Great Lakes Restoration
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through a process begun by an executive order signed by President Bush in May 2004, has released a draft plan outlining steps and costs needed to protect the health of the Great Lakes. The estimated $20 billion cost of the plan comes without any guaranteed state or federal commitment to fund it. To learn more about the plan -- and to insist that there be funding, and to register your comments by the deadline of September 9, 2005, go here:
http://www.glrc.us/
Limiting Harmful Great Lakes Water Uses and Exports
The Great Lakes states and Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario have released revised draft agreements intended to promote water conservation and to limit the risk of harmful water uses and exports outside the Great Lakes Basin. Debate persists over whether the agreements will be effective in preventing the loss of Great Lakes water, and control of that water, to other regions of the U.S., North America, and even other continents. The Great Lakes contain almost one-fifth of the world's surface freshwater at a time of severe global fresh water scarcity.
Five public meetings are scheduled in Michigan but nothing has been confirmed for Minnesota yet.
To learn more about the agreements -- and to speak out by the official deadline of August 30, 2005, go here:
http://www.cglg.org/projects/water/annex2001Implementing.asp