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UO Campus Talk: Speaking for the River with James Hillegas-Elting

Monday, April 22, 2019 at 4:00pm to 5:00pm

Erb Memorial Union (EMU), Crater Lake South
1395 University Street, Eugene, OR 97403

UO CAMPUS TALK

Speaker: James Hillegas-Elting

Location:

UO Campus Talk

Crater Lake Room South 4:00 to 5:15 (room is reserved from 3:45 to 5:45)

Sponsors:
- UO Environmental Studies
- Oregon Humanities Center
- UO Center for Environmental Futures
- UO Office of Sustainability
- UO Student Sustainability Center

Talk Title: Speaking for the River: Confronting Pollution on the Willamette, 1920s-1970s

Blurb: Willamette River historian James Hillegas-Elting shares stories from his new book, Speaking for the River: Confronting Pollution on the Willamette, 1920s-1970s. The Willamette River is championed as one of the great national river clean-up success stories. Elting identifies key people and events that laid the foundation of both the Willamette River clean-up successes celebrated in the national press in the 1970s, and the continued challenges of the current era defined by big projects like superfund and citizen initiatives. The talk connects downstream ecosystem health with upstream conservation driven by nonprofit organizations, university faculty and students, and local government.

Biography: James V. Hillegas-Elting is an historian of the 20th century urban environment in North America, specializing in the science, engineering, policy, and politics of the physical infrastructure that makes modern cities possible: transportation, sanitation, and energy.