Part One A citizens' committee and the Cincinnati city manager have proposed that City Council transform the Cincinnati Water Works into the Greater Cincinnati Regional Water District.
Many people think of water as a naturally occurring gift of nature, but drinkable water in an urbanized region is a manufactured product. It has taken continuous investment over two centuries to create the Cincinnati Water Works.
The Greater Cincinnati Water Works is historically owned and operated by the city of Cincinnati, but it supplies water for approximately 85 percent of all Hamilton County residents, as well 50 jurisdictions beyond the county, including parts of fast growing areas of Butler and Warren County, in Ohio and Boone County, including the city of Florence, in Kentucky.
To discuss this proposal, what motivated it, what its implications for the region might be, I am joined this morning by Cincinnati City Manager, Milton Dohoney.
Part Two 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the origin of the species.
Next week, Cincinnati will host the ninth North American Paleontological Convention. The organization sites this as the perfect location because of the richness of the region in classic strata and fossils, and because of the discovery of mastodons at Big Bone Lick in Boone County in the late 18th century. This is the birthplace of American paleontology.
What is really interesting about this convention is that it is generally full of scholarly papers. On Thursday, the scientists throw the doors open to the general public for a series of sessions that deal with issues of broad and popular interest.
To discuss the convention, I am joined by Arnold Miller, a professor of geology at the University of Cincinnati, and Glenn Storrs, the assistant vice president and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
