Bill MacDermott, Owner, Cleveland Solar & Wind, is a business sponsor of Midtown Brews for 2009.

You can read more about Bill's company by downloading this flyer.

From Circle of Blue|Water News - Reporting on the World's Water Crisis

Including news feeds on the Great Lakes Water Basin Compact.

From Circle of Blue|Water News - Reporting on the World's Water Crisis

Water’s Urgent Message at the World Economic Forum

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/commentary/waters-urgent-message-at-the-world-economic-forum/

“One of the problems that we face is that climate change is on the ascendant, and people are not always making the links to water as they perhaps should. I think that’s coming and over the next two to three years water will progressively build into a really central component of the Davos agenda.” — John Elkington, SustainAbility   

DAVOS, Switzerland — Water, water everywhere, so let us stop to think. The recent World Economic Forum at Davos put the substance that defines life (and economic bottom lines) at center stage, with at least seven sessions focused on water’s varied challenges, business impacts, policy and future. More.

North Carolina's Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. leads Water 2030.

Preparing North Carolina's leaders and citizens to make sound decisions about our water future

Water 2030 is a statewide water resources initiative launched in March 2004 to ensure that North Carolinians in every part of the state have access to ample supplies of clean water. The initiative produced extensive information on the state's public infrastructure and long-term water supply and engaged leaders and citizens in discussions about North Carolina's water future. The Rural Center continues to advocate state action in response to these findings.

Visit the website to learn more about this state's economic development initiative.

The mission of the PUC Water Institute (PWI) is to conduct research and offer educational programs in water resources, and assist local, regional and state agencies, as well as the private sector in economic development and in resolving water-related issues. The PWI can provide an interdisciplinary approach to complex issues dealing with water efficiency, water quality, economy, and water security.

In establishing this Water Institute Vice Chancellor Nabil Ibrahim recognized Lake Michigan as a vital natural and economic resource for Northwest Indiana. He viewed Purdue University Calumet Water Institute as the institution that would lead the way in developing emerging water related technologies for water efficiency, water quality and future economic development opportunities for Northwest Indiana.

The institute is housed, not in one academic department, but across multiple departments and across schools in an interdisciplinary approach.

The research program is expected to grow to cover these major areas:

• Quality and security
• Technology and efficiency
• Policy, planning and economic development.

These areas will include complex and extensive studies aimed at advancing the state-of-art in water resource management and developing reliable tools to inform decision makers in addressing economic development concerns.

Daily Stream Flow Conditions, offers real-time water data for the nation. It is an example of the kind of real-time data visualization/modeling tools community and regional leaders will need to steward local natural resources.

GreenCityBlueLake offers information categories on water from this page:

• Regional agenda
• Lake Erie
• Rivers
• Water issues

With these web site search results for "water."

If you haven't had a chance to see the movie FLOW, be sure to do so. It is a current documentary about water, a global, finite natural resource.

How communities come together to plan for conservation, restoration, and efficiency methods is a critical part of community development today.

Consider this fact sheet on the Butler County Ohio Economic Development page, linking the Miami River Water Shed to regional economic development in history:

Butler County Ohio, the Great Miami River Buried Valley Aquifer System (GMR-BVAS) which  provides fresh water in great abundance.  It is one of the largest and most productive aquifer systems in the country. (See map below)

What is the impact on local natural resources of this fact and, ultimately, the affect on long term community and regional sustainability?

San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals chose Butler County’s West Chester Township for its $400 million biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in 2007 because of the GMR-BVAS’s abundant water supply.

Related link: Butler County Department of Environmental Services

The Edwards Aquifer is a unique groundwater system and one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world.

The Edwards Aquifer region in Texas leverages online communication and information on the web to archive and share information about their region's aquifer. The Edwards Aquifer Website site contains images, essays, alternate solutions, and a special section on modeling that includes raw data analylsis to 3D renderings. 

The Edwards Aquifer web site contains archives, maps, visual renderings of our most precious natural resource.