SPEAKER: Tom Jorling
DATE: Wednesday, November 2, 2022
TIME: 12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
LOCATION: Room 1430

RSVP HERE to attend in person.
Lunch will be provided to those who RSVP and attend in person

Click HERE for Zoom link

The Clean Water Act Celebrates 50 Years:
After the failure of five earlier federal laws and worsening water pollution across the nation, Congress, in 1972 and over the Presidents veto, enacted the Clean Water Act PL 92-500. The Clean Water Act fundamentally reoriented the regulatory approach to water pollution control.  The fact that now, 50 years later, the nation’s waters are cleaner, supporting much healthier ecosystems, is a testament to its effectiveness. This keynote from one of the staff who assisted in crafting the CWA will look back at the circumstances, the people and the process, and something of the elements of the law that produced such a dramatic change in controlling water pollution. Hopefully, this keynote will answer, at least partially, the “Why Then?” and “How Come?” questions many might have about a real and responsive success of Government policy.

Biography:
Thomas Jorling served as Minority Counsel to the US Senate Committee on Public Works, including the Subcommittee on Air and Water Pollution, the legislative institution where the CWA had it birth. Subsequently, Mr. Jorling  became responsible for implementation of the Act as Assistant Administrator of US EPA from 1977-1980 and later at the State level as Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation from 1987 to 1994. Fittingly, the last ten years of his career, Mr. Jorling served as the responsible official for compliance with the CWA  at a major, water using and discharging  company, International Paper Company.  Mr. Jorling graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a BS in Biology.  He received a MS in Forest Ecology from Washington State University and a law degree from Boston College.

This panel is co-sponsored by: Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment