Tuesday afternoon webinar will examine the social-justice side of rural water supplies, from California to Appalachia

A free webinar from 3 to 4:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, March 22, will discuss the challenges and demands of funding, developing and maintaining a "just rural water infrastructure." It's part of the Rural Reconciliation Project, a University of Nebraska College of Law initiative that seeks to cut through popular narratives on both sides of the rural-urban divide and assess the past, present and future of big structural issues in rural America. This is the final webinar in a series; earlier ones have addressed rural jobs, power, transportation, and broadband. 

A panel of experts and advocates will lead the webinar, moderated by Priya Baskaran, an assistant law professor and director of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic at American University Washington's College of Law. Her recent paper "Thirsty Places" examines the parallels between urban and rural water insecurity through a comparison of Flint, Michigan, and rural southern West Virginia. The paper also explores who bears responsibility for water inequality (including businesses and public agencies), existing government funding mechanisms for water infrastructure, and possible solutions. It's not required reading for the webinar, but wouldn't hurt.

The panel will also feature:

• Camille Pannu, director of the Aoki Water Justice Clinic at the University of California-Davis College of Law, and co-director of the Community and Economic Development Clinic at the University of California-Irvine School of Law. As a community lawyer with an explicit racial and economic justice lens, she works to ensure access to safe and affordable water, particularly in rural California.
• Oday Salim, an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law and director of the Environmental Law & Sustainability Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School. He is also an attorney at the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Regional Center. In addition to his expertise in Great Lakes region water issues, he has experience working with mid-Atlantic communities impacted by hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas.
• Katherine Garvey, teaching associate professor and director of the Land Use and Sustainability Law Clinic at West Virginia University College of Law. She is an expert on land and water issues in Appalachia and has worked on environmental protection at local and federal levels.

Click here to register for the webinar.