Sewage Contamination and Beach Closings

Good Vibrations

Good vibrations are rolling across Capitol Hill as the US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee prepares to take up the reauthorization of the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000 tomorrow. HOW and the NRDC are collecting signatures on a letter regarding this legislation until noon today so sign on if you have time.

The legislation funds beach water monitoring programs that update the public on health issues associated with beach activities. We support the legislation and hope no amendments weaken it. Beach tourism is big business in the Great Lakes States during the summer months and provides numerous Read More » »

Buffalo: The Come Back Kid

[caption id="attachment_1922" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Lake Erie Harbor"][/caption][caption id="attachment_1924" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Buffalo\'s Erie Harbor"][/caption]

Buffalo, NY - Buffalo, the second poorest city in the nation has a plan to stimulate a long depressed local economy by making Buffalo and the Great Lakes one and the same in people’s minds. That is right, the Queen City has rediscovered her historical link to the Great Lakes and expects this revival to lead to more jobs and transform the quality of life for those Read More » »

Hallelujah: We Have A Restoration Water Bill

The US House resoundingly approved a $19.4 billion-water bill that could vastly upgrade efforts to improve Great Lakes water quality. Now, how do we get it through the US Senate?

It was 1994 the last time Congress passed a Water Authorization Bill – since then members have had to use earmarks and other mechanisms to get money to localities to update ancient sewer systems, crumbling wastewater facilities and clean up overflows of raw sewage and toxic pollution. But this bill brings together five water quality bills that were consistently passed by the US House and then defeated.

This water bill will provide Read More » »

Michigan Cities Benefit from Stimulus

Sixteen Michigan cities will get $66 million from the economic stimulus package to upgrade water systems and create 109,000 jobs. This is exactly what we have been talking about – spending money on restoring the Great Lakes creates jobs and helps our region’s economy.

Restoration may sound lofty and unduly “green” but in reality it translates into spending millions to fix our ailing and ancient combined sewer systems and that also means jobs. But the stimulating effect doesn’t stop with employment -by stopping untreated waste from flowing into the water we drink and swim in business will feel a boon. Read More » »

No More Rolling Downhill

The Duluth News lost little time in writing about how the stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama will impact the Great Lakes region by putting people to work to stop sewage from flowing into the lakes and tributaries.

Done Deal

We usually wax on about the first 100 days of a new President’s Administration, but President Barack Obama will go down in history for signing his name to the most sweeping economic recovery package within his first month of taking office. We can surely hope the $1.45 billion that will go to our Great Lakes region is only a down payment toward a full restoration package over the next four years. As it stands now, we can expect to create more than 50,000 jobs with the billion-in-a-half coming our way to modernize our wastewater infrastructure and prevent sewage contamination.

“This Read More » »

With a Little Bit of Blooming Luck

It’s too late to get economic stimulus money to help restore the ecosystem in the Great Lakes, and it is too late to send funds for jobs to clean up toxic hot spots. But it isn’t too late to do everything possible to convince the conferees to go with the House version of the bill when it comes to updating sewers and cleaning up drinking water.

The House version of the economic recovery package would provide $6 billion for both wastewater and drinking water infrastructure. The House bill would deliver $2.18 billion to the Great Lakes states and would create Read More » »

First Things First

We’d like to thank you Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) for offering an amendment to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will increase the amount of money our nation spends to update our anachronistic sewer and drinking water infrastructure from $6 billion (current House and Senate bill) to $13 billion.

What does that $7 billion translate into? It means another 1,935 sewers in disrepair will be fixed and another 385 drinking water projects will get underway. It means an additional 154,000 people will be employed in an array of jobs – American jobs – jobs Read More » »

Waiting For Stimulation

With the Senate starting debate on the economic stimulus today, it seems like a good time to suggest they consider amending the legislation to include more money to repair sewers and to clean up toxic hot spots in the Great Lakes region.

Michigan has the highest unemployment in the nation – 10.6 percent, according to Stateline.org. If the Senate were to choose to put $10 billion into the State Revolving Fund – the dollars that pay for our sewer systems to be updated and fixed – it would create 20,163 jobs in Michigan. Michigan isn’t suffering alone Read More » »

Short and Very Bittersweet

A grade of D that is what the American Society of Civil Engineers grades our nation’s sewers and drinking water systems. In a very short and to-the-point report, the respected association estimates that the crisis our nation’s infrastructure faces will cost $2.2 trillion to resolve.

“Crumbling infrastructure has a direct impact on our personal and economic health, and the nation’s infrastructure crisis is endangering our future prosperity,” ASCE President D. Wayne Klotz said at the release of the report card.

Of course, the connection between America’s aging infrastructure and quality of life and prosperity is not lost on the Read More » »