ND WRRI cosponsors “47^th Annual Midwest Groundwater Conference” in Fargo

About 100 ground-water practitioners and students met at the 47^th Annual Midwest Groundwater Conference (MWGWC) held in Fargo, ND, on October 2^nd to 4^th, 2002. The conference was sponsored by the North Dakota State Water Commission, the North Dakota Geological Survey, the Water Resources Division of the United States Geological Survey, the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering of University of North Dakota, and the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute located in North Dakota State University campus.

The MWGWC is an annual conference hosted by one of the 14 member Midwest states each fall. It is believed to be the longest-running conference dedicated to ground water. The conference, which was held in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001, will be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2003.

The attendees came from 12 different states and 2 Canadian provinces. Attendees were ground-water practitioners in private enterprise, federal, state, and local government, as well as universities. Several graduate and undergraduate students and faculty from UND and NDSU attended the conference.

The conference provided an opportunity for hydrologists, geologists, engineers, planners, students and others studying the ground-water resources of their respective states to meet and exchange ideas, discuss mutual problems, and summarize results of field and laboratory studies. Thirty-eight oral and poster presentations were made in a total of one poster and six podium sessions. Participants also had the benefit of enjoying a pre-conference field trip to the Sheyenne National Grasslands.

Dr Allan Ashworth, Professor and Chair of Department of Geosciences, NDSU, presented a dinner talk on, “A Warmer Antarctica”.

For information on the institute and its programs, contact G. Padmanabhan, Director of the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute at 231-7043 or g.padmanabhan@ndsu.edu or visit the web page http://www.ce.ndsu.nodak.edu/wrri