Join us at Delaware Valley College's series of multi-disciplinary sustainability symposia, where we will explore how we can adapt human networks to reduce and reverse trends of environmental degradation, economic instability and social disparities.

Schedule

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Precarious Alliance 2012

The 2012 event explores the ethics of water, looking at the uses and abuses of water systems, technology to improve our stewardship of those water supplies, as well as our relationship to this life sustaining resource. How can we meet our needs today without compromising the ability of future generations and other non-human communities to meet their own needs?

Using the ethics of water as its organizing principle, the symposium will address three distinct, though interrelated tracks: The Tap and Technology; The Earth; and the Idea.

The Tap and Technology: New technologies for water treatment; condition of and challenges facing current public water facilities; how water is made safe to drink; waste water recovery; desalinization; membrane technologies; international perspectives on public access to potable water sources and technologies for water treatment.

The Earth: Water and the Marcellus Shale; effects of water pollution; habitat quality and restoration; environmental remediation and stewardship; invasive species; land-use policy and climate change

The Idea: Just as water is essential to terrestrial life and vital to civilization, it flows into and through every imaginable human discourse and discipline. Appropriately fluid and capable of filling any form, this track will be devoted to the meaning of water: water as life; water as rite; water as spirit; water as myth; water as cause; water as metaphor. Other relevant topics could include: water and human rights; water and agency; the appropriation of water as a symbol of health, purity, etc. to promote environmental and corporate causes; the question of water’s capacity for consciousness, memory, rights.

Schedule

Thursday October 11

Registration and light lunch

Noon – 1:00 PM
Student Center

Opening Remarks: Dr. Joseph Brosnan, President Delaware Valley College; Jack Schmidt, Professor Delaware Valley College

1:15-1:30
Moumgis Auditorium

Opening Keynote  Charles Fishman Author of  The Big Thirst
Book signing 3:00-3:15 Main Lobby

1:30 -3:00 Moumgis Auditorium

Breakout Session  Student Panel
Moderators: Ron DePeter, Assistant Professor of English and Brian Lutz, Lecturer of English, Delaware Valley College
1) Presenter: Patrick F. Allison, Jr.: Assessment of Relative Abundance and Distribution of Native and Non-native Crayfish Species in the Valley Creek
2) Presenter: Galen Weibley: Financing Land Conservation with the Clean Water State Revolving Fund System
3) Presenter: Kayla Mosebrook: The Social Harvest
4) Presenter: Regina Luczyszyn: LOST in What it All Means
5) Presenter: Samantha Lee Greco: Water in Our Lives

3:15-4:30     Music Room

Breakout Session  The Tap/Tech
Session 1: Global Water Development
Moderator: Joe Treaster, Visiting Wilson Fellow
1) Presenter: Chris Edwards, Marketing Coordinator, Enviro Products, Inc., Flushing the Tap: A Look into U.S. Tap Water
2) Presenter: Al Lentz, Eco-friendly Rain Water Harvesting Systems in Africa and South America
3) Presenter: Charles Alpuche, Sr. VP PepsiCo (retired), Water Development  in Africa
4) Presenter: Alain Locussol, World Bank

3:15-4:30
Coffee House

Breakout Session The Earth
Session 1 Earth Disturbance 101
Moderator: Mary Ellen Noonan, Environmental Educator for BCCD
Organized by the Bucks County Conservation District.
1) Presenter: Kent Himelright, Agricultural Technician for BCCD
2) Presenter: Meghan Rogalus, Watershed Specialist for BCCD
3) Presenter: Mary Ellen Noonan, Environmental Educator for BCCD

3:15-4:30
Moumgis Auditorium

Breakout Session The Idea
Session 1: Myth, Philosophy and Film
Moderator: Michael Stamps, Professor of English Delaware Valley College
1) Presenter: Fabrizio Cilento, Assistant Professor of Communication at Messiah College; Water War: Even the Rain and the Two Invasions of Globalization
2) Presenter: C. Pierce Salguero, Assistant Professor of Asian History, Penn State University (Abington College); Ideas of Water in Traditional Asian Cultures
3) Presenter: John R. Jacobson, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Washington and Jefferson College: Philosophic Full Circle: Back to Thales

3:15-4:30
Sigety Room

Reception and Poster Session - Library

4:45-6:30 Library

Film Viewing Last Call at the Oasis

6:45-8:30 Mandell 114

Friday October 12

Registration and breakfast

8:00-9:00
Student Center

Keynote Peter Thum founder of the brand Ethos Water and the nonprofit Giving Water

9:00-10:30
Moumgis Auditorium

Breakout Session Tap/Tech
Session 2: Source Water Protection
Moderator:  Julie Kolar, Water Resources Education Network

  1. Presenter:  Chuck Kinetsky, US EPA Region 3
  2. Presenter: Kevin Smith, Source Water Coordinator for the Southeast Regional Office -  PADEP
  3. Tom Davidock, Schuykill Action Network
  4. Presenter: Chris Crocket:  Philadelphia Water Department Rep.

10:45-Noon
Music Room

 

 

Breakout Session The Earth
Session 2:  Let It Flow
Moderator: Larry Hepner, Professor of Agronomy and Environmental Science Delaware Valley College
1) Presenter: Dawn Hintz ‘02, Environmental Scientist/Database Analyst Susquehanna River Basin Commission; Monitoring Hydraulic Fracturing Activities in the Susquehanna River Basin
2) Presenter: Imran Khalid SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY; Wastewater Management Policy: Agenda Setting in New York State
3) Presenter: Nancy Minich, Delaware Valley College; Riparian Buffer Restoration:  Water Quality Begins with the Landscape

10:45-Noon
Moumgis Auditorium

Breakout Session  The Idea
Session 2: Ethics, Ethnography and Culture
1) Presenter and Moderator: David Groenfeldt, Director of the Water-Culture Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Adjunct Assoc. Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico;  Exploring the Ethics of Water Resources Management
2) Presenter: Deepa Joshi, Assistant Professor Irrigation and Water Engineering Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Rivers that are polluted yet pure: the problematic invocation of ‘culture’ as a basis for sustainable environment management
3) Presenter: Eleanor Ruth Hayman, PhD Candidate, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany; Smudging together and Sliding apart? Storytelling aquafaces of the Yukon waterscapes through the lenses of Western Science and Yukon First Nations oral traditions

10:45-Noon
Coffee House

Lunch (included in registration fee)

12:00-1:00
Moumgis Auditorium

Plenary Session: Marcellus Shale: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Moderator: Russell Redding, Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences Delaware Valley College

  1. John Hanger, Special Counsel at Eckert Seamans Law, and  Former Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
  2. Erick Coolidge,  Tioga County Commissioner, dairy farmer with gas wells on his land and  County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania leader
  3. Steve Forde, Vice President, Policy and Communications, Marcellus Shale Coalition
  4. Carol Collier, Executive  Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission

12:30-2:00
Moumgis Auditorium

Breakout Session Tap/Tech
Session 3a: Water Planning and Design
Moderator:  Michael Fleischacker, Assistant Professor of Ornamental Horticulture and Environmental Design Delaware Valley College
1) Presenter: Lee M. Pouliot ‘07, LEED Green Associate, Planner and Administrator Chicopee Community Development; Access to Water Resources in Urban Settings and Water Quality and Quantity
2) Presenter: Suzanne M. Zukowski, Certified Sustainability Advisor [NaSBA] and LEED Green Associate, Water and the Agency of Sustainable Design
3) Presenter: Mark Gallagher, Vice President Princeton Hydro, LLC, Green Infrastructure – Are We Doing All That Can to Improve the Quality of Our Water and Streams?

2:15-3:30
Coffee House

Breakout Session Tap/Tech
Session 3B: Innovative Technology and Making Drinking Water Safe
Moderator:  Chris Tipping, Associate Professor of Biology Delaware Valley College
1) Presenter: Pei C. Chiu, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Delaware; Making Drinking Water Safer through Use of Zero-Valent Iron (ZVI) and Nanoscale ZVI
2) Presenter: Arup SenGupta, P.C. Rossin Professor Lehigh University, Innovative Water Technology – From Research Laboratory to Resource-Poor Masses in the Developing World

2:15-3:30
Sigety Room

Breakout Session The Earth
Session 3: Impacts on Mother Earth
Moderator: Reg Hoyt, Assistant Professor of Animal Biotechnology and Conservation Delaware Valley College
1) Michael Tabachnick, Professor Delaware Valley College, Climate Change--The Big Picture
2) Presenter: Reg Hoyt Professor Delaware Valley College, Woodrat Population Declines
3) Presenter: Lauren McGrath, Ursinus College; Authors: Lauren McGrath, Maria Abatuno, Sara Polekoff and Dr. Kathryn Goddard, Associate Professor of Biology, Ursinus College; Macroinvertebrate Studies of Three Streams in the Marcellus Shale

2:15-3:30
Moumgis Auditorium

Breakout Session  The Idea
Session 3: Rivers of Change: Social and Environmental Impacts on River Basins
Moderator: David Snyder, Associate Professor of History Delaware Valley College
1) Presenter: Emmanuel Nii Noi Osuteye, PhD Candidate , University of Kent, Canterbury, UK; Fluid change: water stress, pollution and the dynamics of changing social roles in rural African communities
2) Presenter: John R. Jacobson; Professor Emeritus, Washington and Jefferson College; The Neuse River: a Perfect Storm
3) Presenter: Irene J. Klaver, Director of the Philosophy of Water Project and Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of North Texas, The River as Bridge: Re-currents of Rivers in the Environmental Imagination--Connecting Urban Infrastructure, River-Experience and Water Ethic

2:15-3:30
Music Room

Closing Speaker  Maude Barlow National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and Senior Advisor on Water to the United Nations

3:45-5:15
Moumgis Auditorium

Closing Remarks

5:15-5:30
Moumgis Auditorium