Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2005WV54B

West Virginia Water Conference 2005

Institute: West Virginia
Year Established: 2005 Start Date: 2005-03-01 End Date: 2006-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $29,688 Total Non-Federal Funds: $62,282

Principal Investigators: Tamara Vandivort

Project Summary: West Virginia has an abundant and valuable resource: water. The West Virginia Water Research Institute has sponsored an annual water conference for the last three years. The first conference took place in Charleston in 2002; the second in Morgantown in 2003; and the third in Roanoke in 2004. Each year the conference has been held in October. At the time of the first two conferences, West Virginia essentially had no water law. Water usage is on a first come first use basis. Concerns were expressed at the first two conferences as to how the state can protect its water rights. Of special concern was if users in other states manage to get legal rights to West Virginias water, there could be serious economic impacts. The water rights issue has been much debated at all three conferences. However, at the time of the third conference, the West Virginia Senate had passed Senate Bill No. 163 providing the first water legislation. All three conferences have been very beneficial in bringing the water rights and usages issues to the forefront and making people aware of this valuable resource. Each year the conference has improved in scope and range of topics and presenters as well as an increase in the number of attendees. It would be beneficial to have a water conference yearly. For 2005, the WVWRI proposes to take the lead once again in holding another State water conference. As for the third conference, the agenda would be developed by a planning committee comprised of State water stakeholders. This approach proved to work very well in developing the third conference. Stakeholders will be invited to co-sponsor the conference in terms of time and resources. The objectives will include: 1) expanding the awareness of water issues in the state; 2) providing attendees with an awareness of on-going water research; 3) providing attendees with an awareness of on-going legislation underway to protect the States water resources; 4) networking of the States water stakeholders; 5) revisiting the issues listed above and prioritizing them in order of importance from the viewpoints of the participants; 5) presenting the prioritized listing of issues to the West Virginia Advisory Committee for possible inclusion in future WVWRI RFPs.