With so-called 100-year storms happening every few years or even more often, the need for effective management of stormwater has never been greater and the annual Regional Stormwater Summit-held at Lawrence Technological University since 2013-has never been more relevant.
This year's Stormwater Summit will be conducted Friday, October 20, on LTU's Southfield campus, in partnership with the office of Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash and the nonprofit organization Pure Oakland Water.
The Regional Stormwater Summit is a Southeast Michigan regional gathering of government, industry, and community stakeholders interested in learning and sharing the latest technologies, new rules, and collaborative efforts around stormwater management issues.
The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The $35 attendance fee includes lunch.
After a welcome from LTU President Tarek M. Sobh, keynote speaker Shavion Scott, managing director of urban resilience at the Center for Neighborhood Technologies in Chicago, will speak on her organization's work in "equitable, green stormwater infrastructure."
Other speakers at the event will include:
• Donald Carpenter, principal at the environmental engineering firm Drummond Carpenter and director of the LTU Great Lakes Stormwater Management Institute.
• Jim Luke, outreach coordinator of the Detroit District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Conor Keitzer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Justice.
• Lynne Seymour and Stephanie Petriello of the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner's Office environmental team.
• Katie Grantham, planner at the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.
• Paul Gross, WDIV Channel 4 meteorologist emeritus.
Said Nash of the event: "Once again we assemble to discuss the increasing impact of stormwater on our region, brought by climate change, and how we must address it. Our region has experienced increased extreme weather events in recent years and this will only increase over time. Meetings like this help our region look at where we are and what we need to do to protect human safety and health while protecting the environment we all depend on."
And Gross, one of the nation's leaders in communicating the scientific truth about global warming without the politics, said that the warming climate is already impacting stormwater runoff: "A warmer world means that more ocean water is evaporating into the atmosphere, and this moisture is what storms turn into precipitation. As a result, as we have already seen here in southeast Michigan, that means higher intensity and extreme precipitation events."
For additional information, contact Alyssa Taube at taubea@oakgov.com or visit www.mi-stormwatersummit.com.
