Federal Funding for Great Lakes Restoration Uncertain

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, March 21, 2006 (ENS) - Congressional support for the effort to clean up the Great Lakes appears to be sinking, only four months after federal, state and local leaders announced a new $20 billion strategy for restoration of the world's largest fresh surface water ecosystem. Witnesses at a Senate hearing last week warned that the Great Lakes are rapidly deteriorating, but the committee's Republican chairman said the plan is incomplete, overly ambitious and too expensive.

"There is a limited federal role in the restoration of this and other watersheds," said Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Progress has been made in improving the coordination of Great Lakes programs, Inhofe said, but "much more is needed before we can add to the federal contribution."

Inhofe's remarks came as a heavy blow to advocates of the restoration strategy, who cautioned time is running out for the ecosystem.

"The Great Lakes remain in a degraded state," said Senator Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican. "Historical threats are combining with new ones and the lakes are at a tipping point. We need to act now."

The federal government currently spends some $500 million annually on a some 140 programs aimed at restoration of the Great Lakes, which are a vital trade corridor. The five lakes also contain 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water and provide drinking water for 40 million people in the United States and Canada.

Originating from the east end of Gary, Indiana, the Grand Calumet River is 16 miles long and flows through the heavily industrialized cities of Gary, East Chicago and Hammond. The majority of the river drains into Lake Michigan via the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal. (Photo courtesy EPA)

More than half the original wetlands in the Great Lakes' watershed have been destroyed along with 60 percent of the forests, contaminated sediment litters shallow waters and shorelines, and a dead zone forms across 60 percent of Lake Erie every summer.

Ecological deterioration in the Great Lakes "is accelerating dramatically and if it is not addressed now, the damage is likely to be irreversible," said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation's Great Lakes Office.

Federal programs targeting the Great Lakes, as well as state and local efforts, have long been criticized as underfunded and poorly coordinated – a concern the Bush administration pledged to address in 2004 by the formation of task force.

The result of that effort, called the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, was unveiled in December 2005. The plan recommends an overhaul of federal and state programs and for $20.1 billion, including $10.5 billion in new federal funding, to be spent over five years.

But in their Fiscal Year 2007 budget the Bush administration did not propose any new funding to implement the new strategy and has proposed a nine percent cut for the long list of programs aimed at restoring and aiding the Great Lakes region, leaving the fate of the strategy in the hands of Congress.

Ohio Governor Bob Taft said the strategy represents "an amazing milestone" and is the product of an "unprecedented effort."

Invasive and rapidly spreading through U.S. freshwater lakes, zebra mussels are here shown washed up on a Lake Erie beach. (Photo courtesy NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab)

"Without your support in this critical first year, there is a danger that the plan will be for naught and our momentum will be undermined," Taft told the panel. "That would be tragic."

But Inhofe, who as chair of the committee is key to funding the effort, did not hear Taft's plea or any of the other testimony at the hearing – the Oklahoma Republican left the hearing immediately after he concluded his opening statement.

Inhofe told colleagues the cleanup plan lacks priorities and does not address how data gaps on the state of the lakes and the effectiveness of cleanup efforts should be implemented.

"This is a critical piece that is missing," said Inhofe. "There is not enough data or monitoring on the Great Lakes."

Other lawmakers rejected that notion and pledged support for the new strategy.

"There is no shortage of plans, there is no shortage of data," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat. "It is the funding that is inadequate."

Levin and DeWine have coauthored legislation to implement the new strategy.

The Great Lakes is a "unique American treasure" fully deserving of a national restoration effort, Levin said.

"I don't want the plan sitting on a shelf somewhere," added Senator Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat. "I want the recommendations implemented. The longer we wait the more the damage intensifies and the more expensive it will be."