dr. Marin Skidmore, assistant professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, titled “The Effectiveness of Local Regulations on Nonpoint Source Pollution: Evidence from Wisconsin.”
David Strifling, associate professor of law and director of the Water Law and Policy Initiative at Marquette, will then moderate a panel discussion on agriculture and water quality with:
- Cheryl Heilman, chief legal counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Jason Mugnaini, executive director of governmental relations with the Wisconsin Farm Bureau
- Sara Walling, water and agriculture program director at Clean Wisconsin
- Brian Weigel, deputy administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Division of External Services
Registration is available online. Media interested in covering this event should contact Kevin Conway at kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.
Through public programming such as the Marquette Law School Poll, “On the Issues” conversations with newsmakers, public lectures by leading scholars, conferences on issues of public significance, and the work of its Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, Marquette Law School seeks to advance civil discourse about law and public policy matters.
