Friday, January 22, 2010
2:15 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Environment & Natural Resources Section
3.0 MCLE Credit Hours

The Changing Landscape of Water and Air Regulation

To borrow a quote from the Washington Post, "In the Southwest, the saying goes, the whiskey is for drinkin' and the water is for fightin'." Well this is becoming the case in the Southeast as well. With growing metropolitan areas such as Atlanta and Charlotte demanding greater amounts of water and the recent droughts reducing the water resources available to these areas, the fight over water resources has become a real issue for southeastern states, and South Carolina is no exception. Upstream demands on the State's water resources have pitted South Carolina against North Carolina with the Catawba River Basin and against Georgia with the Savannah River basin. And within the State, competing demands on water resources have sparked legislative efforts to create a regulatory program governing the use of surface waters. With distinguished speakers from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, the S.C. General Assembly and the State's Attorney General's office, this CLE provides a unique opportunity to learn firsthand about the ongoing struggle over water resources, including the issues involved, the legislative efforts to address the use of water resources within the State and the lawsuit filed by the S.C. Attorney General's office against North Carolina.

David Baize, Assistant Bureau Chief for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control's (DHEC) Bureau of Water, will begin with an overview of the litigation and regulatory efforts and will provide the agency's perspective on this struggle. As the primary person within the agency involved in this issue, Baize has been intricately involved in both the efforts to pass surface water legislation and in the litigation with North Carolina. Sen. Paul Campbell will then provide a legislative prospective to this struggle. Having introduced the primary surface water legislation considered by the General Assembly this past year, Sen. Campbell was crucially involved in trying to build a consensus among the State's industrial community, citizen groups and state officials. This component of the CLE will wrap with a discussion by L. Child Cantey, Assistant Attorney General for the State of South Carolina, about the lawsuit that the Attorney General's Office is pursuing against North Carolina in the U.S. Supreme Court over North Carolina's upstream use of the water from the Catawba River basin.

Although this program is primarily focused on the struggle over water resources, no environmental seminar would be complete in this day and age without an overview of the changes and developments in the air arena. Myra Reece, Bureau Chief for DHEC's Bureau of Air Quality, will therefore close the program with a discussion of the latest developments in the air arena.

Even if you do not practice in the environmental arena, we hope that you will take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn from those involved about the ongoing water struggle being fought in this state and what changes and developments in the air arena could mean for the state.

2:15–3:00 p.m. Overview of Surface Water Issues and DHEC’s Involvement
David Baize, Columbia

3:00–3:45 p.m. The Environment in the General Assembly
Sen. Paul G. Campbell Jr., Goose Creek

3:45–4:00 p.m. Break

4:00–4:45 p.m. Water Wars: State of South Carolina v. State of North Carolina
L. Childs Cantey, Columbia

4:45–5:30 p.m. The Latest in the Air Arena
Myra Reece, Columbia

Course Planner/Moderator: Stacy K. Taylor, Columbia