At last week's Healing Our Waters conference in Grand Rapids, local Congressman (and longtime environmental champion) Vern Ehlers injected reality into the discussion of a $20 billion Great Lakes rescue plan. He challenged the plan's supporters to do the following before the plan is made final in December:
Make the plan specific. The final plan’s recommendations must clearly point to which program authorizations are adequate, which are not and what needs to be created or changed and how.
Set priorities. The final plan should identify what should be accomplished first and what can wait until later.
Make the results measurable. A baseline should be created. Success in meeting the recommendations should be based on the improvement of developed indicators.
Put people in charge. The final plan must describe how restoration activities will be coordinated and assign leadership roles to the appropriate agencies.
Identify funding. The plan should clearly identify current sources of funding (including state, municipal and private sources) and where new sources (i.e., authorizations) are required.
These common sense suggestions -- which would give the plan a fighting chance in Washington -- will not be easy to accomplish. Given that other national needs are likely to result in a drain on federal dollars for some time to come, it's also unclear whether more than a dribble of new money will flow toward the plan. There is some talk that existing funding will be consolidated and put under a "czar" of some kind.
The feeling of Great Lakes community and support for restoration are growing, but these are tough times for major new federal/state initiatives.