Federal money for scientific research, toxic-pollution cleanup and correcting sewage-overflow problems remains a major issue.
"Unless we invest in a solution to restore the Great Lakes today, the price we pay tomorrow will be much higher, and future generations may never experience the lakes as we know them," said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association and co-chairman of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.
Three species of Asian carp threaten the Great Lakes: Black, big head and silver. But any one of them spells disaster.
Plankton eaters, Asian carp eat up to 40 percent of their body weight daily, grow up to 100 pounds and have no natural predators. They would have a major impact on Lake Erie's perch and walleye populations.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/115900090237770.xml&coll=2
CLEVELAND - Gov. Bob Taft said yesterday that a pair of congressional bills calling for an unprecedented $20 billion in Great Lakes cleanup funds could become a key election issue this fall and in the 2008 presidential election.
Though the federal budget has been spread thin by the response to Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq, Mr. Taft said Congress cannot bypass the needs of 40 million Great Lakes residents in the United States and Canada by letting the Bush Administration back off its once-assumed commitment to fund the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act.
"No new money is not an acceptable answer, especially when state and local governments have been investing more heavily in the Great Lakes than the federal government," the outgoing Republican governor told a packed ballroom in downtown Cleveland's Crowne Plaza, where 250 scientists, activists, and government officials are attending a three-day Great Lakes conference.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060923/NEWS06/609230412
CLEVELAND -- Problems on the Great Lakes are approaching the tipping point and environmentalists need to intensify their push for Congress to fund restoration efforts on the lakes.
Those assessments came Friday from a series of speakers during the first day of the two-day Great Lakes Restoration Conference sponsored by the eco-group Healing Our Waters -- Great Lakes Coalition.
The 18-month-old group comprises nearly 90 environmental groups in the Midwest, and was created to offer a unified grass-roots voice on problems of the Great Lakes.
Scientists are worried that the lakes are approaching a tipping point after which recovery will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, said University of Michigan professor Don Scavia, the coalition's chief scientist.
Posted by Dave at September 23, 2006 01:36 PM