New Report: Solving Region’s Sewage Crisis Will Create Jobs, Restore Great Lakes

Coalition Announces Grants to Help Groups Participate In $475 Million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (September 1, 2010) —The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition today announced $189,564 in grants that will be awarded to 12 organizations poised to jump-start restoration projects on each of the Great Lakes.

The Coalition grants will help conservation organizations participate in the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a federal program to clean up toxic pollution, confront aquatic invasive species and restore habitat and wetlands.

Grants of up to $15,000 per project are being awarded to groups in five geographic priority areas: The St. Louis River and St. Louis Bay in Lake Superior; the Read More » »

Coalition Grant Recipients for 2010

The Healing Our Water-Great Lakes Coalition today announced $189,564 in grants that will be awarded to 12 organizations poised to jump-start restoration projects on each of the Great Lakes.

Grant projects and recipients include:

Project Title: Lake and Suburban Cook County Ravine Project Identification and Engagement
Applicant: Alliance for the Great Lakes
Priority Area: Chicago Land
Award: $15,000
Project Summary:
The Alliance for the Great Lakes will build municipal partnerships in northeastern Illinois to support a federal funding proposal that creates a ravine improvement prioritization and tracking system. This will lead to the implementation of on-the-ground Lake Michigan ravine restoration projects by allowing landowners to identify and Read More » »

Turning the Tide is Turning Headlines Around the Region

Earlier this week, the Healing Our Waters Coalition released a report detailing the sewage crisis that the Great Lakes are facing due to our region’s antiquated sewer infrastructure. The Coalition held release events in five Great Lakes cities to announce the findings of the report, Turning the Tide: Invest in Wastewater Infrastructure to Create Jobs and Solve the Sewage Crisis in the Great Lakes and promote recommendations that would create jobs while making the Great Lakes healthy once more. The report calls on Congress to fund storm and waste water infrastructure improvement projects by investing $2.7 billion in the federal Read More » »

Congress Needs to Step up Funding for Sewage Crisis, Report Says

The Healing Our Waters Campaign is calling on Congress to increase their investment in wastewater infrastructure in an effort to restore the Great Lakes and create tens of thousands of jobs in our region. This afternoon in five historic Great Lakes cities HOW released a report: Turning the Tide: Invest in Wastewater Infrastructure to Create Jobs and Solve the Sewage Crisis in the Great Lakes.

Nearly 200 communities on the US side of the lakes have antiquated combined sewer systems (CSO) that when overloaded from rain or snow untreated sewage is sent into our lakes…and our drinking water. This forces Read More » »

New Report: Solving Region’s Sewage Crisis Will Create Jobs, Restore Great Lakes

Reversing federal wastewater infrastructure deficit, investing in “green” solutions key to tackling sewage overflows—serious public health threat

Failure to Address $23 Billion Backlog Could Hamper Restoration Efforts

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (Aug. 9, 2010) —The Great Lakes are under siege from sewage pollution, four decades after Congress passed the federal Clean Water Act, according to a new report from the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. (Click here to download the report.)

According to the report, “Turning the Tide: Investing in Wastewater Infrastructure to Create Jobs and Solve the Sewage Crisis in the Great Lakes,” communities that rely on the Great Lakes for Read More » »

Congressional Support for GLRI: Three Steps Forward, One Step Back

[caption id="attachment_4177" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="photo presented at Hill News Conference"][/caption]
Despite a huge push by Great Lakes Members of the House of Representative to keep restoration funding at last year’s level, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment chose the President’s budget request for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – $300 million – over ours – $475 million that was appropriated last year. That represents a cut of nearly 40 percent. Times are tough, but every dollar we invest in Great Lakes restoration sustains and creates jobs Read More » »

Mayor Daley Shows Support For Rep. Dave Camp’s Bill

The Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act received support from a welcome and some might say, unlikely, person this week –Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who has weighed in on the latest and most important discussion in the Asian Carp crisis. Mayor Daley has written a letter to Congress expressing his support to accelerate a study that examines how to permanently separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

When Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and connected the two basins, it created a pathway by which invasive species could infest U.S. waters. The Asian Carp is poised to join Read More » »

White House Makes Final Recommendations for Ocean Policy Task Force

The Obama Administration released the final recommendations of the Ocean Policy Task Force that sets up a national policy for the protection and restoration of the oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. The Task Force recommends establishing a National Ocean Council (NOC) that will govern policies addressing conservation, economics, sustainability and user conflict among the oceans, coasts and Great Lakes.

The next step will be for the President to adopt the recommendations and issue an Executive Order. This effort will untangle a web of more than 140 various laws and regulations that are enforced by more than 20 agencies. In June 2009, Read More » »

U.S. Senate Uses Appropriations Bill to Fight Advance of Asian Carp

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development is beefing up funds for the electronic fence in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal while giving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leeway to take emergency steps to stop the Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes from any of the connections or tributaries between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins.

Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) are praising the action of the committee.

“The appropriators clearly understand the urgent threat of Asian carp, and I am grateful to them for heeding our calls to include these key Read More » »

Rep. Dave Camp’s Asian Carp Bill Needs Cosponsors

Michigan’s Congressional delegation is stepping up to the plate to support a bill to help stop the invasive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. Congressional members form the other Great Lakes states – Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and New York to name a few – need to follow suit.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) has penned a letter to his colleagues urging them to co-sponsor the Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act (HR5625). So far, only Congressional members from Michigan have co-sponsored the legislation.

The act was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate (S. 3553) after a live Asian Read More » »