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Rep.Murphy to Host First Annual North Carolina WATERS Summit

October 5, 2021

Greenville, N.C. – Today, Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (NC-03) announced that he will be hosting the first annual Water Adaptations to Ensure Regional Success (WATERS) Summit on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. The purpose of this bipartisan conference will be to hear from leading experts about human adaptation strategies to waterway challenges in North Carolina and develop legislative plans to combat these challenges over the next 5, 25, and 100-years. Summit attendees will cover a range of waterway issues, from flooding in inland streams, creeks, and rivers to hurricane mitigation and other marine coastal issues.

Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. will be joined by Rep. David Rouzer (NC-07), Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) (virtual), Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC-01), leading scientific and academic experts, and many state and local leaders.

WATERS Summit presenters include:

Jay Faison, Chairman, American Flood Coalition

Dr. Ed Kearns, Ph.D., Chief Data Officer, First Street Foundation

Dr. Antonia Sebastian, Assistant Professor, Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. Barbara Doll Ph.D., PE Associate Extension Professor and Extension Specialist, Biological & Agricultural Engineering Dept & NC Sea Grant, NC State University

Dr. Hans Paerl, Ph.D., Kenan Professor of Marine and Environmental Sciences, UNC-CH Institute of Marine Sciences

Dr. Reide Corbett, Ph.D., Dean & Executive Director, Integrated Coastal Programs, Coastal Studies Institute, East Carolina University

Dr. Laura Moore, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences; Director, Collaboratory for Coastal Adaptation over Space and Time (C-CoAST), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Melissa Roberts, Founder and Executive Director, American Flood Coalition

Dave Canaan, Director, County Storm Water Engineering & Flood Mitigation, Mecklenburg County

Saskia Pardaans, Senior Advisor on Infrastructure and Water Management at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Matthijs Bouw, Dutch architect and urbanist and founder of One Architect (est. 1995), an award-winning Amsterdam and New York-based design and planning firm.

Mr. Mark Harrell, Expert in Water Adaptation from coastal Louisiana

Speaker Tim Moore

Lt. Governor Mark Robinson

Colonel Ben Bennett, Ph.D., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Dr. Greg Williams, Ph.D., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Dr. Joseph Long, Ph.D., Earth and Ocean Sciences Department, University of North Carolina-Wilmington

Mr. John Preyer/Mr. George Howard,Restoration Systems

John Nicholson, Chief Deputy Secretary for the NC Department of Environmental Quality

Colin Mellor, Environmental Policy Advisor for the NC Department of Transportation

Tim Beard, US Department of Agriculture representative to the Natural Resources Conservation Service of North Carolina (Virtual)

Dr. Gavin Smith, Research Center at NC State University

Dr. Amanda Martin, NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency

Members of the public are invited to watch the WATERS Summit live via YouTube livestream on October 13, 2021 from 9:00am-4:30pm.

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