Profile on MRLS Alumnus Britta Strother, Interim Executive Director of South Metro Water Supply Authority

Britta Strother, who holds a Masters of Resources Law Studies degree from the Denver Law Environmental and Natural Resources Law Graduate Program, has been named Interim Executive Director of the South Metro Water Supply Authority (SMWSA). In this role, Ms. Stroher is responsible for the management of all activity that is taken by the SMWSA. She oversees the budget as well as all of the engineering, accounting and public relations work that are done.

Formed in 2004, the SMWSA is a regional water authority that includes most of Douglas and some of Arapahoe counties in Colorado. SMWSA provides its members with the necessary planning, negotiation and implementation tools to secure renewable water resources for their constituents. Some of the municipalities and special water districts that are part of SMWSA include: the town of Castle Rock, Parker Water and Sanitation District, Centennial Water and Sanitation District (Highlands Ranch), and East Cherry Creek Water and Sanitation District. A full list of members can be found by clicking here.

Ms. Strother joined SMWSA in September 2007 as the Water Resource Specialist. In this position, Ms. Strother was immediately involved in negotiations between members, evaluation of potential water rights purchases and regional studies for water infrastructure integration.

Holding a Masters in Resource Law Studies with specializations in water law and policy as well as environmental law and policy from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law provided Ms. Stroher with "unique and powerful tools for these responsibilities," according to Lucy Daberkow, Associate Administrative Director of the Denver Law program.

In February 2011, Ms. Strother was promoted to Water Resources Project Manager. Her role with the SMWSA expanded with this new position to include the coordination and development of infrastructure including pipelines, reservoirs and interconnects and also a greater management of the daily SMWSA needs (including budget development and project oversight).

As the SMWSA continues in the negotiations that her predecessor, Rod Kuharich, began, Ms. Strother hopes to bring a number of important supply projects to fruition in the coming months. One exciting project that the SMWSA is negotiating is the Water Infrastructure Supply Efficiency (WISE) Partnership, a regional delivery project between Denver Water, Aurora and SMWSA. The WISE Partnership contemplates sharing existing water rights and infrastructure from all three parties to serve the SMWSA with on average 10,000 acre-feet per year either directly into member’s respective distribution systems or into surface and aquifer storage. The three parties are currently in negotiations for the WISE delivery agreement, anticipated to be signed in early 2012. This project is one component to the SMWSA master plan to remove some of the strain on the non-renewable Denver basin ground water by delivering renewable surface water. It represents the forward thinking that is currently taking place to meet the current and anticipated future water demands of the Denver metropolitan area.

Ms. Daberkow said, "It is wonderful to see the important contributions that Ms. Strother is making to the critical issues of water supply in the arid Rocky Mountain West. By studying at Denver Law, Ms. Strother put in place an understanding of the important issues that will serve her well throughout her entire career.

Lincoln Bramwell, Chief Historian for USDA Forest Service, to Speak at Denver Law on November 14

Dr. Lincoln Bramwell, Chief Historian for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, will make a presentation at Denver Law on "Exurban Land Use in Colorado" on Monday, November 14 at noon in room 170.

Dr. Bramwell's presentation was announced by Liz Hutchinson, president of the sponsoring organization the Natural Resources and Environmental Law Society (NRELS).

In the middle part of the last century, Rocky Mountain-based developers began to design areas Dr. Bramwell refers to as "wilderburbs," groups of rural homes located close to cities. He argued in his dissertation that "when humans tried to blend suburban order and structure with untrammeled natural aesthetics and features, they created unintended consequences for residents, the land, and wildlife." His dissertation has been published as a book, "Wilderburbs: Nature, culture, and the rise of rural development in the Rocky Mountain West, 1960-2000." More information about the book can be obtained by clicking here.

In addition, NRELS has arranged for interested students to join Professor Rock Pring's Public Lands and Resources Law Class (Monday, November 14 from 2:45 – 4:00 in room 280 as long as there is space available) for Dr. Bramwell’s presentation on “The 1911 Weeks Act: The Law that ‘Nationalized’ the National Forests.” The act has enabled the Forest Service to purchase eroded and cut-over private lands in the eastern United States.

In 2009 when he was named historian for the Forest Service, Dr. Bramwell said, "In my position as the agency's historian, it is my goal to make Forest Service history more accessible to the public and more meaningful to the agency." Earlier in his career he worked on Forest Service hotshot and trail crews. "I had the opportunity to view the agency from the ground up and find working for it no less compelling today," he said.

Will Sarni, Director and Practice Leader at Deloitte Consulting's Sustainability and Climate Change Practice, to Speak at Denver Law November 9

Will Sarni, an internationally recognized thought leader on sustainability and corporate water strategies, will speak at Denver Law on November 9 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in room 259. Mr. Sarni will speak about his sustainability practice and how that practice has changed in recent years.

Mr. Sarni has been providing sustainability, environmental and hydrogeological consulting services to private- and public-sector enterprises for more than three decades, with a focus on developing and implementing corporate-wide sustainability strategies, as well as broad based climate and water programs.

Mr. Sarni’s diverse client list includes Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations and non- governmental organizations (NGOs). He has managed complex projects throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, working with some of the world’s most recognizable companies.

He is the author of Greening Brownfields: Remediation Through Sustainable Development and contributed to Environmental Regulation of Colorado Real Property. He is the author of the recently published, Corporate Water Strategies and the forthcoming book, Water Tech – A Guide to Innovation and Business Opportunities.

Mr. Sarni was a member of the Environmental Compliance Committee of the Chicago Climate Exchange and is active in the International Association of Hydrogeologists and The Conference Board. He was a sustainability adviser to the 2018/2022 US World Cup Bid Committee, a judge for the 2010 CleanTech Open and the Hult Global Case Challenge – Clean Water Crisis.

Don Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program that is sponsoring the event, said, "One of the aims of a Denver Law education is to introduce students to individuals whose professional experience reflects the cutting-edge issues -- and careers -- of our times. Will Sarni is one of these unique individuals who has built a reputation and a career in the area of sustainability. There is no more profound an example of a career in sustainability than the one that Will Sarni has built over the last several decades."