Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

(AP) - President Bush's proposed budget
would shortchange efforts to clean up the Great Lakes and to keep
problems such as sewage overflows and exotic species invasions from
getting worse, critics said Wednesday.

      Federal spending for Great Lakes water quality programs would be
slashed 16 percent from this year's total under the president's
fiscal 2009 spending plan released this week, advocacy groups said.

      They called on Congress -- and candidates in this year's election
-- to devote more money to the lakes, which make up nearly one-fifth
of the world's fresh surface water supply.

      "The White House budget fails the Great Lakes and the millions
of people who depend on them for their jobs and their way of
life," said Jeff Skelding, director of the Healing Our
Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.

      According to the group's analysis, the president requested
$297.6 million for Great Lakes programs, down from $353.76 million
appropriated for this year.

      Messages seeking comment were left with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Bush administration's primary office for
Great Lakes policy.

      Separately, a coalition representing shippers, ports and other
Great Lakes industries complained that Bush would cut by 35 percent
the Army Corps of Engineers budget for dredging to keep the lakes'
navigation channels open.

      The government allocated $140 million for dredging this year.
Bush requested $89.3 million for 2009.

      "The lakes are already suffering with extremely low water
levels," said Patrick J. O'Hern, president of the Great Lakes
Maritime Task Force. "Now is the worst imaginable time for any
reduction in Great Lakes dredging funds."

      Lynn Duerod, spokeswoman for the Army Corps, said the agency
would notify Congress if its dredging money runs short.

      "We'd like all of our projects to be funded every year,"
Duerod said. "However, we'll work with whatever we get."

      The budget has some bright spots, Skelding said. It includes
nearly $6.3 million to continue work on an electric barrier to
prevent the Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan through the
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

      The carp escaped from Southern fish farms into the Mississippi
River and has migrated northward in recent years. Biologists say if
the aggressive, voracious species reaches the Great Lakes, it could
devastate the $4.5 billion sport and commercial fishery.

      Additionally, Bush proposed a small increase -- from $34.5
million to $35 million -- for the Great Lakes Legacy Act, which
cleans up toxic sediments in the region's most heavily polluted
harbors.

      But programs for preventing sewage contamination and fighting
invasive species would absorb deep reductions.

      The president would cut the region's share of Clean Water State
Revolving Fund money by nearly 20 percent -- from $250 million this
year to $201.5 million. The program helps communities upgrade
wastewater treatment systems.

      The Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which leads the fight to
control the invasive sea lamprey, would be cut 21 percent.

      Bush recommended no spending for an erosion control program
coordinated by the Great Lakes Commission that received $430,000
this year.

      The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor
would take a 9.5 percent cut.

Gallery

Mayors tell candidates to make the Great Lakes a priority

Superior still a great lake, but it's under threat

Activists demand action to stop dropping water levels on Great Lakes

Group warns of approaching fish disease

Minnesota considers plan to keep Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes

Environmental News

Water

Politics and Government News

President Bush's proposed budget
would shortchange efforts to clean up the Great Lakes and to keep
problems such as sewage overflows and exotic species invasions from
getting worse, critics said.

Great Lakes advocates not pleased with Bush's spending plan

Go Deeper.

Like this?