And Water for All: A World Water Day documentary film screening and discussion on water access and affordability in Ohio

ENVIRONMENTAL PROFESSIONALS NETWORK

Date: March 22, 2022
Time: 7:15 am to 11:45 pm
Cost: This event has concluded.
Posted By: Environmental Professionals Network
Location: Franklin
Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center: 22001 Fred Taylor Dr. Columbus, OH 43210
Topics: Vulnerable Communities,

Water Quality & Contamination

Program Overview

In collaboration with Ohio State’s School of Earth Sciences, the Ohio Water Resources Center, Water Management Association of Ohio (WMAO), and TerrAqua (a cross-disciplinary student organization at Ohio State and WMAO affiliate) this EPN Breakfast event consists of networking and educational features related to water affordability in Ohio.

Building and maintaining drinking and wastewater infrastructure to treat and deliver high quality, affordable water to Ohio’s residents is a costly endeavor. Decisions on how to pay for these important investments can lead to heightened levels of conflict and competition in local and regional communities as increasingly the ability to ensure clean water access relies on the financial capacity of system users¹. In the past two decades, average drinking water and wastewater service rates across the U.S. have increased by 136%, outpacing rates for other utilities such as electricity, natural gas, and phone service, while overall median household income only grew at 35% over this same period² placing some low-income residents in a position where they cannot afford water or wastewater services.

On #WorldWaterDay 2021 the United Nations put out the global call for community leaders to ask and record what water access means to their residents and neighbors, to assess water’s true value and how we can better protect and improve this vital resource in our communities. A team of Ohio State researchers from the School of Environment and Natural Resources answered this call, traveling the past year across Ohio asking water utility managers, users, and advocates in communities big and small, urban, and rural, about the challenge of water affordability. The result is And Water for All, an educational documentary examining the opportunities and challenges that governmental and non-governmental entities are facing today to secure clean and affordable water and what to expect in the coming decades. To view a trailer of the film, click here.

Join this conversation on #WorldWaterDay, March 22, 2022 to see how we can ensure all residents of our communities have this basic right.

¹Spearing et al. (2021) Implications of Social Distancing Policies on Drinking Water Infrastructure: An Overview of the Challenges to and Responses of U.S. Utilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 1, 4, 888–899. Read more here.

²Bipartisan Policy Center (2017) Safeguarding Water Affordability. Read more here.

Agenda

For in-person guests

7:15 a.m. Doors open at Ohio State 4-H Center; Coffee served.

7:40 a.m. Breakfast buffet served.

8:00 a.m. Livestreaming service begins for virtual attendees.

8:10 a.m. Session 1 begins. And Water for All film debut. To view a trailer of the film, click here.

Jeff Sharp, PhD. director, Ohio State School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR), and Ramiro Berardo, PhD. associate professor of environmental and natural resource policy, SENR and writer and director, And Water for All, provide welcome remarks.

Dr. Berardo and panelists discuss the film.

9:20 a.m. Audience Q & A session for both in-person and virtual audiences.

9:40 a.m. Dr. Sharp concludes EPN Breakfast program component. Break and networking session for in-person guests. Livestreaming service concludes for virtual attendees.

10:00 a.m. Session 2 begins. This portion of the program will be worth up to 1 CEU and PDH hours.

Manny Teodoro, PhD. associate professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses policy, financial and other economic tools to address water affordability.

Melissa Menerey, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and board president, WMAO, moderates and facilitates Audience Q&A for Session 2. Glenn Marzluf, PE, UMC, general manager & CEO, Del-Co Water Company, provides opening remarks.

10:45 a.m. Break and networking session. 

11:00 a.m. Session 3 begins. This portion of the program will be worth up to 1 CEU and PDH hours.

Ken J. Heigel, P.E., executive director, Ohio Water Development Authority, and Pete Bucher, managing director of water policy, Ohio Environmental Council, present on financial opportunities to improve water affordability and policy strategies.

Linda Weavers, PhD. co-director, Ohio Water Resources Center (OWRC) and professor, Ohio State Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering, moderates and facilitates Audience Q&A for Session 3.

11:45 a.m. Concluding remarks by Joe Campbell, PhD. director, Environmental Professionals Network, and co-producer, And Water for All.

Speakers

Ramiro Berardo

PhD. associate professor of environmental and natural resource policy, Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources

As a policy scholar, Dr. Berardo studies how policy actors (individuals and organizations, both governmental and nongovernmental) interact with each other when they face environmental problems. In his research, Dr. Berardo examines how social capital forms affects both the attitudes of policy actors and their support or opposition to specific policy responses to environmental problems. Dr. Berardo was born and raised in Argentina, where he earned his B.A. in political science in 1996 from the Catholic University of Córdoba. In 2001 he moved to the U.S., where he earned his PhD. in Political Science from Florida State University in 2006.

Manny Teodoro

PhD. associate professor, La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Teodoro’s research stands at the nexus of politics, public policy, and public management. His work mainly focuses mainly on U.S. environmental policy and implementation, including empirical analyses of environmental justice. In addition, Dr. Teodoro pursues a line of applied research on utility management, policy, and finance. He has developed novel methods for analyzing utility rate equity and affordability, and he works on these issues directly with governments and water sector leaders across the United States. Dr. Teodoro also studies public management and bureaucratic politics, emphasizing labor markets as political phenomena and predictors of organizational performance. His award-winning book, Bureaucratic Ambition (2011, Johns Hopkins), argues that ambition shapes administrators' decisions to innovate and to engage in politics, with important consequences for innovation and democratic governance. Dr. Teodoro earned his B.A. in Political Science from Seattle University, a M.P.A. in Public Administration from Cornell University, and a PhD. in Political Science & Public Policy from the University of Michigan

Ken J. Heigel

P.E., executive director, Ohio Water Development Authority

Mr. Heigel has over 30 years of experience in the water and wastewater industry in the areas of design, construction, and funding. He has served in various roles with the Ohio Water Development Authority, including as the assistant director and as the chief engineer since 2003. Mr. Heigel has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Dayton. He is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Ohio.

Pete Bucher

Managing director of water policy, Ohio Environmental Council

Mr. Bucher serves as the managing director of water policy at the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) overseeing state and federal policies on harmful algae, agriculture, aquatic invasive species, water infrastructure, and affordability. He is a graduate of Worthington Schools and has a B.S. in Environmental Policy from The Ohio State University with a focus on water quality. Prior to joining the OEC, he served as a Legislative Aide in the Ohio House of Representatives and as a consultant on various legislative, organizing, and campaign projects. In addition, Mr. Bucher has served on Worthington City Council since January 2020.