Obama proposes $5-billion fund for Great Lakes

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama proposed today a five-point plan to fund and coordinate the restoration of the Great Lakes.

It would include a $5-billion trust fund, paid for by rolling back tax cuts and incentives to oil companies, and a Great Lakes coordinator within the Environmental Protection Agency.

The plan would focus funding on efforts to stop more invasive species from coming in through ballast water and control species that are already here, clean up toxic chemicals buried in sediments at hotspots around the lakes, and provide funding for sewer system repairs throughout the region.

Obama would make the Great Lakes a priority in his administration, said Heather Zichal, his environmental policy coordinator. . .



Read more: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080916/NEWS15/80916045

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Way cool. Very much needed.

[blue_onyx]

1. Great!!

The Great Lakes are such an important natural resource and we need to protect them.

[sandyj999]

2. That would be wonderful! n/t

[daggahead]

3. Looks like ...

Grand Traverse Bay.

Beautiful place!

[noonwitch]

15. Yeah, my grandpa lives on the OMP, with East Bay frontage

My free yearly vacation spot.

That photo looks much like that area, esp the West Bay, looking toward the penninsula.

[Faygo Kid]

17. Yep, that's West Bay.

My favorite area anywhere.

[kayell]

4. Good for him. The Great Lakes contain roughly 22% of the world’s fresh surface water:

"The Great Lakes contain roughly 22% of the world’s fresh surface water: 5,472 cubic miles (22,810 km3), or 6.0×1015 U.S. gallons (2.3×1016 liters). This is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a uniform depth of 9.5 feet (2.9 m)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes#Statistics

The Great Lakes are cleaner than they used to be, but a long, long way from the way such a fantastic resource should be preserved.

[apnu]

5. Can we also peel off some of that cash to kick BP's ass?

For what they've done to Indiana (and thereby Chicago's drinking water) is beyond criminal.

[Regret My New Name]

6. So I take it the great lakes are pretty polluted?

This I did nots knows...but I guess it makes sense that it would be.

[hedgehog]

10. The Lakes are full of sediments from years ago. At one time,

the Niagara River was nothing but chemical plants from one end to the other.

Here's what the NYS Dept of Health has to say:

The general health advisory for sportfish is that you eat no more than one meal (one-half pound) per week of fish taken from the state's freshwaters and some marine waters at the mouth of the Hudson River.

These include the New York waters of the Hudson River, Upper Bay of New York Harbor (north of Verrazano Narrows Bridge), Arthur Kill, Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, Raritan Bay west of Wolfe's Pond Park, Harlem River and the East River to the Throgs Neck Bridge (see map). The complete 2008-2009 Health Advisories: Chemicals in Sportfish and Game booklet includes a complete advisory listing and maps (PDF, 1.60MB, 32pg.). DOH issues this advice because:

* some chemicals are commonly found in New York State fish (mercury and PCBs for example),
* fish from all waters have not been tested and
* fish may contain unidentified contaminants.


http://www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/outdoors/fish/fish.htm

Of course, the other problem is that the entire ecosystem has been disturbed by invasive species. My Mom talks about how they used to get fresh fish from Lake Erie. With all the lakes, streams and rivers here in New York, it's a crime that we don't dare eat the fish!

[AngryAmish]

7. I, for one, would like them to be restored to the way they were before the last Ice Age

[DS1]

8. But Canada will benefit!!!

:sarcasm:

[happygoluckytoyou]

9. "sad to hear i won't be walking on the lakes any more" jesus

[Pete2069]

11. Screw the bid to foreign countries ..

It is time to keep our jobs home for Americans.   We have
supplied too d... many jobs overseas now. Plus stop the tax
breaks and welfare for offshore corporations and give it to
the companies which live and reside in our our country hiring
U.S. workers...  I am tired of jobs being outsourced and
poison products and food coming from overseas from companies
like China with the partners from U.S.A.
To H... with the Global Corporations , which is just another
way to promote corporations becoming monopolies and
controlling the markets and workers world wide..

Wake Up Americans ..... Now is the time to take action.....

[LisaM]

12. Well this is good news

I hope that Bill Richardson is given a wide berth when it comes to Great Lakes policy - he wanted to take their water down to New Mexico. LOSER.

The Great Lakes are a precious national resource and I'm glad to see someone paying attention. The valiant Great Lakes' governors have been on a lonely path for a while, trying to save them.

[amandabeech]

13. This is terrific news!

Holding off Asian Carp, stopping ballast blowing, renovating sewers, cleaning up toxic hot spots, I'm there!

I hope that this helps some fence-sitters in the Great Lakes States like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio jump to the Obama camp.

Is that Harbor Springs?

From a Lake Michigan shoreline Michigan ex-pat who plans on retiring to the lovely lake.

[Faygo Kid]

18. Traverse City's West Bay. And I'm retiring there, too. Good point about invasive species.

Don't let our secret out - no place finer.

I see the invasive species problem as nearly as great as pollution generally.

[amandabeech]

23. I try really hard not to talk too much about my preferred spot,

and I won't talk about yours, either.

All I'll say is that I'll be south of you eating Blue Moon ice cream in the summer!

[Liberalynn]

14. Maybe Lake Ontario beaches

won't have to be closed half the summer because they are too polluted to be safe.

Good for Obama!

[Jokerman]

16. I remember massive fish kills at Indiana Dunes.

My family went there several times when I was a kid.

I have vivid early memories of thousands of rotting fish.

- Sorry I put beach in the subject when I meant dunes!

[David Zephyr]

19. This is how you win elections. This is the best move by Obama in weeks.

Praise from this corner. Now just do more of it and do it soon.

[foxfeet]

20. Great proposal

I've been vacationing on the West Shore of Michigan since the early '60s. It's a beautiful place and the Great Lakes are an unparalleled resource. I hope this is making news (loudly and repetitively) in all the Great Lakes states.

[TrogL]

21. Last time I swam in Lake Erie (42 years ago) Cthulhu was following me

At least it looked like Cthulhu. Whatever it was it was big, had tendrils, didn't look like anything I've seen in a biology textbook and was definintely sentient.

The last fish I caught there had a cancer on the side of it the size of a quarter.

The Great Lakes are gonna take a LOT of fixing up.

[llmart]

22. I love Obama even more now.....

Anyone who cares enough about our natural resources to put money behind policy is OK with me.

[Muttocracy]

24. catching up on some old email and had one about this - great stuff!

maybe it's helped him pull ahead in Great Lakes states :)