Great Lakes Congressional Watch

Another One Signs The Pact

Governors for Ohio and Michigan are poised to sign the Great Lakes Water Compact leaving only Pennsylvania as an outlier needing to come on board and prevent other states from gulping up Great Lakes water. At the same time, Presidential Hopeful John McCain reiterated his commitment to keeping Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes region.

When asked at an Ottawa, Canada press conference last Friday whether he would consider diverting Great Lakes water to dehydrated states, McCain said, “I don’t think that’s a viable option to be honest with you. It would be hard for me, in Arizona, to convince Read More » »

Boat Tour Makes a Splash in Buffalo

The City of Buffalo could not have been a better location to kickoff the Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Boat Tour. With the help of local elected officials like Congressman Higgins, and Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition members, we are really getting the message out about the urgent need to protect and restore the Great Lakes to benefit our economy and our way of life. What follows is a partial list of press from our stop in Buffalo. Don’t forget to sign the petition to the presidential candidates.   Read More » »

Michigan Columnist Calls on Voters to Highlight Great Lakes in 2008 Election

Syndicated columnist George Weeks this week highlighted the importance of Michigan to demand more from the 2008 presidential candidates. He writes: the key thing is for Michigan voters to stress the issue as candidates campaign here. He also mentions Michigan’s efforts to move forward on Great Lakes restoration, as well as the Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Boat Tour as important ways to get the candidates’ attention this summer. Click here to contact the presidential candidates about the Great Lakes.

Promote the Great Lakes Restoration Presidential Candidate Letter Campaign

Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives is proud to host a letter campaign to encourage the Presidential candidates to support the Great Lakes Restoration Strategy. Please consider including the campaign on your Web site, in emails, in newsletters, on your blog or any other way you can get the word out.

To make this easier we offer a few ideas.

1) You can link to the survey hosted on the Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives Web site:

http://www.healthylakes.org/presidential-candidate-petition/

2) You can place the petition to appear under your Web site design with the following code:

<iframe src="https://online.nwf.org/site/Advocacy?id=524&pagename=homepage" width="710" height="1100" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" name="Great Lakes Presidential Candidate Read More » »

They Asked For It and They Got It!

Visibly frustrated Members of Congress held a hearing today to discuss ways to improve the Great Lakes Legacy Act. They are frustrated because of the snail-like pace of progress being made cleaning up the remaining toxic sediments lining the Great Lakes and her tributaries after decades of industrialization and farming.

The Members greedily sought out impediments in the Legacy Act to cleaning up the 30 US Areas of Concern from panelists. What will it take to accelerate the process? Do you need more money? How about $150 million a year? That sounded good to Rep. John Hall (D-NY) who wasn’t shocked Read More » »

On a Roll to Save the Lakes

Somedays I step back and think about Thomas Jefferson who, recognizing the great beauty of the federal-state relationship, waxed prophetic about the states becoming laboratories of democracy. Today, the Great Lakes are poised to benefit tremendously by this ingenious system - following the lead of 13 states - US Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and George Voinovich (R-OH)have introduced a bill that will put an end to the use of phosphates in household dish detergent that leach into the Lakes feeding dangerous algae and killing off fish, by 2010.

“Protecting and restoring the Great Lakes has been a top priority of mine Read More » »

The Senate to Consider the Legacy Act

The Great Lakes Legacy Act reauthorization bill was introduced last week by US Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and George Voinovich (R-OH) with seven of the Great Lakes Senators signing on as original co-sponsors. Now, it is time to corral the rest of the Great Lakes Senate Delegation to join as co-sponsors and show a united front to the US Congress on this issue.

The new law will provide more money - $150 million - and expects to have the 31 areas of concern cleaned up within the decade. The EPA will have more flexibility distributing the funds to contractors untying some Read More » »

It is the Economy Stupid, All Over Again!

Democrats in the Great Lake State of Indiana came out for Hillary Clinton yesterday giving her a slight edge over Barack Obama in the state as the two compete to become the presidential candidate for the blue party. But it wasn’t the big gas tax debate that affected the votes of Indiana democrats – it was the economy, according to nine out of ten voters.

We, at HOW, have embraced the Brookings report that shows that by fully implementing the Great Lakes Collaboration Strategy, the economic engine in our region would be revved up once again - jobs would be created, Read More » »

If You Aren’t Part of the Solution…

Tomorrow is the last day that the Great Lakes Senators can sign onto the Great Lakes Legacy Act as original co-sponsors. It is time for reauthorization of the law that is the best tool in our carpenter’s box to clean up the toxic legacy of the industrial age. US Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and George Voinovich (R-OH) are actively seeking co-sponsors and will introduce the bill this week.

Cosponsors send a strong signal to the guys with the money on the Hill, according to Joy Mulinex, the Great Lakes Task Force Director. “If only a couple of Members sign onto Read More » »

Drum Roll Please

We are so close to having a national ballast law, we can smell it, taste it and the aroma is so appetizing. Yesterday, the US House passed the first ever national bill that will protect our fresh waters from ballast discharges when it voted 395 to 7 in favor of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2007.

The last year has seen Great Lakes States initiating their own ad hoc ballast bills in a desperate attempt to stop an impending “invasional meltdown” that would put the lakes on an irreversible trek toward ecological disaster, but now an answer is Read More » »