Great Lakes Water Conference

26th Annual Great Lakes Water Conference

"Water, Technology, and Law"

Friday, Nov. 13, 2026 | 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET
Virtual Conference - Registration required

Technological developments present both challenges and opportunities for the safety and security of water resources. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can increase demand for water and place additional pressure on this essential natural resource. At the same time, technology can help monitor groundwater and provide new ways to understand water consumption patterns. This conference brings together experts in water law and policy to explore the intersection of water, technology, and law, with a special focus on the Great Lakes region.

The conference is sponsored by The University of Toledo College of Law and its affiliated Legal Institute of the Great Lakes.

Registration is free for the public and $65 for attorneys seeking 2 hours of Ohio CLE. Register by Tuesday, Nov. 10.

AGENDA

9:30 a.m. - Introductory Remarks - Evan Zoldan, University of Toledo College of Law
Panel 1
9:40 a.m. - "Managing PFAS in Biosolids and Stormwater" - David Striflin, Marquette University Law School
10 a.m. - "Envisioning a Water Secure Future" - Ana Barros, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
10:20 a.m. - Q&A with Panelists
10:40 a.m. - Break
Panel 2
10:50 a.m. - "Hidden Environmental Costs of AI-Data Centers" - Melissa Scanlan, UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences
11:10 a.m. - "Water Data and Water Security" - Rhett Larson, Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law
11:30 a.m. - Q&A with Panelists
11:50 a.m. - Closing Remarks - Evan Zoldan, University of Toledo College of Law

SPEAKER BIOS

Evan C. Zoldan is the John W. Stoepler Professor of Law and Values and Director of the Legal Institute of the Great Lakes at the University of Toledo College of Law. He researches legislation and administrative law, including separation of powers, statutory interpretation, and state institutions. He is also the coauthor of a casebook on State and Local Government. Professor Zoldan received his law degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. After law school, Professor Zoldan served as law clerk to judges on the United States Court of Federal Claims and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Before joining the faculty of Toledo Law, he worked as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from New York University.

David Strifling is an associate professor of law at Marquette University Law School, where he is the director of the Water Law and Policy Initiative. Prior to joining the Law School, Professor Strifling was in private practice, focusing on environmental compliance and litigation. He previously served as a Freedman Teaching Fellow at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. Professor Strifling began his legal career as law clerk to Justice David T. Prosser of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Before entering the practice of law, Professor Strifling worked as a civil engineer, with an emphasis in water supply management and wastewater conveyance and treatment. He remains a licensed Professional Engineer in Wisconsin.

Dr. Ana P. Barros is Donald Biggar Willett Distinguished Chair of Engineering and Professor and Director of the Center for Secure Water in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UIUC. Before joining UIUC as Department Head, she was Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Barros also taught engineering at the University of Porto, Penn State, and Harvard University. Her primary research interests are in Hydrology, hydrometeorology, and Environmental Physics, with a focus on multiscale water-cycle processes, land-atmosphere interactions, and predictability and risk assessment of extreme events. Her research relies on intensive field and laboratory experiments, satellite-based remote sensing of precipitation and snow, computational modeling, and environmental informatics. She pioneered early AI/ML applications for precipitation, flood, and drought estimation, as well as long-lead forecasting, starting in the 1990s. She continues to develop coupled AI and physical modeling frameworks to improve predictions of extreme precipitation and floods in mountainous regions. Prof. Barros served in the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council, the Water Science and Technology Board, the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, and the US National Committee for the International Hydrology Program (IHP) of UNESCO. She was a Senior Fellow at the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA) from 2011-2015 and a founding member of ASCE’s Committee on Climate Change and Adaptation. At present, she serves in the Committee on Earth Sciences and Applications from Space of the Space Studies Board. Dr. Barros is the past President of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and she served as Chair of Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences of AAAS and as an elected Member of the Council of the American Meteorological Society. She was Chief Editor of the Journal of Hydrometeorology for five years, and she is an Editor of AGU Advances. Among other awards, Prof. Barros received the Ven Te Chow Award from ASCE in 2024, and the Ray K. Linsley Award from the American Institute of Hydrology in 2025. Prof. Barros has served on the UCAR Board of Trustees since 2022 and on the ASCE Industry Leadership Council since 2023. She is a Fellow of AGU, AMS, ASCE, and AAAS, a senior member of IEEE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2019.

Melissa Scanlan is the Lynde B. Uihlein Endowed Chair in Water Policy, Professor, and the Director of the Center for Water Policy at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences. Previously, she served as Associate Dean of Environmental Law and Professor at Vermont Law School, as a Visiting Professor at Boston College Law School, and as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Spain. Her publications include Water Law in a Nutshell (7th Ed. West, 2026); Prosperity in the Fossil-Free Economy: Cooperatives and the Design of Sustainable Businesses (Yale University Press, 2021); and a wide variety of law review articles and book chapters, available on SSRN.

Rhett Larson is the Richard Morrison Professor of Water Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. He is also a senior research fellow with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. Professor Larson’s research focuses on domestic and international water law and policy. Professor Larson serves on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Mexico Commission, on the Water Conservation Grant Committee of Arizona's Water Infrastructure Finance Authority, and is legal counsel to the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association. He is the Principal Investigator on an applied research project improving water supplies for refugee host communities in Lebanon and Jordan. Professor Larson was a visiting professor and Fulbright Scholar at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, a PLuS Alliance visiting fellow with the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, a Lady Davis Fellow and visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the author of Just Add Water: Solving the World’s Problems Using its Most Precious Resource (Oxford University Press, 2020). His forthcoming book is entitled Day Zero: How Cities Run Out of Water (Cambridge University Press). Professor Larson received his MS in Water Science, Policy, and Management from the University of Oxford and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Chicago.

CLE Materials

Coming Soon

Previous Conferences

Historically, water law has been the province of lawyers and policymakers in the arid western United States. In recent years, however, lawmakers in the Great Lakes region have come to recognize the critical role that water management plays in securing a healthy and vibrant society over the long term. In recognition of this development, the College of Law and the Legal Institute of the Great Lakes sponsor annual conferences each fall on water issues of importance to the Great Lakes region and the nation. For more information, explore the conference brochure links below.