raSmith Landscape Architect, Tom Mortensen presented a live and recorded webinar on February 8th to inform landscape professionals about current threats to freshwater and groundwater, how industrialized agribusiness poses many challenges to keeping our waters safe and how we need to adopt a water ethic and change our mindset about our water use.

Mortensen gave in-depth examples about water use across the country and showed how PFAS, known as forever chemicals, have been found in many of our fresh water sources and how politics have prevented the re-regulation of our outdated and somewhat ineffective laws.

He discussed how the Clean Water Act is not entirely effective because surface water and ground water are not one in the same, according to the EPA.

Attendees learned about some staggering statistics associated with our water use as we use more water in a day than we use oil in a year.

 

To earn LA/CES HSW, APLD, PGMS, NALP, and QWEL CEUs/PDHs, register for the OnDemand session now available on LandscapeWebinars.org.

Learning Objectives:
1. Learn about current threats to our freshwater and groundwater.
2. Learn how industrialized agribusiness is impacting our water.
3. Learn about how we need to develop a water ethic.

Webinar Description:
The Clean Water Act of 1972 - How's that working out for us? There are many issues that are affecting our fresh water quality, both surface and groundwater. The current regulations are not calibrated to address these threats which are political, economic, and environmental. This presentation cites many issues throughout the U.S. and how they can be mitigated.


Tom Mortensen

Tom Mortensen has over 35 years of experience in site design, landscape architecture and related design and construction professions.

He has worked on design projects with for US Forest Service, National Park Service, Boy Scouts of America, Native American Tribes and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Since 2011, he has been teaching a class at the UWM School of Continuing Education in the Water Technology Certification program on the topics of green infrastructure, water, native landscape, and site design methods for more resilient integration of rainfall on sites.