This year's speaker, Virgil Norton, is manager of the Upper Republican River Natural Resource District in Imperial, Neb. He will speak on "Water Resource Management: A Critical Issue for Farmers and Rural Communities in the 21st Century."

Norton to Address Water Issues

Norton is responsible for initiating and enforcing policies, rules and regulations set by elected directors for groundwater management in an area with 3,300 irrigation wells and declining aquifer levels. He develops and oversees public policy research and prepares testimony for presentation to the Nebraska legislature.

The board has instituted a moratorium on new wells, water-use allocations and a water-banking rule that adopts water marketing as a management tool. The district is participating as a "Friend of the Court" in a U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit by Kansas against Nebraska and Colorado over water use in the Republican River Basin.

Reheis to Deliver Response

Harold F. Reheis, director of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) in the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, will deliver a response to the lecture, "Georgia's Groundwater Management Issues."

Reheis manages the Georgia Geologic Survey and all Georgia environmental programs covering air and water quality, safe drinking water, water resource allocation, groundwater protection, solid and hazardous waste.

The J.W. Fanning Lecture is sponsored by the Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia and the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

The lecture is named for the late J.W. Fanning, who was instrumental in developing public service and outreach at the University of Georgia.

Registration begins at 10:30 a.m. The lecture begins at 11 a.m. The lecture is free, but there's a $25 registration fee for the luncheon following the lecture. Preregister by Nov. 3. Make checks payable to Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia and mail to: 301 Conner Hall, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7509.