Fresh Water:
Exploring New Frontiers

In the fast-paced and often harried world of journalism, few professionals in the field have the luxury of taking a few days to delve more deeply into specific topics that interest them; nor do they often have an opportunity to interact in an intimate setting with experts and hands-on practitioners who can present another side of the story.

For 25 years PERC has offered conferences for journalists to give them a close-up look at environmental problems and solutions to them. While PERC is particularly interested in how markets and property rights can contribute to solving environmental problems, the conference introduces many other points of view and innovative solutions.

What are the topics?

Topics vary from year to year. Ones that have been covered recently include conservation easements, public land management, wilderness preservation, over-fishing, the survival of ranching, and different approaches to sprawl.

This year the conference will focus on fresh water. We will be looking at available supplies as well as growing demands both here and around the globe. We will discuss climate change and its impact on supplies. Water quality is another topic we will cover as farmers are being given incentives to reduce their use of nitrates. On the other hand, runoff from agricultural lands has already had serious negative effects on drinking water for cities such as Des Moines, and we will have speakers address those concerns.

In addition to problems, we will be looking for solutions through water banking, water markets, pricing, and in some cases more regulated responses such as the Great Lakes Compact. Already, conservation and adaptions to reduced supplies are common place in many areas, but will these efforts be enough? New institutions and new technologies will be critical. Our speakers will address both the current problems and those that we will face in the future. To learn more about the topics, speakers, and events please see our 2007 agenda is posted on this site.