Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Funding
SUPPORT
In 2009 President Barack Obama proposed a historic new restoration initiative as part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) proposed to invest $475 million to dramatically advance Great Lakes restoration. Congress funded the GLRI at $475 million as part of FY10 Interior-EPA funding bill. Sustained investment of the GLRI this year will help clean up toxic pollution that poses a threat to people and wildlife, restore wetlands to improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat that is important to the region’s tourism industry, and prevent and control new invasive species that cost the region at least $200 million every year. However, the GLRI was reduced to $300 million for fiscal year 2011. After years of inadequate federal investment, there is a tremendous backlog of work that needs to be done to keep pace with the serious threats to the Lakes. EPA, NOAA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation all recently closed grant solicitations on how to spend GLRI funds. Nearly 1,400 proposals were submitted totaling over $1.1 billion. Only 13 percent of proposals on average region-wide will receive funding through these solicitations since only $144 million is available. The demand for restoration funding is more than 7 times greater than available funds, meaning many projects will go unfunded. We need Congress to support maintaining funding for the GLRI in fiscal year 2012 at the full funding level of $475 million so we can keep building momentum in restoring and protecting the Great Lakes.
Stop Invasive Species Act of 2012 (S. 2317, H.R. 4406)
SUPPORT
This bill would direct the Secretary of the Army to complete the Great Lakes Mississippi River Interbasin Study within 18 months and to focus particular attention on the permanent prevention of the spread of aquatic nuisance species between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basins. The Great Lakes Mississippi River Interbasin Study is a study on the feasibility and best means of implementing the hydrologic separation of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins to prevent the spread of aquatic nuisance species between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins through the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal and other aquatic pathways.
Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act (Will be introduced soon)
SUPPORT The Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act (GLEPA) puts in place a permanent restoration framework, enhances regional coordination and accountability, and ensures that the restoration efforts focus on the right priorities that produce the most benefit to the Lakes and the people, businesses, and communities that depend on them.
Specifically, GLEPA:
- Authorizes the multi-year, popular Great Lakes Restoration Initiative at $475 million a year ensuring it stays focused on science-based, on-the-ground restoration activities.
- Requires EPA, through the Great Lakes National Program Office, to lead and coordinate federal Great Lakes restoration activities through a new federal Great Lakes Interagency Task Force. This legislation also gives the EPA needed discretion to enter into agreements with other federal agencies like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps, or NOAA to pass through GLRI funds to those agencies for activities that implement the Great Lakes restoration action plan. $25 million a year is authorized to help coordinate federal Great Lakes restoration activities.
- Enhances transparency by establishing a leadership board and multi-stakeholder management committee to ensure continued, broad collaboration and partnerships. The leadership committee (made up of high-level governmental representatives from federal agencies, governors, mayors, and tribal representatives) approves regional restoration goals and annual restoration priorities; reports on restoration progress; and recommends budget levels and policy priorities. The multi-stakeholder management committee (made up of non-governmental representatives, scientists, industry, and governmental representation) oversees GLRI implementation and makes recommendations to the leadership committee on the GLRI’s direction.
- Creates accountability by requiring federal agencies to incorporate the restoration recommendations from the leadership committee into their annual budgets and restoration plans or explain why those recommendations are being ignored.
- Re-authorizes the Great Lakes Legacy act at $150 million a year.
Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (FRAC Act)
(S. 587)SUPPORT
Amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to:
Repeal the exemption from restrictions on underground injection of fluids near drinking water sources granted to hydraulic fracturing operations.
Require oil and gas companies to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations.
Address Global Warming Changes
SUPPORTClimate change is having a profound effect on the Great Lakes’ ecology and economy. Restoration programs address the impacts of global warming by restoring wetlands, combating the spread of invasive species, and conserving water in the face of declining lake levels. Congress can help the Great Lakes combat the impacts of climate change by passing legislation that addresses the harmful impacts greenhouse gases are having on our planet and provides incentives to help our natural resources, including the Great Lakes, deal with those impacts. Congress needs to enact comprehensive climate and energy legislation that directs adaption funding to restore the Great Lakes.
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