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!

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.

Legacy Act to the Rescue

The Great Lakes Legacy Act is coming to the Grand Calumet’s rescue with a $33 million plan to cleanup 91,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment. The mile long clean up on the river will become the seventh project to be administered by the Great Lakes Legacy Act.

The Great Lakes Congressional Delegation tried very hard to get the act reauthorized at triple the funding this past September but with the collapse of the financial market weighing heavily on the US Senate’s minds they decided to provide the current $50 million for the next two years and then revisit the program.

Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels, flanked by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the state level equivalent announced the effort yesterday. The river bottom is stocked with heavy metals, PCBs, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and pesticides. It drains into Lake Michigan at a rate of one billion gallons of water a day. The clean up should have a profound effect on the health of the lake and the region’s drinking water.

“As Is” Legacy Act Approved

In the wee hours of the night, hidden beneath the gunfire erupting over the collapsing financial markets, the US Senate struck down the Great Lakes Congressional Delegation’s attempt to quicken the clean-up of our drinking water. The US Senate approved the Great Lakes Legacy Act at the current rate of $50 million for the next two years. The US House voted 411 to 9 on Sunday in favor of the Senate’s version to ensure that the clean-up doesn’t stop all together. The reauthorization awaits President Bush’s signature.

The House had vigorously tried to triple the funding of the very successful Great Lakes Legacy Act to $150 million. In the last five years, the act successfully remediated and delisted two Areas of Concern. Members had calculated that increasing the funding would ensure that all the AOC’s would be cleaned up in the next ten years. The program is vital to the region as the poisons in the AOC’s make their way into the Great Lakes, then into our drinking water and into our fish and wildlife, and that impacts human health.

Apparently, the Senators from outside the Great Lakes opposed the increase in funding, but our Senators and House members did not let us down. Usually reauthorizations are for five years and since the Senate version only appropriates the money for two more years it means that Congress will be able to bring up the funding levels in the near future. Let’s pray that we can increase funding at that point.

US House Says Yay To Great Lakes Legacy Act

Last evening, the new and improved Great Lakes Legacy Act cleared the US House with an overwhelmingly favorable vote of 371 to 20. Now the much needed reauthorization moves to the US Senate where we hope with all our collective hearts that it is swiftly approved.

“We applaud the U.S. House of Representatives – especially Reps. James Oberstar and Vern Ehlers – for passing this important and successful clean-up program,” said Jeff Skelding, national campaign director for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Ehlers (R-Mich.) introduced the GLLA. “Cleaning up toxic pollution is essential to our public health, economy and way of life. We need the Senate to take quick action like they did with the Compact and reauthorize this critical program.”

The act triples previous funding to $150 million a year to increase the clean up of the 31 Areas of Concern on the US side of the Great Lakes, which to date has been moving at a snail’s pace.

“In order to speed up efforts this bill tripples the authorization funding level from $50 million to $150 million per year. If fully appropriated, this has the potential to delist all the US Aoc’s within the next decade,” said Rep. Ehlers during the debate on the bill. And Illinois Rep. Mark Kirk (R) was quick to point out the benefits associated with the clean up, using Waukegan Harbor’s remediation as an example, “And when it is complete, it will increase Lake County property vlaues by over $800 million.”

The Legacy Act is a top priority for the Great Lakes region and it is an essential component of the Great Lakes regional collaboration strategy for restoration. Illinois Democrat Rham Emanuel summed up best the regional and national import of this legislation when he said, “If we invest in our lakes and deal with the basic pollutants, that is invasive species, urban run off and those types of pollution, we can deal with 93 percent of the problems effecting our lakes, our fresh water. This is the type of investment that will make sure that not only the region and the states that border these lakes, but the entire US, will preserve and invest in one of the most important natural resources in the coming days and years ahead, which is clean water.”

Many other Great Lakes lawmakers championed our cause during the debate, including: Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), Dennis Kuccinich (D-OH), Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) and New York’s Rep. Louis Slaughter (D) who sent out a press release that day. Please take a moment to thank our champions by contacting their offices with an email or phone call.

Wanted New Leaders? No Kidding!

Grumbles is grumbling again at the moment when the Great Lakes Legacy Act is about to be approved and improved by the US House of Representatives. Would you believe Benjamin Grumbles, Assistant Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency has written to Environment and Public Works Chair Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to ask her not to give the Legacy Act program more money? What the H-E – double toothpicks is he doing? Just another example of how the Bush Administration has been undermining the Great Lakes and his campaign promise (albeit verbal) to fix them.

The Great Lakes Legacy Act, that is to be voted on this afternoon, triples past authorization levels to speed up the clean-up of 31 Areas of Concern on the American side of the Great Lakes. Areas that are poisoning our drinking water, the fish we eat and well, us. The EPA apparently expects our region to continue to live with dirty water – water that is dirty, btw, because we worked hard supplying the products and services as the economic engine for this entire nation for the last century plus.

There is nothing polite to say to Grumbles and the EPA for this attack. Instead, lets focus on the new guy who will be taking office soon – either one has to be better than this President and his political appointees at the EPA.

Another Great Lakes Legacy Act Success Story!

For a quarter of a century, no one in and around Ashtabula, Ohio have been able to eat local fish because of more than forty years of industrial waste that was dumped into this tributary of Lake Erie. But that is all about to change because the Environmental Protection Agency just announced that the river is officially clean! Working alongside the Ashtabula River Partnership, they dredged 630,000 cubic yards of sediment – one of the largest River clean ups in history – at a cost of $75 million. And every dollar was well spent because now this tributary no longer threatens Lake Erie’s ecosystem and it will soon serve the local population again as a place for recreation and fine dining on local fish. This is another example that the Great Lakes Legacy Act is much needed and can prove to be very successful. If Congress decides to approve the new improved reauthorization this month and the appropriations committee fully funds it, then the states will be able to make double time cleaning up all the AOC’s once and for all and restoring the Great Lakes rich ecosystem and our regional economies in one fell swoop. Congratulations Ashtabula!

Obey’s Scorecard Says it All

Wisconsin Rep. David Obey (D) has one of our most historic Areas of Concern in his backyard, the St. Louis River and Bay habitat, which has been eroding since pioneer days with the latest assaults leaving hazardous waste behind in leaky landfills. Even so, Obey is one of two House Members who has not cosponsored the Great Lakes Legacy Act that would provide the funds needed for cleaning up this mess. But Rep. Obey is in a peculiar position as Chair of the very powerful Appropriations Committee and HOW has been assured that a decision not to co-sponsor in no way indicates a lack of support for the Legacy Act.

“You can look at his record. It is not a matter of cosponsoring – it is a matter of votes and actions and as Chairman, and before that as Ranking Member, Obey has supported the Great Lakes massively,” explains Ellis Brachman, a spokesman for Rep. Obey. “The Congressman is much more about action than co-sponsorship.” Thank goodness. HOW is happy to learn that Obey will be supportive of the legislation, especially since it triples the previous funding and an authorization means much more than just agreeing to approve the legislation.

McHugh Throws Support Behind Legacy Act

New Yorkers living in Rep. John McHugh’s district shouldn’t drink their tap water, partake in the regional Friday fish fry ritual or swim in the local waters because doing so exposes them to dangerous chemicals that could cause birth defects, learning disabilities and even cancer! That is why it is so important for the Great Lakes Legacy Act to be approved in September. Rep. McHugh was one of a handful of lawmakers whose name did not appear on the bill as a co-sponsor even though he had Areas of Concern in his district, including: The Rochester Embayment, 18-Mile Creek and the St. Lawrence River. But HOW has just learned that Rep. McHugh did indeed lend his signature shortly before Congress recessed in August. We welcome his support and his efforts to get this bill approved before national elections consume all other affairs of state.

Big Wheels Keep on Turnin’ Legacy Act Keep on Churnin’

While Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)and George Voinovich (R-OH) are committed to pushing the Great Lakes Legacy Act through this Congress, the fact that we are up against a national campaign season is weighing heavily on the prospect of passage. Essentially, Congress has three weeks in September to try and finish business for the year and after that it will be all campaigning, all the time.

“We are hoping to get it done in September,” Garrette Silverman, a spokesperson for Sen. Voinovich said, “but as of now we don’t have any timing for floor action.” And there-in lays the rub, if not in September then the much needed GLLA money could languish well into the new year.

There is also a chance for dissention among the ranks since our hard working Great Lakes leaders have managed to successfully triple the reauthorization to $750 million over five years. Hill insiders speculate that the price tag could cause a fight and that will bring further delay. Still, we have reason to hope that the legislation will make it to the floor for a vote – Sens. Levin and Voinovich have promised to make it a priority this September.

On the other side of the Hill, Rep. Vernon Ehlers, (R-Mich.) has been enthusiastically shoving the Legacy Act through the House. Rep. Ehlers told the Muskegon Chronicle he is fairly confident that the GLLA will be approved by the end of this year. Surprisingly, there are still a few Great Lakes Representatives with Areas of Concern in their districts who have yet to cosponsor the reauthorization and they include John McHugh (R-NY), Mary Kaptur (D-OH) and David Obey (D-Wisc.).