Great Lakes News: Between Editions

The U.P. Needs Your Help

Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company has requested permission from the State of Michigan to mine into sulfide ores for the purpose of extracting nickel from the Yellow Dog Plains area of Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula.

It is anticipated that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality will rule on the proposal very shortly.  It is imperative that citizens speak up to protect the waters of the Upper Peninsula and the Great Lakes.

Sulfide mining has proven risky in other states, creating acid mine drainage that pollutes rivers and streams. This proposed mine puts the health of the Great Lakes at serious risk. Mining into sulfide ores beneath the Salmon Trout River, the Yellow Dog River, and other tributaries leading directly to Lake Superior may jeopardize the region’s precious water assets. It would compromise the health and well-being of state residents, as well the unique ecosystem that exists in the Upper Peninsula, a valued region of Michigan, the country, and North America.

We urge you to sign a petition to stop this proposal from being granted.  The signatures will be used to demonstrate to officials at all levels that the voting public opposes projects which jeopardize the Great Lakes and the Upper Peninsula. Even those who live out of state are encouraged to sign, since this issue will impact the entire region.

To sign the petition visit: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nosulfidemining/

This petition is sponsored by Great Lakes United member, Save the Wild U.P.  They are a Marquette, Michigan grassroots organization with deep concerns about the economic, social, and environmental impacts of nonferrous mining. Save the Wild U.P. is a member of an extensive coalition of community and conservation groups throughout Michigan opposed to the proposed mine. To learn more about SWUP or nonferrous mining, visit SaveTheWildUP.org.

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Speaking Out on Live Fire Training

The public comment period for the United States Coast Guard safety zone proposal has closed. Over 900 people and groups submitted their comments and many more attended the public hearings expressing their concerns about the proposal. You can view all submissions to the docket by going to http://dms.dot.gov and performing a simple search under docket number 25767.

Great Lakes United is opposed to the USCG conducting live fire training on the Great Lakes as proposed, and expressed this to the Coast Guard Ninth District’s Rear Admiral Crowley in our submission. The Great Lakes have been a symbol of peace and cooperation for generations, and this proposal undermines the nearly two centuries of effort to maintain this relationship.

Great Lakes United raised many questions that must be addressed surrounding endangering the lives of the public and the health of the environment. For instance, what precautions are in place for the many Canadian boaters? Is there a potential economic impact associated with undermining the desirability of the Great Lakes as a recreational and boating destination? Because altitude requirements over water could allow aircraft close proximity to live fire operations, is communication with the Federal Aviation Administration necessary? Are there alternatives that the Coast Guard could employ that would not undermine the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement? What will the impact be of the large amounts of lead that the ammunition will release to the environment? Great Lakes United does not feel that the USCG’s commissioned environmental study is, in this respect, adequate.

These are only a small sample of the questions that remain unanswered. As such, Great Lakes United recommends the following:

• The USCG refrain from weapons testing on the Great Lakes in the proposed 34 safety zones until this issue is fully resolved.
• A full environmental assessment is performed under the National Environment Policy Act, including the development of a range of alternatives to the existing proposal, including but not limited to, restricting all Coast Guard live fire training to the already established military safety zone at Camp Perry in Lake Erie.
• The USCG work transparently with Canada to develop a holistic binational approach to security, including partnering with a Canadian entity to hear concerns and recommendations directly from the Canadian public.

To read the complete submission click here.

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You've Been Heard

On November 3rd a delegation from Great Lakes United’s Board of Directors met with senior Environment Canada officials to discuss member-group priorities for the Great Lakes. In Ottawa for a board meeting, the delegation was able to meet with Deputy Minister Michael Horgan – the senior bureaucrat at Environment Canada – along with key staff including:

• Ian Shugart, Associate Deputy Minister;
• Cynthia Wright, Associate Deputy Minister Environmental Stewardship Branch;
• Jeanna Mackay-Alie, Director General for the Americas;
• Pradeep Kharre, Director General for Environment Canada’s Ontario Region; and,
• Allison Kennedy Acting Manager for Great Lakes Programmes Office.

Intended as an ice-breaker and door-opener with the new Deputy Minister and his lead staff, Great Lakes United nonetheless took the opportunity to discuss substantive issues, including the Review of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA), the Review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, Restoration progress in the United States, the Great Lakes budget at Environment Canada, and the slow pace at restoring Areas of Concern (AOCs).

On the GLWQA Review we expressed concern with the late start of the Governance and Institutions workgroup and encouraged the department to extend timelines as needed for the workgroup to meet its important charge.

Responding to our frustration with CEPA as a tool for meeting Canada’s commitments in the GLWQA, Great Lakes United Executive Director Derek Stack and departmental lead Cynthia Wright will meet to discuss non-legislative tools and activities underway for protection of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. Meanwhile, Director Kharee and his staff are looking into budgets and progress for Canadian AOC’s and Deputy Minister Horgan was encouraged to develop a Great Lakes plan for Canada beyond the negotiations of the GLWQA and CEPA’s historic links to the Agreement; this would help map Canadian priorities in bilateral negotiations.  U.S. priorities for the review are largely driven by a comprehensive multi-stakeholder consultation process in which U.S. restoration priorities were identified with broad consensus and some Congressional support for a $20 billion restoration bill.

The prospects for a United States effort to bring about comprehensive restoration of the Great Lakes almost certainly changed with the recent mid-term elections, but it is not clear exactly how or how much.

For the next two-year session of Congress, Democrats will be chairing key committees with jurisdiction over all bills important to the lakes. On the plus side, the Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress should, in theory, brighten prospects for comprehensive restoration, in that Democrats, broadly speaking, are more sympathetic to environmental concerns than are Republicans. However, the Great Lakes delegation is well known for environmental champions, both Democrat and Republican.  Unfortunately, however, some Republicans from the Northeast and Midwest with good environmental records and an active interest in Great Lakes protection either chose not run again or went down to defeat November 7.

On the minus side, the basin lost one of its top Senate champions on comprehensive restoration, Senator Michael DeWine, R-Ohio, who was defeated for re-election by Sherrod Brown, who has a good environmental record.  We hope that Brown proves to be a champion for the Great Lakes, supporting the large outlays for cleanup and protection called for in the Great Lakes restoration plan.  There is a large gap between a supporter and a champion and we hope to see Brown bridge it easily.
 
The prospects of substantial restoration monies being appropriated in coming years depends most on the attitudes of the committees in which the various components of restoration must be initially considered. Key here are the attitudes of the committee chairs, one or two senior members of the majority party, and the “ranking” (most senior) member of the minority party.

Appropriations

Central to any spending approved by Congress are the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The House Appropriations Committee will be chaired by David Obey, who represents a Wisconsin district fronting on Lake Superior. This is a potentially momentous development, substantially enhancing the possibility that restoration could be funded over the next two years.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will be chaired by Robert Byrd of West Virginia, but Dick Durbin of Illinois sits on the committee. Durbin's influence on the committee will be magnified by his coming position as assistant majority leader of the Senate, one of a small handful of members in the leadership of the overall body.

Infrastructure

Perhaps next most important committees are the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committees. These committees oversee projects such as aquatic invasive species legislation and the projects of the comprehensive restoration plan that will need the most money - sewer system upgrades and toxic hotspot cleanup.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, like the House Appropriations Committee, will be chaired by a member from the Great Lakes basin. Incoming chair James Oberstar represents a district fronting on Lake Superior, just as Appropriations Chair Obey's does.  Though Oberstar was a last-minute co-sponsor of the restoration legislation under consideration in the current session, he is well versed in Great Lakes problems and needs.

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee will be chaired by Barbara Boxer of California, a tremendous improvement over current chair James Inhofe of Oklahoma, possibly the most anti-environmental member of the Senate and a national leader in efforts to “debunk” claims of climate change and weaken the Endangered Species Act. Also on the committee are two potential contenders for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president, both from basin states: Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York. Both likely have influence typically disproportionate to their seniority (Barack is still in his first term; Clinton was just re-elected to her second) by virtue of their national profile and consequent ability to raise campaign money for colleagues.

Other important committees are the two houses' agriculture committees and energy and commerce committees. Two of the four will be led by members from Great Lakes states, making for a total of four of the eight congressional committees key to restoration being led by members from Great Lakes states.

Finally, the two parties' current and very influential House campaign chairs are from the basin, but they suffered opposite fortunes in the election. The Democratic campaign chair, Rahm Emmanuel, representing Chicago, Illinois, is moving into the House leadership, with his power substantially increased due to the success of House Democrats in the election. Democrats moved from being nearly thirty seats down to nearly thirty seats up. Emmanuel was an original cosponsor of the House version of the comprehensive restoration bill and has gone to bat for it repeatedly. Emmanuel’s increase in influence should substantially improve the prospects of basin restoration. The Republican House campaign chair, Tom Reynolds of Buffalo, New York, has suffered a substantial loss in power due to presiding over the loss of thirty or so Republican seats, and winning his usually safe district by only two points. Emmanuel will be in the fourth most powerful House leadership position, whereas Reynolds had been ranked perhaps twentieth in influence in the current House, so it could be said that total basin influence in the House has risen substantially.

So the structural picture looks good for greater attention being paid to restoration in the coming Congress. It must be remembered, however, that passage of actual bills depends on the priorities of individual members, especially committee chairs. At the moment it is not clear if restoration will fare better in the next Congress than it has in the current one but we have reason for hope.

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For members, the winter edition of Great Lakes News will be arriving to your doorstep in just a couple of weeks

In this edition we explore:

• A Wisconsin diversion proposal that flies in the face of the rules - both old and new
• Thinking twice about nanotechnology
• How Montréalers are taking pride in being surrounded by the St. Lawrence River
• Low-impact development as an inexpensive alternative to protect our water
• An overview of our coalition organizations and their missions

And more!

If you aren't a member and would like to begin receiving Great Lakes News, join today! You may be too late for delivery of the Winter edition, but this spring will be our 25th Anniversary edition, offering a retrospective look at Great Lakes United - if it's going to be the first one you receive, it's certainly a good choice!

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