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Tara Jänosh |
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Marine law student pioneers dual-degree program
“It’s always one of those things we’ll get to later,” Tara Jänosh says ruefully of the typical government approach to environmental policy. “We still have water to drink. We still have beaches to go to. We still have waterfront to build on. In the grand scheme of government,” she says, “as long as resources are not depleted, ‘we’ll get to it later.’”
Jänosh thinks the time to get to it is now. Determined to motivate action on environmental policy development, she cut her teeth on policy issues as a student of marine and environmental law.
One of the first students matriculated in the joint degree program between Roger Williams University and URI’s Marine Affairs program, Jänosh received both her law degree and master’s degree in marine affairs in May.
She also was one of the first Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Fellows, which allowed her to apply her legal training to research, analysis, summary reports, and consultation for constituents grappling with ocean and coastal problems. “With the amount of development going on in the state, there has to be a balance between industrial, commercial, and residential development and the environment,” she says. Working primarily with state agencies and local governments, she provides legal research for officials who have to consider how projects will affect the community.
One mission of the joint degree program is generating innovative policies and laws to address resource issues. Jänosh, who focused on sources of pollution to municipal water supplies, worked with Lorraine Joubert, a URI research associate in the Department of Natural Resources Science, developing workshops for town officials seeking to implement water pollution control strategies.
Although preventive practices to protect water supplies claim little urgency in the absence of water shortages or pollution crises, Jänosh says that unless towns protect wellheads and ground water resources, “they won’t have drinking water.”
It’s something to get to now rather than later.
By Tony Corey
