The Worst Case Scenario

Surely, you’ve seen the Worst Case Scenario books that explain how to get out of tragic situations like a superhero, well; the manuals are mum about how to keep giant Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes. On Friday, government agencies announced that they collected 32 DNA samples on two different dates in September and October proving that the only thing between the fish and the lakes is a series of swinging doors – the locks. This is the worst case scenario.

“If we don’t close the locks, we are waving the white flag and allowing one of the greatest ecological tragedies to occur,” Jennifer Nalbone, campaign director of Invasive Species and Navigation for Great Lakes United told the Wall Street Journal. But John W. Peabody, Commanding General of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said before a decision can be made to shut the locks the details must be worked out with industrial users of the passageway. Really, the “industrial users” get such a large say when we are talking about the potential devastation of a $7 billion sport fishing industry from which this region benefits? Does anyone remember the sea lamprey and Lake Erie?

Some are telling us not to panic, that it is still not too late because they doubt the fish have reached the lake.

“As a biologist and somebody who has spent decades now studying many different kinds of invasive species, we should not assume all is lost because there may be some silver and bighead (carp) above the barrier,” Notre Dame’s David Lodge told Dan Egan. “There are lots of cases, well documented from many parts of the world, where a small number of organisms may invade new areas, but they may die out before they establish a sustainable reproducing population. So it’s very important to keep the numbers of individual organisms as low as possible.”

So what is the plan? The Army Corps is going to go ahead with its poisoning of the Chicago Canal just below the barrier so that they can then shut down the barrier for maintenance. They say they are thinking about poisoning above the barrier too. Officials also told reporters that they will think about changing the way they run the locks near the shoreline of Lake Michigan. And if all else fails they can always sterilize the Carp just as they did the lamprey.

Until then, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is planning to send electric volts into the water where the DNA was found and stun the fish so that they can net them. Unbelievable, how did we get here?

Could it be that the many federal and state agencies that are supposed to work in concert to protect the Great Lakes have failed because they are too numerous and too competitive? That is what some are saying. Dave Dempsey is arguing we should use the failure to keep the carp at bay as a catalyst for a new way of doing the business of restoration by streamlining the Great Lakes bureaucracies via a Presidential Executive Order that makes it clear who is in charge in such a Great Lake emergency and for long-range restoration efforts.

Not bad – anyone else have any ideas to ensure this sort of debacle doesn’t ever happen again?

Wisconsin’s Ballast Permit Could Inspire Washington to Act

Wisconsin is the latest state to set its own ballast standard for ships working in the Great Lakes. Last week the state revealed their permit that will require the shipping industry to upgrade treatment systems to prevent more invasive species from entering the lakes. Since the Federal Government can’t get its act together to establish a national ballast standard the states have has no recourse but to set their own standards creating a patchwork of requirements that induces headaches for the shipping industry.

“Lacking a national ballast water treatment policy it is absolutely necessary for Wisconsin to challenge the status quo and develop stronger action to protect our natural resources,” Rep. Nick Milroy (D-Superior) stated.

Officials throughout the Great Lakes have been encouraging the federal government to develop a uniform standard so that state policies don’t conflict with each other and pose competitive advantages from one port over the other.

In the meantime, all the Great Lakes states have been beefing up their regulations to either meet or exceed the International Maritime Organization’s standard. Wisconsin’s new standard will be 100 times stricter than the IMO’s by 2014. Several years ago, Michigan established a ballast standard for its state and since then, New York, Minnesota and now Wisconsin have joined the effort.

The US Coast Guard has circulated draft standards that on paper look good, but they won’t be enforceable for way too long – maybe as long as 22 years. States simply can’t afford to bear the brunt of inaction any longer that is why their standards are stronger and swifter than what is being proposed by federal agencies. And having states lead the way may not be a bad thing, according to Jen Nalbone of Great Lakes United.

“State action is absolutely driving the strong final standard being proposed in the Coast Guard’s ballast discharge rulemaking. Ships are constantly in motion, traveling from state-to-state. Instead of establishing the floor for regulations for ships, the federal government has to trump the states in order to provide the uniformity that carriers crave. This dynamic definitely benefits the environment, and the state rule in setting that high bar is the critical piece,” Nalbone tells HOW.

Last winter, the Great Lakes Members of Congress promised HOW members they would deal with ballast this year. Well, here we are just weeks away from Congress’ Christmas break and the end of 2009 and so far the silence is deafening. Having said that, the carriers that Nalbone mentions tend to get what they want when they call our Great Lakes delegation. So, if state action is making the shipping industry uncomfortable – and now one more state is expecting carriers to meet another set of standards – perhaps we will see Washington act on ballast soon.

Asian Carp May Have Breached The Barrier

Dan Egan reports that the Asian Carp’s DNA has been detected beyond the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal’s electronic barrier and all attempts to halt the fish from entering the Great Lakes system may be too late.

A new kind of DNA testing shows the presence of the carp in the water beyond the barrier. “We’ve got some bad problems,” Dan Thomas, president of the Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council, told Dan Egan.

Because of this, Thomas recommends expanding the poisoning from just under six miles to about 20 miles downstream from Lake Michigan. “Unless we treat that canal real quick as far up as we can, then we can almost be assured that they’re on their way into the lake,” he said.

Read Egan’s story.

Russian Roulette with a Carp

Today, we have a temporary solution to a permanent problem posed by Asian Carp that are threatening to enter the Great Lakes via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. At the cost of $9 million dollars Congress has an electric barrier built to keep the massive, hungry creatures out of the Great Lakes ecosystem. Congress is contemplating spending more money on an old fashioned solution – sand bagging – the banks of the Des Plaines River so the fish would not be delivered into the lakes during the next flood. Now, last week, the powers that be decided to spend $1.5 million on a fish poison that will be dumped along six miles of the canal on the outskirts of Chicago.

Twenty-in-a-half million dollars later we have to ask: are we throwing good money after bad? Not only that, but who relishes the idea of putting poison in the water? Ugh. Additionally, the barrier will need to be shut down every six months for maintenance, so, I guess we plan on continuing this process relentlessly. Wouldn’t it be a better solution to physically separate the Great Lakes basin from the Mississippi basin?

“We need to look at slamming the door on the Asian carp once and for all, and that means separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds,” said Andy Bauchsbaum, Co-chair of HOW. “Until then, we are playing Russian Roulette with the largest freshwater resource in the world. And that does not make any sense.”

Last year, the Alliance for the Great Lakes published a report that recommended separating the two watersheds. Right now, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi are artificially connected via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Although it seemed like a good idea a century ago to drive the wastewater from the big city away from the Lake, that was before the Asian Carp were set loose in the waterways of the Southern States.

“If the carp get in, it will be catastrophic,” Great Lakes Point Man, Cam Davis told the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal.

Joel Brammeier at the Alliance is urging for the separation of the watersheds so that we aren’t backed into a corner again by the carp. “When the deed is done, we’ve got to focus like a laser on separation of the lakes from the Mississippi River so we don’t have to use this drastic technique in the future,” he stated.

Water conservation an important Great Lakes issue

Water conservation can be a hard sell in the Great Lakes region.

After all, why do we need to conserve water in a region that contains 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water?

Here’s one reason: The latest studies suggest that global warming could cause Great Lakes water levels to drop five feet by the year 2100.

Losing that much water from the Great Lakes would be devastating to nearshore ecosystems, fish and wildlife populations, recreational boating and the commercial shipping industry.

Conserving water, and using water more efficiently, is an important step we can all take now to help the Great Lakes adapt to global warming. Per capita daily water consumption in the U.S. is double the global average, according to United Nations data.

What’s really disturbing about America’s water gluttony is that 30-80 percent of all the water used for residential purposes is sprayed on lawns and gardens, according to officials at the Chicago-based Alliance for Water Efficiency. That’s just foolish.

The good news is that per capita water use in the U.S. has dropped nearly 30 percent since 1975, according to a recent report by the Pacific Institute. But that’s no reason to become complacent.

Conflicts over water are already intensifying in the southwest and southeast United States; those battles will only worsen in the coming years as the planet warms. Conflicts over water also are popping up in the Great Lakes and will intensify in the coming years.

There is a scripture verse that says: For those who have been given much, much will be demanded. That’s an important message for those of us fortunate enough to live in the Great Lakes basin.

Because we live in the center of the freshwater universe, we should lead the way in water conservation. The sprawling Great Lakes ecosystem, and future generations who rely on these lakes for sustenance, will be the beneficiaries of all we do now to reduce our water use.

Visit the Alliance for Water Efficiency’s Web site to learn much more about water conservation.

A Thanksgiving Card for our Elected Representatives

This has been an amazing year for the Great Lakes. Last winter, President Obama added a line to his budget that read: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: $475 million. The money is the first installment toward the $5 billion Obama promised the region while campaigning for the Presidency. The significance of this can’t be overstated – this is the first time any US President has committed funds to the restoration of 95% of this nation’s surface fresh water. What is equally significant and amazing is that the US Congress – the group that actually holds the strings to the purse that the President spends – approved it at the full amount! That is no small task and it only happened because of tremendous effort put forward by the Members of the US House and Senate who represent the Great Lakes on Capitol Hill.

Although the stars seemed aligned for the Great Lakes with a US President, Chief of Staff (Rahm Emanuel) and Chair of the House Appropriations Committee (Wisconsin’s David Obey) who were all Great Lakes advocates, getting this funding for the Lakes was not certain. There are other restoration projects around the nation that are fighting for similar funding. One of those is Puget Sound which sits in the district of Rep. Norm Dicks“>Rep. Norm Dicks, the chair of the House Subcommittee on the Interior (oh, and his son works for the Sound’s restoration effort). Still, Obey and others on our House Delegation won over Rep. Dicks. Then, the US Senate Subcommittee on the Interior provided a slightly lower amount $400 million towards the GLRI. Months went by without us knowing if, during conference, the full $475 million would be restored. But then, just weeks ago, it was restored to the total amount of the President’s original request.

We would be remiss if we didn’t recognize the fantastic leadership provided by Sen. Carl Levin, Sen. Herb Kohl and Sen. George Voinovich. Sen.Voinovich will be retiring after this term – what a great way to end his Senate career. The Ohio Senator has toiled tirelessly to obtain money for Great Lakes programs – such as the Legacy Act – that chip away at our restoration efforts. Sen. Voinovich put that same effort into securing the money for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The Great Lakes Task Force Members in the House and Senate deserve our thanks for their tremendous work on GLRI. If you look at the money that other worthy restoration projects received from Congress this year, the funding pale in comparison to what the Great Lakes will get. The Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound are each getting $50 million toward restoration efforts and from there the amounts break down to single digit amounts. This alone, is a real testament to the hard work of our Congressional Delegation. This is also an opportunity for us to begin to implement the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy and not only garner future funding in years to come, but also become a testament for other restoration projects that are in dire need of help from the government.

So, if you have a moment please send an email to your representatives on Capitol Hill and thank them for coming through on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. It won’t be long before we’ll be fighting this battle once again for FY2011 and now is the time to give credit where credit is due.

President Obama Signs Great Lakes Restoration Initiative into Law

Historic Initiative Propels Restoration, Economic Recovery Forward

ANN ARBOR, MICH.—President Obama signed into law on Friday a historic $475 million initiative to address urgent threats to the Great Lakes—the largest supply of surface fresh water in the world.

“With one stroke of his pen, President Obama has propelled Great Lakes restoration and economic recovery forward,” said Jeff Skelding, campaign director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “This is a great day for anyone who cares about clean beaches, safe drinking water, and abundant fish and wildlife populations. This is a victory for the millions of people, businesses and communities which rely on the Great Lakes for their jobs, drinking water and way of life.”

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will receive $475 million as part of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Act of 2010. The new initiative will nearly double funding for lake restoration programs in the eight states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The initiative invests in solutions to stop aquatic invasive species that cost the region at least $200 million annually in damage and control costs; clean up contaminated sediments that pose a threat to the health of people and wildlife; and restore wetlands and other habitat that protect water quality, prevent flooding and provide the foundation of the region’s outdoor economy.

President Obama proposed the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in his inaugural budget to uphold a commitment he made as a presidential candidate to invest $5 billion to restore the lakes. 

“President Obama’s commitment to the Great Lakes,” said Skelding, “is starting to pay dividends.”

“The Great Lakes delegation at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue got this done,” continued Skelding.  “There are so many people whose leadership we want to applaud starting with our Great Lakes leaders like Chairman Obey and stalwarts like Sens. Levin and Voinovich.  What they’ve done is provide a significant down-payment in what we hope to be a sustained commitment to protect and restore the largest surface freshwater resource on the planet. Our job now is to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We know what needs to be done. Now it’s time to do it.”

The U.S. Congress funded the initiative, led by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.); and House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), along with Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), John Dingell (D-Mich.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) and Congressional members from the Great Lakes states serving on House and Senate appropriations committees and Great Lakes Task Force.

U.S. House Appropriations Committee members from the eight-state Great Lakes region include: Reps. Obey, Chaka Fattah (D-Penn.), Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), John P. Murtha (D-Penn.), Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), José Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.).

Senate Appropriations Committee members from the region include Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), and Voinovich.

The Brookings Institution found that the eight-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin stands to gain at least $2 in economic benefit for every $1 invested in Great Lakes restoration.

“The Obama Administration and Congress are making a solid investment in the economy and environment,” said Skelding. “The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative establishes a solid foundation on which our nation and region can continue to invest the necessary funds and enact the necessary policies to restore and protect our lakes, boost our economy, safeguard our public health, and uphold our way of life.”

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition consists of more than 100 environmental, conservation, outdoor recreation organizations, zoos, aquariums and museums representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes.

For more information, visit: http://www.healthylakes.org/

For Immediate Release:
November 5, 2009

Contact:
Jordan Lubetkin, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, 734-887-7109

Jeff Skelding, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, 410-245-8021

Chad Lord, Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, 202-454-3385

Rep. David Obey Came Through On GLRI Funding

Let’s give kudos where kudos are due and right now that is to Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, who used his position as Chair of the House Appropriations Committee to ensure that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) made it through the budgetary process fully funding President Barack Obama’s request of $475 million for FY2010. This is truly a historic achievement as it is the first time that a US President has put a Great Lakes Restoration line in his budget and we hope that that line will continue to reappear year-after-year.

“Up until now, the approach to cleaning up the Great Lakes has been piecemeal. Now, we have a plan that uses the best possible science to comprehensively address the many problems that threaten the health and economy of the Great Lakes,” Rep. Obey stated in a press release.

Rep. Obey is being praised as a Great Lakes Champion in editorials. While many in the environmental and conservationist community questioned the rationale of the decisions made by Rep. Obey and others in the House that supported a deal enabling Great Lakes ships to avoid new stringent air pollution standards, this one rider should not scar a career-long commitment to environmental issues and – in particular – to the Great Lakes. We will get there, eventually, and now we are actually on our way with this infusion of cash into important programs that address the biggest threats to the Lakes.

The health of the Great Lakes and its economy is threatened by contaminated sediment, non-point source pollution, aquatic invasive species, and habitat loss.

“Failure to protect and restore the lakes now would result in more serious consequences,” Obey told the press. “Invasive species alone cost the Great Lakes economy over $200 million annually, making the control of invasive species paramount in restoration and recovery efforts of the region,” he added.

The GLRI is a culmination of work by over 1,500 federal, state, local, tribal and other stakeholders from the region, including the Council of Great Lakes Governors which is chaired by Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. The stakeholder groups spent years drafting the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy Report of 2005 which is the blueprint for how additional federal resources would be spent to address the many threats facing the Great Lakes.

So, hats off, we’d like to thank you, Rep. Obey and the rest of the House and Senate Great Lakes Congressional Delegation that dedicated themselves to making President Obama’s restoration promise come true – at least for 2010.

Oceans Task Force (Includes Great Lakes)to Testify at Hearing

Tomorrow a US Senate Commerce Subcommittee will hear a progress report from the new Oceans Task Force that will likely sum up the input they received from the listening tour that ended last week in Cleveland, Ohio where the Great Lakes were discussed.

The Task Force wants to set up a National Ocean Council that will coordinate federal work on everything from climate change to pollution along America’s shores, including the Great Lakes. HOW has been a bit concerned by the move as it is unclear how the lakes would fit into the plan, according to Jeff Skelding, national director of HOW. For example, the Great Lakes are a closed water system and only one percent is replenished each year.

While Skelding said the task force has potential and is necessary, he added that “we need to make sure it doesn’t take us away from the restoration strategy. The entire region has put our heart and soul into that strategy and it’s working, so we don’t need any distractions.”

Nancy Sutley, who heads up the White House Council of Environmental Quality reassured readers of the Record Eagle that our restoration strategy would remain in place and would be complemented by other federal efforts.”They’re the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world, very important not only to the prosperity of communities surrounding them but to the U.S. economy as a whole,” Sutley said.

More than 110 people attended the Ohio meeting at the Great Lakes Science Center that was chaired by Sutley. The purpose of the meeting was to hear comments from the public that would lend to a better understanding of the problems plaguing the lakes.

The task force produced an interim report that articulates a national policy focused on creating healthy, functioning, and resilient ocean and coastal water systems. They would implement preventive medicine for our coastways and would manage using an ecosystem based approach. This is a strong start, but let’s make sure this doesn’t become a “one-size-fits-all” approach, because then the lakes will surely lose out.

Congress Fully Authorizes Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, but More Work Looms

By the end of last week, the US House and Senate passed and the US Presidential signed a bill that contains the first-ever financial commitment – $475 million for FY 2010 – to address the most urgent threats to the Great Lakes. This was a huge victory for the lakes – a surge of cash into on-the-ground programs battling to restore the lakes -but today is a new day and now we have to ensure that the authorizers in Congress provide the full amount of money that was authorized and we have to continue to pursue policies and regulations that will save our lakes from current and future harm. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a spending bill – different from regulatory or policy legislation. Both types of bills are part of the duel track that HOW is committed to pursuing as part of our strategy to restore the lakes.

“Today’s Congressional action provides a tremendous boost to Great Lakes restoration and economic recovery,” Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center said last week. “People, businesses and communities will all benefit from a healthy Great Lakes. We know what we need to do. We have the funds to do it. Now it’s time to get to it, before the problems get worse and the solutions get more costly.”

A number of Great Lakes Champs worked diligently to push through President Obama’s GLRI. Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio), Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) and Great Lakes members on congressional appropriations committees led the effort to fully fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, put forward in President Obama’s inaugural budget.

U.S. House Appropriations Committee members from the eight Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin include: Reps. Obey, Chaka Fattah (D-Penn.), Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.), Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), John P. Murtha (D-Penn.), Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), José Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.).

This is certainly a time for thanks to our Great Lakes delegation, but it is also a time to keep pushing forward to attack the problems in our Great Lakes on every possible front. That means putting these funds to work while we continue to fight in Washington for the legislation we need to fight invasive species, clean up toxic hot spots as well as our drinking water, fight pollution and preserve our fresh water for future generations.