EPA urges Great Lakes cleanup
CHICAGO – The Bush administration laid out an ambitious plan Thursday to clean up and protect the Great Lakes, but even some of the president’s allies consider the $20 billion price tag to be unrealistic.
Led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a group of local, state, tribal and federal officials called for more aggressive efforts to clean up contaminated ports, fix aging sewer systems, block invasive species and improve the shoreline.
The group, organized by an executive order President Bush signed in May 2004, urged Congress and the states to make the world’s largest freshwater system a greater priority.
But questions remain about where lawmakers will find enough money to solve the myriad problems facing the lakes, most of which have been the subject of previous government reports and repeated pleas for help from scientists and environmental activists.
Legislation pending in Congress would allocate much less for the Great Lakes, between $4 billion and $8 billion over five years. And even though those bills have bipartisan support, none has come close to winning approval.
“This thing is very large and complicated,” Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said of the administration’s proposal. “Too large and too complicated as far as we are concerned.”
One of the group’s top priorities is cleaning up 31 toxic hot spots around the lakes by 2020, a goal expected to cost up to $4.5 billion. In the Chicago area, the sites include Waukegan Harbor, the Grand Calumet River and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal.
The most expensive item on the list of proposals released Thursday is nearly $14 billion over five years to upgrade sewage systems in cities around the Great Lakes, with 55 percent of the money coming from the federal government and the rest to be paid by the states.
Sewage overflows are considered one reason beaches along the lakes occasionally are closed due to high bacteria levels in the water.
But finding enough money to finance improvements at sewage treatment plants is a perennial battle in Congress.