Bon Appetite

OK Foodies, why should you care about the Great Lakes? They offer a cornucopia of native, succulent foods from the fresh water lakes and the rich soil of the watershed. A Great Lake’s gormet meal could begin with American caviar or duck foie gras before moving onto the main dish of roast duck, succulent whitefish or trout, Coho salmon perhaps some sea bass, sturgeon, perch, catfish or walleye. Some of these fish have been wrongly relegated to the poor man’s plate, but they could soon be on the verge of a great taste revival.

When early explorers were introduced to our native whitefish they praised it as the best in the world and said it was so delicious they could eat it for days without tiring of it. The Native Americans who helped the first settlers taught them not only of the Lake’s abundance of fish but also how to force the fertile fields to yield corn, squash and beans, wild rice and how to tap the trees for maple syrup. What an impressive culinary history and one that is in danger of extinction.

Whitefish exists upon diporeia but the zebra and quagga mussels are gobbling up this food source – yellow perch are similarly in danger. Industrial pollution from the last 100 years makes sturgeon, roughy, some salmons and many other Great Lakes fish impossible to eat due to high concentrations of PCB, Mercury and other chemical pollutants in the fish meat. The history of pollution, including sewage, has caused immeasurable damage to our native, regional food network, but we can still change this by focusing on the Great Lakes restoration strategy.

Ballast legislation that is awaiting Congress approval will have a positive impact on the invasive species such as zebra mussels that are harming the Lake’s ecology. The Great Lakes Legacy Act, if properly funded, can help eliminate the chemical and toxic pollution in the Lakes and the watershed. The State Revolving Fund, if funding is increased, can help our region build and fix our sewer system to adequately deal with our refuse and clean up the Lakes, tributaries and watershed. Just think of the amazing meals food lovers can cook up if we clean up our fresh water Lakes. To inspire salivation check out some of the recipes below:

Great Lakes Whitefish
Great Lakes Perch
Duck
Duck Foie Gras
Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheeses
Baked Sturgeon
Walleye Sandwich

Happy Thanksgiving!

Making a Wreck of History

An interesting program on the Science Channel last night focused on the ship wrecks in Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay. Apparently, Thunder Bay is the go to place for maritime archeologists, historians and students interested in studying 19th century shipping as numerous shipswrecks are spectacularly preserved in the depths of the fresh waters.

Unlike wrecks in salty seas and Oceans, the metal ships that lie in state in Lake Huron are not corroded. It is possible to really see these ships, many of which were sunk during turbulent November storms, in their former glory. Students of maritime history and nautical archaeology from Eastern Carolina travel to Lake Huron for the unique experience of diving in and around these wrecks. But there is something threatening lurking in those depths, something damaging these pristine historical sights – the prolific zebra and quagga muscles. The invasive species that traveled to this spot in the hulls of Soviet Ocean Going vessels are actively spoiling one of the best places to study the iron and steel age in America.

This could quickly come to an end if we, as a nation, do not choose to restore the Great Lakes as soon as possible. We need to halt the progress of invasive species with a sturdy national ballast standard and we need to invest in the restoration of our Great Lakes so that those in our future can better understand our past.

Some other interesting links for shipwreck enthusiasts are:

Wisconsin Shipwrecks

Shipwreck Tourism

Great Lakes Shipwreck Preservation Society

Michigan’s Ballast Law Passes another Test

It looks more and more like Michigan’s spunky ballast law is here to stay. Last week, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the shipping group’s challenge to the 2005 law that requires Salties to obtain a permit to use the state’s ports.

The permit ensures that ships will not release ballast into the port or that it will clean the water with approved technology before ejecting it. We now know the damaging cost of invasive species to the region due to an enterprising and frustrated Notre Dame graduate student who has used his doctorate to put a price tag on invasive species. John Rothlisberger started out trying to find the total cost of the invasive species brought into the lakes via ocean-going ships and his quest took him on an amazing journey that he details in a recent article posted on Live Science.

“Ship-borne invasive species were responsible for more than $200 million in losses to benefits from ecosystem services in 2006,” according to Rothlisberger. He only took the United States side of the losses into consideration.

With such a high price tag, who can blame Michigan for acting alone in the absence of federal leadership on this issue? We came seriously close to a good ballast standard this year, but Congress failed to make it law. Let’s hope that our President-Elect makes this issue a priority when he takes office this winter. In this cash strapped economy, we can’t afford to wait any longer to deal with invasive species.

Don’t Poo Where You Drink

You may not want to think of sewers and stimulation at the same time, but the two together may provide the perfect solution to many of our woes. Our region needs new sewers and we need jobs.

Chicago has the oldest comprehensive sewer system in the United States dating back to the 1800s, but like all our region’s sewer systems we built them and then forgot about them. Two years ago, the Canadian environmental group Sierra Legal released a report card grading twenty cities, which sit on the Great Lakes Basin, on their ability to manage their poo. They found that these cities were dumping more than 100 Olympic size swimming pools full of untreated sewage into the Great Lakes every single day. That adds up to nearly 24 billion gallons of raw sewage making its home in the Lakes each year. So what is the problem? Our ancient sewer system and combined sewers in particular. The combined sewer mixes the storm water system with our toilet system bringing it all together through one pipe that tends to overflow during rough storms.

It wasn’t enough to ignore the sewers, we have actively neglected them. Over the last two decades federal cash for infrastructure projects has declined by 70 percent. Now we are slowly, agonizingly realizing that was not good policy. This Fall, while the US Congress considered an economic stimulus bill, HOW wrote a letter urging them to ensure that $6.5 billion would go towards updating our sewers and wastewater treatment programs and as a byproduct create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Unfortunately, the Bush Administration decided to hand this one off to the next Congress. The good news is that while campaigning for US President, Barack Obama promised to increase federal funding for water treatment and projects aimed at reducing storm water runoff. Since the election, Obama has said he intends to make a $60 billion to $100 billion economic stimulus package a priority as soon as he is sworn into office. A number of Democrats have suggested using water and other infrastructure projects as a jobs creation program.

This isn’t just about the environment and the economy; it is also about human health. One of the most basic, civilizing instruments throughout time has been the toilet. When the new Congress meets next year, HOW will continue its campaign to include funding to update our sewer systems in an economic stimulus package.

What does a Bush and a Frog Have in Common?

President George W. Bush and Kermit the Frog shared a theme song that President-Elect Barack Obama probably doesn’t even know the words to - no, while Bush and Kermit find it’s not easy being green, Obama’s only problem seems to be which shade to embrace - chartreuse, perhaps?

While Bush support seemed to be more of the dine and dash variety - all for Great Lakes restoration until the bill showed up - Obama campaigned head on promising billions to restore the lakes while creating jobs.

The Chicago Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne writes that Chicago’s Howard Learner of the Environmental Law and Policy Center is a favorite for one of the nation’s top environmental jobs. Now add Obama’s new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel -tireless voice for the Great Lakes - to the mix, and dare we hope for real progress on our agenda in the next four years. Perhaps, aqua is the best shade of green for Obama and his future administration…only time will tell.

A New Deal Could Keep the Terrible Asian Carp Away

A century ago, when the sage and wise in Chicago decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago River to keep their poop out of their drinking water (i.e., Lake Michigan) the dreaded Asian Carp were still in Asia. In the last couple decades, the imported fish have been terrible guests destroying habitats and fishing up and down the Mississippi and connecting rivers. Every moment of each day the precocious pests draw nearer and nearer to Lake Michigan, their gateway to North America’s fresh water seascape. Congress did approve funds to build a stronger, more permanent electric barrier to stop the seemingly unstoppable fish, but a new report finds that separating the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds would provide a better and more long-term solution.

“The Great Lakes and the Mississippi River are at risk because of a connection that’s nothing natural,” Joel Brammeier, vice president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, and lead author of the report that took more than two years to complete told Dan Egan. “Fifteen miles of water and an experimental electric barrier are all that’s standing between the Great Lakes and Asian carp. We’ve got to get serious about a real solution.”

A real solution, not just to stop the Carp but other threats too – such as VHS that lurks in Illinois waters and could threaten southern fish farms. So, the cost wouldn’t only be to the fish – fish farmers and the sport fishing industry would take huge hits if the carp make it into the Lakes.

The study was funded by the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and it says it would cost around $15 million over several years to establish the separation. That may sound like a lot in today’s troubled economy, but think of the jobs it could create and how it might impact the local economy once the carp’s deadly advance could be halted. The Corp of Engineers typically manage this kind of project, but Brammeier points out to HOW that the Corps often contracts out - “it would be contracted out to a vendor or a number of vendors and they would be paid in federal funds.” He added that Chicago’s Port could be revitalized while dealing with the problem of invasive species.

The Lakes need to be protected from the Asian Carp as well as a number of the industries the Lakes support and with unemployment hitting 6 percent we need jobs – this could be a win win for everyone.

In His Own Words

In the last weeks of the 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama released a 5-point plan to restore the Great Lakes including investing $5 billion federal dollars. Of course, some people called it pandering to possible swing state voters, but it turns out the latest Obama plan was consistent with his past actions.

Obama was the only presidential candidate to respond to HOW’s invitation to speak at our annual conference in 2007. Obama sent emissary Debra Shore – a local Chicago politician – to deliver a statement he wrote sharing his concerns about the Lakes with us.

He said it’s time to make sure our concerns, those of average Americans, speak louder in Washington than those of high priced lobbyists. He also expressed his support for the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act, before promising, “As president, I will work with you to restore these lakes, which hold a fifth of the world’s surface freshwater, so that they are clean and usable for generations to come.”

Obama has promised to restore the Great Lakes, lets make sure he doesn’t forget that in the weeks and months to come.

To read his entire statement to the HOW conference in 2007, click here: http://www.healthylakes.org/policy/great-lakes-collaboration-implementation-act/2007/09/17/barack-obama-sends-emissary-to-how-conference

Promise Keepers

It seems safe to assume we won’t be the only ones who will be holding President Elect Barack Obama to his promise to restore the Great Lakes, now that Great Lakes advocate Rahm Emanuel is to be White House Chief of Staff.

With great ferocity, Rahm Emanuel addressed the HOW conference in 2007, imploring us to make sure any candidate for President not only pledged to restore the Great Lakes to win our precious swing votes, but also to hold the winner to it when they took office. Lets hope Mr. Emanuel doesn’t rue the day he lit that fire under those of us who love the Lakes.

Emanuel told us that fighting for the lakes was a “natural extension” for him and he showed us it was true by twice introducing the $26 billion Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act while serving in the US Congress.

In a Question and Answer session with HOW, Emanuel told us: “My goal, though, is to be able to look back in 20 or 30 years and say that my favorite memory is when we were able to turn the momentum from protecting the Great Lakes to restoring them so that the ecosystem can recover and be there for my children’s children to enjoy.”

Well, Rahm, we aren’t going to forget and we aren’t going to let you forget what you told us – even if we have to remind you every day until restoration is bought and paid for once and for all!

The Future Is Bright, Says Gov. Doyle

As Chair of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has a unique perspective on the impact President-Elect Barack Obama could have on restoration as well as the region’s economy. In this exclusive Question and Answer session, Gov. Doyle considers what the outcome of this historic election will mean for the Great Lakes.

HOW: Why are the Great Lakes a concern for our entire nation and why should restoration be made a priority of the President-elect?

Governor Doyle: The election of Barack Obama to President will boost all state, regional, and national efforts to support the Great Lakes. Not only does Barack Obama hail from a Great Lakes state, he also has demonstrated he is committed to restoring and preserving this tremendous asset for future generations.

The Great Lakes are a national treasure—important to our nation and the world as both an environmental and economic asset. Our national economy depends on the Great Lakes for industrial uses, hydropower, maritime commerce, agricultural irrigation and many other uses. The Great Lakes are a globally unique and important environmental resource. We must restore the Great Lakes in order to continue to provide benefits to us all.

HOW: Senator Barack Obama won the Presidential election - what impact do you expect Barack Obama to have on Great Lakes Restoration and the region’s economy?

Gov. Doyle: Decisions made in coming months and years are critical, and Barack Obama has the sound judgment and priorities to address the many challenges facing the Great Lakes. These decisions will determine whether our shared efforts will accelerate or falter, both to restore the Great Lakes and stimulate our regional economy. I am eager to work with the Obama Administration toward our shared goals which are important to our region and our nation.

HOW: Both candidates were asked to pledge to spend $20 billion over five years to restore the Great Lakes and to appoint a cabinet level official to ensure that restoration happens - do you believe this promise will be met?

Gov. Doyle: I applaud the recognition made by President-elect Obama that Great Lakes restoration and protection must be a top national priority. I also applaud his written pledge to make Great Lakes restoration a priority in his Administration. As part of that pledge, a commitment was made to “[i]nclude significant funding in my annual budgets for the priorities outlined in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy and future needs of the Great Lakes…” I look forward to working with the Obama Administration to follow through on this commitment.

HOW: Do you have any suggestions as to who would be a good leader to put in the position of coordinating restoration?

Gov. Doyle: Renewed leadership is pivotal to accelerate our restoration efforts. I am confident that the Obama Administration will appoint a capable, dynamic leader to better coordinate among the federal agencies.

HOW: There was a lot of momentum that drove the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Compact through the last state legislatures and then Congress. Unfortunately, several other Great Lakes priorities are still lingering. What role would you like the President Elect to play in:
• Setting a National ballast standard?

Gov. Doyle: Although I appreciate the recent efforts of many members of Congress in trying to pass ballast water legislation, the failure to effectively protect our waters against aquatic invasive species has been a great disappointment. The preferred solution remains a broad, national protection through Congressional passage of a National Aquatic Invasive Species Act.

• Providing money to update sewer systems?

Gov. Doyle: The Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund has served as a critical tool for updating the sewerage systems in the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, recent and ongoing major cuts to this program have resulted in a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for the Great Lakes States. I urge the Obama Administration to support in FFY 2010 and future years the historical full-funding of $1.35 billion in support of this program.

• Getting more money into the Great Lakes Legacy Act to speed up the clean up of toxic spots?

Gov. Doyle: I applaud the recent reauthorization of the Great Lakes Legacy Act which has provided critical funding for remediation of contaminated sediments in the Areas of Concern. I urge the Obama Administration to support appropriations for the fully authorized amount of $54 million in FFY 2010. I pledge to continue working with the Administration and Congress to increase future Legacy Act monies to the $150 million amount annually called for in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy.

• In essence, fulfilling and fully funding the Great Lakes Restoration Strategy over the next five years?

Gov. Doyle: We must re-double our efforts to restore our Great Lakes. Progress has been too slow. Our long-term goal remains to secure needed funding and to enact management reforms to ensure the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes.

HOW: Obama promised $5 billion to restore the Great Lakes and jump-start the regional economy and he said he would appoint a person to coordinate these efforts. Is this enough?

Gov. Doyle: $5 billion would be a significant investment in our Great Lakes and I applaud President-elect Obama’s support for this initiative. He has shown strong leadership on the issue of Great Lakes restoration and protection, and I am committed to working with him to secure this funding and to increase it over time. With Barack Obama as President, I believe the future of the Great Lakes is bright.

Word on the Street

Even before Barack Obama won last night, he had teams of people planning for his 76-day transition. Word on the streets of Chicago and Washington is that Illinois Democrat Rahm Emanuel is on Obama’s short list for the Chief-of-Staff position.

This is the same man who stood before HOW a little more than a year ago and implored us to make this Presidential election about the Great Lakes. The same man who said he would do everything in his power to get the $26 billion into law that we need to heal and revive the lakes. Now, the Washington Post writes that this same man is “expected” to be named by Obama to one of the most influential posts in the nation.

These next days are really important for HOW to let President Elect Obama know that we meant it when we said the Lakes are our vote and that we expect him to live up to his promise to make restoration a priority. Obama promised to appoint a Great Lakes Czar to manage the restoration – HOW needs to be sure this promise is fulfilled and that the Czar chosen will bring about complete restoration. As Obama said last night in his acceptance speech –“Yes, we can.”