Congress Votes to Slash Funds to Lake Erie, Great Lakes

[Nadhal Eadeh]

Senator Brown kicks off the news conference.

Standing on the banks of Edgewater Park, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9) called on the House of Representatives to make immediate changes to a bill that would slash the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) budget by nearly 80 percent, from an estimated $285 million dollars to just $60 million. The Ohio Delegation were joined by Lorain fisherman and charter boat captain, Alan Maier.

The health of the Great Lakes, argued Maier, is crucial to Ohio's economy and his industry's livelihood " in the 60s we were the butt of every joke because of the Cuyahoga River, in the 70s we began the cleansing process, in the 80s millions of Walleye returned to Lake Erie, we need to continue the fight to protect our Lake".


Congresswoman Kaptur, tells of the positive impact this will make on Lakewood and the area.

According to Senator Brown, a reduction in funds would hurt Ohio's economy "this could significantly jeopardize the economy of Northern Ohio and the livelihood of its citizens. The House must act to restore GLRI funds in order to protect Ohio's drinking water and the thousands of fishing, boating, and recreation jobs that are dependent on clean and safe waters".

According to the State of Ohio, more than $10 billion of the state's nearly $40 billion tourism industry is derived from counties along the Lake Erie shoreline. According to environmental activist and Ward 2 Councilman Tom Bullock, the funding is critical for the Lakewood shoreline "A healthy lake and clean drinking water protects property values", said Bullock, "and Great Lakes Restoration Funds can provide cities hard hit by the housing downturn the financing needed to repair sewers and reduce the storm water overflows that pollute water".

Nadhal Eadeh is the LO Political/Washington Correspondent.


Senator Brown takes a step back and listens to questions.

.

[russell dunn]

It would be a shame to see jumping carp snatching eaglets from the nest in a few years.
I'm sure we could lease the Great Lakes to some far-away country who would manage them
as long as they could tanker away all of the fresh water they wanted, when they want to.
We sure don't seem to be providing any stewardship on the legislative end, although the
Fishing / Hunting / Sierra / Green, and myriad stakeholders, even those who just value
a sniff of clean air, know differently.

Nadhal, what do we do here ?

Thanks

[Betsy Voinovich]

It would be a shame to see jumping carp snatching eaglets from the nest in a few years.
I'm sure we could lease the Great Lakes to some far-away country who would manage them
as long as they could tanker away all of the fresh water they wanted, when they want to.
We sure don't seem to be providing any stewardship on the legislative end, although the
Fishing / Hunting / Sierra / Green, and myriad stakeholders, even those who just value
a sniff of clean air, know differently.

Nadhal, what do we do here ?

Thanks

According to today's front page headline in the Plain Dealer, the Great Lakes Clean up funds have
been put back. 150 million has been restored by the House Appropriations Commission. "The latest
version of the bill would provide $210 million in 2014 for the initiative, which cleans pollution from the
lakes, combats invaseive species and restores wetlands. That would be a redction from the 285 million
the program will get this year, but it's significantly more than the 60 million that was in last week's draft
of the bill."

Our representative, Marcy Kaptur (who the PD describes as being "of Toledo") had backed a different
amendment. She said that the Great Lakes Restoration program used to have $475 a year and that wasn't
enough to fight invasive species and algae blooms that threaten "the world's largest freshwater fishery."

She said that Great Lakes representatives are outnumbered in Congress and said "this is our moment to plead
for you to please provide us full funding."

Still way better than last week, and the chair of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Mike Simpson,
Republican from Idaho, promised to work to get it to a higher level.

Betsy Voinovich

[Ryan Salo]

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/1 ... ing-water/

Maybe someone needs to talk with Jeremy Caldwell about his ideas for cleaning the lake up.

Something needs to be done, the more I pay attention the more I am starting to think like an environmentalist.

[marklingm]

Something needs to be done, the more I pay attention the more I am starting to think like an environmentalist.

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. would be proud of you, Ryan!