EPA: Great Lakes cleanup plan on track
By JOHN FLESHER
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - A comprehensive plan to tackle the Great Lakes' most pressing environmental problems — from invasive species to sewage overflows — is on track despite complaints about inadequate federal funding, an
Environmental Protection Agency official said.
A $20 billion ecosystem restoration blueprint crafted by a public-private coalition is boosting the Great Lakes' national profile and has favorable long-term prospects, said Gary Gulezian, director of the EPA's Great Lakes National Program Office.
"In the 30 years I've been working for the EPA, I've never seen as much national attention paid to the Great Lakes as in the past couple of years," Gulezian said in an interview with The Associated Press at a conference this week on protecting the region's coastal sand dunes.
Recent congressional approval of legislation authorizing $80 million over five years to restore fish and wildlife habitat addresses a primary goal of the restoration initiative, Gulezian said. The total is twice as much as previously authorized.
The money won't be spent unless included in separate appropriations bills. But Congress probably wouldn't have endorsed such a boost in Great Lakes funding without the plan, known as the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, Gulezian said.
"I think it's paying off," he said, noting that President Bush's last two budgets had sought a combined $100 million to clean up contaminated Great Lakes sediments. "That's a lot of money to request. I don't think that would have happened if we didn't have this collaboration."
The plan's support from a wide range of interest groups is important because Congress wants the region to "speak with one voice" when seeking money, Gulezian said.
Bush appointed a Cabinet-level task force in 2004 to coordinate Great Lakes cleanup efforts. The task force oversaw the collaboration, which involved officials from federal, local and state governments as well as American Indian tribes, academics and activists.
The group released its strategy in 2005. It outlined a series of threats to the lakes' ecological health and proposed remedies and funding.
Among the proposals: tighter controls on oceangoing ships believed to ferry exotic species into the lakes; habitat restoration; improved drinking and waste water systems; quicker cleanup of heavily polluted sites; reducing toxic discharges and runoff.
While Bush championed Great Lakes cleanup during campaign visits to the region in 2004, critics accused him of backtracking after the election. His 2007 budget proposal called for a 9 percent reduction in lakes funding, including cutbacks in 14 of 22 programs tied to the restoration initiative.
Gulezian said the criticism was unfair.
Posted by Dave at October 4, 2006 06:37 PM