Detroit News -- Congress is poised to nearly double its funding commitment to the Great Lakes,
The unprecedented amount of money being considered for the Great Lakes reflects President Barack Obama's pledge on the campaign trail of $5 billion for large-scale restoration.
Obama asked Congress for $475 million to get started. Already the federal government appropriates about $550 million a year to Great Lakes programs, which environmentalists expect will continue. If all goes as advocates hope, Congress would be committing about $1 billion to the Great Lakes in fiscal year 2010.
"This is a Great Lakes president," said Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, noting Obama built his career in Illinois. "He really cares about the Lakes because he knows them."
But advocates say the high funding levels mean more than jobs. They will also mean cleaner water for boaters, swimmers and wildlife.
They hope Congress will sustain funding at the higher level. The House bill asks the Environmental Protection Agency to draw up a five-year cleanup plan at the higher funding levels.
Lynn Vaccaro, project coordinator of the Michigan Sea Grant, predicts state programs could get roughly one-third of the money. She pointed out that 58 percent of the Great Lakes' U.S. shorelines are in Michigan, as are 44 percent of the contaminated "areas of concern" in U.S. feeder rivers and harbors.
Only Michigan lies completely in the basin. The other Great Lakes states are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Drawing on an analysis by the Brookings Institution, Vaccaro predicts that if $475 million was appropriated annually over five years, about $2 billion to $4.3 billion in economic activity could be created in Michigan.
That reflects expected spending increases on everything from fishing rods and beer to kayaks and charter boats. Plus, the value of homes and other property around previously contaminated areas would rise.
The funding boost would help businesses and wildlife groups alike.
... allow "us to start bringing the Great Lakes back to health rapidly and effectively."
The president's request includes:
• $146 million for cleaning up pollution in sediment in feeder rivers and harbors before it flows into the Lakes.
• $105 million to protect and restore habitat and wildlife.
• $97 million to stop "nonpoint" pollution, such as farm fertilizer and oil runoff, that closes beaches and leads to fish kills.
• $65 million to evaluate how the Lakes and wildlife are responding to cleanup efforts.
• $60 million for combating zebra mussels and other invasive species, which the EPA has estimated cause up to $5 billion in damage a year in the Great Lakes basin by destroying fisheries, clogging power plants' pipes and reducing property values.
"The problems are so huge that we'll need a sustained, multiyear commitment from both the administration and the Congress to fix 100 percent of the problems facing the Great Lakes,"
Please read full at Detroit News
