Water Law and Policy Initiative

The Marquette University Law School Water Law and Policy Initiative seeks to help establish the Law School and, more broadly, Marquette University as a center for study, exploration, discussion, and education concerning water issues. Using an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, the Initiative seeks, among other things, to assess the legal and regulatory aspects of water policy, to pursue opportunities for information exchange and collaboration within and outside the University, and to provide the means for the public to become better informed on legal and policy aspects of critical water-related issues.

To learn more, see this article from Marquette Lawyer magazine, or contact Professor David Strifling, Director of the Water Law and Policy Initiative.  See below for representative examples of our conferences, events, projects, and publications.

Conferences and Events

• Selling Water to Joliet? Chicago and the Great Lakes Compact (May 2025). Professor Strifling discussed Chicago’s special status under the Compact—and its planned sale of water to Joliet—from legal, historical, and economic perspectives. This event was affiliated with Chicago Water Week, presented by Current. Watch the recording here.

• Resolving the Tension Between Agriculture and Water Quality in the Dairy State (April 2025). Wisconsin is known for its invaluable array of water resources, on the one hand, and its tradition as an agricultural powerhouse on the other. These two aspects of the state’s identity are often in tension. For example, the federal government’s most recent National Water Quality Assessment concluded that agriculture is the leading cause of adverse water quality impacts on rivers and streams and the third-leading cause of such impacts on lakes. This event focused on the path forward for agriculture and water to coexist in the Dairy State. Watch the recording here, and read a summary of the discussion here.

• The Water (Re)Cycle (April 2024). Existing drinking water sources are under increasing strain from overuse and climate change, among other pressures. Drinking-water providers in some parts of the country are turning to new sources of water that traditionally were dismissed as infeasible because of cost or other difficulties. Among these new sources is, ironically, an old source—the direct or indirect reuse of treated wastewater, long avoided due to the “yuck factor.” Noted author Peter Annin discussed his new book, Purified: How Recycled Sewage Is Transforming Our Water, and Professor Strifling led a conversation with a panel of thought leaders on potential reuse applications. Watch the recording here, and read a summary of the discussion here.

• A Federal Perspective on Wisconsin's Lead Pipe Problem (April 2023). Professor Strifling and Congresswoman Gwen Moore explored the problem of lead service lines in Wisconsin’s water distribution systems and the possibility of federal involvement and funding to help address the issue.  Law students presented the findings from their recent survey of public water systems on various approaches to Wisconsin’s lead pipe problem. Watch the recording here.

• Environmental Law and Environmental Justice (October 2022). The conversation explored traditional environmental justice concerns such as unequal exposure to pollution, as well as emerging issues of “resilience justice” and “energy justice” interwoven with systemic racism, structural income and wealth disparities, and other forms of marginalization and oppression that worsen environmental and health inequalities in Milwaukee and beyond. Watch the recording here.

• A Federal-State Conversation on Environmental Issues (June 2022). The conversation with Preston Cole, the Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Debra Shore, the Regional Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 (serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and 35 Tribes) ranged over top-priority issues of environmental policy including PFAS regulation and management, climate change and the Great Lakes, water infrastructure needs and budgeting, federal and state environmental justice efforts, the EPA—DNR working relationship, and more. Watch the recording here.

• Water Policy in the Chicago Megacity: Past, Present, and Future (October 2021). The event focused on aspects of the past, present, and future of water policy in the “Chicago Megacity”—the region stretching from the Milwaukee area, across metropolitan Chicago, and into northwest Indiana. The event was presented in partnership with Current’s Chicago Water Week 2021 and built on past Marquette Law School conferences about the Chicago Megacity, across a range of issues including water, transportation, education, and economic development. It covered some of the issues that Milwaukee, Chicago, and other cities in the Megacity will face together, including an exploration of the history of the internationally acclaimed Chicago lakefront, an examination of the Megacity region's water infrastructure crisis, and a discussion of the Megacity region's readiness for incoming migration due to climate change. Watch the recording here.

• Milwaukee 2025: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward (November 2019).  In 2009, the Law School convened a conference titled “Milwaukee 2015: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward.” Participants mapped a pathway for Milwaukee to emerge as a worldwide water hub. As one local leader put it: “My dream is that by 2015, when people think water, they think Milwaukee.” This event examined how far the region has come toward achieving that goal, and looked forward to the next decade of the region’s development in the face of competition from other parts of the country that have the same objective. Watch the recording here.

• Evaluating the Great Lakes Compact on its Tenth Anniversary (October 2018). Former Wisconsin governor James Doyle, noted author Peter Annin, and other experts came together to evaluate the Great Lakes Compact on its tenth anniversary. Southeastern Wisconsin has proved to be a hotbed for controversy involving exceptions to the Compact’s general ban on diversions of water from the Great Lakes basin. The event explored current controversies and proposed revisions to the Compact, and considered what may be in store in the second decade. Watch the recording here.

• Lake Michigan and the Chicago Megacity in the 21st Century (April 2018). This conference explored the future of the Chicago Megacity’s relationship with water, including the challenges and opportunities the region faces. This required a special focus on interactions with Lake Michigan, the dominant geographic feature of the region. Participants from a variety of disciplines discussed topics such as the Chicago Megacity's responsibility to protect Lake Michigan from various threats, whether and how Lake Michigan should be used as a tool for economic development in the region, and the challenge of delivering a safe and reliable water supply. Watch the recording here.

• Innovation at the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (May 2017). This interdisciplinary workshop drew from engineering, legal, scientific, and policy spheres to offer a unique perspective on the food-energy-water nexus. The workshop format and accompanying discussions provoked conversations about overcoming barriers to the implementation of innovative water solutions, stimulated ideas for focused academic research in the nexus, and drove the development of organizational policy and technology roadmaps. The event incorporated sessions on energy use, recovery, and minimization at water and wastewater utilities; on groundwater; on agricultural sustainability and food waste; and on ethical considerations for stakeholders, a topic often absent from similar events. Watch the recording here.

• Public Policy and American Drinking Water (September 2016). Amid great concern about the future of drinking water quality and quantity, leading figures from a variety of disciplines discussed topics such as lead and aging infrastructure, privatization of water systems, public perceptions of water quality issues, the (under)valuation of water, and quantity and quality concerns related to groundwater. The discussion at this event drove real policy change in Milwaukee. Watch the recording here.

• Water Law Update (1 CLE credit) (held annually in early spring)

• “On the Issues” with Mike Gousha (February 2016). Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly and Racine Mayor John Dickert discussed the merits of Waukesha's water diversion request under the Great Lakes Compact. Watch the recording here.

Projects and Publications

• Read water law entries about a variety of topics published in the Marquette Law School Faculty Blog.

• What's Old is New Again: Technical, Sociocultural, and Regulatory Aspects of Water Reuse, 64 Washburn Law Journal 29 (2024) (exploring how to overcome technical, regulatory, and sociocultural barriers to water reuse).

• Marquette Law Students Contribute to Regional Study of Chloride Pollution. Chloride pollution of surface water and groundwater is an intractable problem. On one hand, sodium chloride (salt) is an important component of winter maintenance efforts that keep roads and other traveled surfaces free of snow and ice. On the other hand, many scientific studies have examined the potential risks to human health and natural resources associated with excess chloride in the environment. Building on the proposed framework for the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission’s comprehensive Chloride Impact Study for the Southeastern Wisconsin Region, and working closely with Commission staff, two law students led the effort to develop a report examining a menu of responsive legal and policy options available to decision-makers in the Region. The final report, dated April 2024, is available here on the Commission’s Chloride Impact Study website.

• Nanotechnology in Drinking Water Treatment Systems: Risk and Regulatory Compliance, 35 Georgetown Environmental Law Review 359 (2023) (explaining the reasons for uncertainty surrounding the use of engineered nanomaterials in drinking water treatment and examining policy instruments to mitigate the uncertainty associated with emerging technologies). Read the article here.

• In Defense of Water. Professor Strifling and law student researchers are part of an interdisciplinary, university-wide team working to develop novel, sustainable technologies to protect human health and the environment funded by a series of significant grant awards from the U.S. Department of Defense. The latest award aims to improve water security and efficiency on military installations to reduce negative readiness and operational impacts due to water shortages and employ innovative water management technologies. Furthermore, the work addresses cleanup related to PFAS at current and former military installations, including in Wisconsin. The project entails seven areas of focus and encompasses 11 faculty members from six departments across five colleges and schools. Read more about the project here.

• Plugging the Holes in Wisconsin's Groundwater Policy, 95 Wisconsin Lawyer magazine (2022) (explaining Wisconsin's governance regime for groundwater). Read the article here.

• Barriers to Real Time Control of Stormwater Systems, 7 Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment (2021) (on overcoming legal and regulatory barriers to real-time control of water infrastructure). Read the article here.

• A Clear Advantage, Milwaukee Commerce magazine (Summer 2021) (on the need for continued responsible stewardship of water resources). Read the article here.

• Overcoming Legal and Institutional Barriers to the Implementation of Innovative Environmental Technologies, 1 Notre Dame Journal of Emerging Technologies 280 (2020) (on the potential regulation of "dynamic" stormwater management systems). Read the article here.

• The Semicommons and Wisconsin Water Law. 22 Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review 125 (2018) (exploring the parallels between intellectual property law and water governance). Read the article here.

• Integrated Water Resources Management and Effective Intergovernmental Cooperation on Watershed Issues, 70 Mercer Law Review 399 (2018).  Recent studies have advocated management of water resources using an integrated approach at the watershed level, necessarily crossing traditional geopolitical and agency boundaries.  Generally, this aims to coordinate development and management of water and related resources so as to maximize economic and social welfare without compromising environmental sustainability.  Although its precise scope and content remains unclear, implementation of the approach requires innovative and cooperative governance mechanisms. Effective intergovernmental cooperation in these areas could lead to environmental and technological advances. Read the article here.

• The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015: Model for Future Environmental Legislation, or Black Swan?, 32 Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law 151 (2016) (analyzing various approaches to environmental protection legislation). Read the article here.

• Creating Policy Options to Reduce Chloride Discharges to Area Waterways - This project created and evaluated a menu of legal and policy options for policymakers to address high chloride concentrations in area waterways likely caused by the excess application of salt for winter deicing, in combination with other sources such as water softeners. The article resulting from this work was published in the journal Environmental Law. Read the article here.

• Energy and Manufacturing Competitiveness Partnership - Marquette University and A. O. Smith Corporation led a top-level national initiative aimed at ensuring the continued global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.  Focusing on water and manufacturing, the resulting report is a sector study that evaluates the use and re-use of water, the energy-water nexus, identifying water-use related risk and highlighting new technologies for water use efficiency, in addition to exploring policies for water-manufacturing and energy across the United States.