For all the dysfunction and partisan clashes in Congress, there still are moments of achievement. One arrived as lawmakers prepared to go home for the holidays. They sent legislation to the White House advancing the cause of repairing the Great Lakes, a big and necessary task requiring a sustained commitment for decades.
The Water Resources Development Act, signed by President Obama on Friday, features three key provisions for the lakes. First, the bill secures annual funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative at $300 million through 2021. That, essentially, follows the pattern of the Obama years, the president and a bipartisan group of lawmakers bringing steady resources to what the George W. Bush White House set in motion.
The result has been an investment of roughly $2.4 billion in such things as bolstering fish and wildlife habitats, curbing invasive species, reducing farm and city runoff and cleaning up toxic pollution. The new measure adds $1.5 billion to the effort, though it bears reminding that the total cost of the restoration is a projected $25 billion.
If that sum concerns, consider the return in benefits, from $2 to $10 for every dollar spent.
Second, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must comply with state water quality standards. That translates into the corps needing the approval of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency before the corps dumps into Lake Erie polluted sediment dredged from harbors and river mouths.
Third, the law creates a harmful algal bloom coordinator within the U.S. EPA, with the prospect of adding focus and drive to the task of ending the toxic algae crisis. At its peak, the sickly green tide has stretched from Toledo to Cleveland, penetrating the former’s water system in 2014, as many as 500,000 people without city water for two days.
The federal EPA would help further in addressing toxic algae by taking separate action in designating as “impaired” the western portion of Lake Erie. Michigan already has called for the designation. Ohio applied the concept to the shoreline and intakes for drinking water. The distinction hardly matters, the march of the algal blooms evidence enough of a lake at risk.
The “impaired” designation, as U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat, and Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, stressed in a recent letter to the EPA, helps in triggering a concrete and measurable response. A leading contributor is the phosphorous-laden runoff from farm lands into the Maumee River and related waterways. The International Joint Commission, the U.S.-Canadian body that oversees stewardship of the lakes, has called for a 40 percent reduction in phosphorous pollution flowing into Lake Erie.
An Ohio task force, also relying on scientific analyses, recommended the same in 2013. With an algal bloom coordinator coming at the EPA, the timing couldn’t be better.
So, applaud U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman, plus U.S. Rep. David Joyce, for their efforts to advance the health of the Great Lakes. The way to ensure needed progress against the algal blooms, and the harm they pose to recreational and economic use of the lake, is through the “impaired” designation. It is imperative to restoring the Great Lakes.