What's New?
In December
2005, the Michigan Legislature passed an Environment Michigan-backed
resolution
urging the federal government to implement and fund the $20 billion
plan for Great Lakes restoration. In addition, the resolution
pledged that Michigan
will match federal funding with state money whenever possible in order
to fully
implement the restoration plan.
Environment Michigan is now working to foster champions among Michigan's congressional delegation to increase funding
for the Great Lakes in the federal FY07
budget.
How You Can Help
Thank Gov.
Granholm for supporting new funding for Great Lakes
restoration.
Background
The health of
the Great Lakes is of critical importance to
public health, the environment and the economies of the region and the nation.
Although the health of the Great Lakes has
improved in some respects over the past several decades, there is clear and
convincing evidence that the ecosystem is currently deteriorating: beaches are
closed to swimming, fish are unsafe to eat, nuisance species like zebra mussels
are invading, sediment is contaminated with toxins, and shorelines are not
healthy.
The Everglades faced a similar threat in the mid 1990's and
Congress responded with a massive restoration effort. Likewise, as 20 percent of the
world's fresh surface water, the Great Lakes
need and deserve a strong national commitment of resources. This is a critical
time for the lakes, as after decades of progress, environmental conditions in
the Great Lakes are rapidly degrading.
Our efforts to
restore the lakes have a goal of obtaining significant congressional
and
matching state appropriations by 2008 to address the major problems in
the lakes. This long list of problems includes toxic sediment cleanup,
habitat
restoration, sewage overflows, invasive species, etc. Although bills in
Congress with over 100 co-sponsors have been introduced, Congress and
the Bush administration have refused to move them forward in part
because of the lack of
a coherent plan to address the issues in the lakes.
In order to create a Great Lakes restoration plan, on May 18, 2004,
President Bush signed Executive Order 13340 creating the "Great Lakes
Interagency Task Force," consisting of EPA Administrator Leavitt (Chair,
now Secretary Johnson), the Secretaries of State, Interior, Agriculture, HUD,
Transportation, Homeland Security, and Army as well as the Chairman of the
Council on Environmental Quality.
The goals of this Task Force are to
"establish a regional collaboration to address nationally significant
environmental and natural resource issues involving the Great Lakes,"
ensure "more systematic collaboration and better integration of
effort" among federal agencies and "ensure that their programs are
funding effective, coordinated, and environmentally sound activities in the
Great Lakes system." In other words, the goals are to coordinate and
develop a plan for restoring the Great Lakes.
EPA convened the GLRC as the first step in this process.
