Slaughter stresses Great Lakes funding

Local News

November 2, 2011

By Neale Gulley The Tonawanda News The Tonawanda News Wed Nov 02, 2011, 01:04 AM EDT

— — Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, on Tuesday urged colleagues to sustain funding for conservation initiatives along the Great Lakes.

Slaughter along with some 22 of her colleagues asked House appropriations committee members to preserve funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a multi-agency federal program to fund efforts to clean up contaminated sediments, improve water quality, combat invasive species, protect watersheds from polluted run-off, and restore wetlands and other valuable habitats in the Great Lakes.

“The Great Lakes represent 20 percent of the world’s fresh water supply, and it is about time we put some serious effort into restoring and protecting them if only because they allow shipping, fishing, boating, and tourism creating and sustaining local jobs,” Slaughter, who is the Co-Chair of the Great Lakes Task Force, said in a letter to committee members.

The letter cites each of the Great Lakes for producing 1.5 million jobs and $62 billion in wages.

A press release issued by Slaughter on Tuesday said a bipartisan majority of House members supported an increase in the program’s funding in July, as part of an interior environment funding bill. At the time, a majority supported an amendment to the bill to increase appropriations to the Great Lakes program to a total of $300 million, which Slaughter noted was still $50 million below President Obama’s submitted request.

The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. In addition to tourism and industry along the lakes, they provide drinking water and transportation to some 39 million residents in cities along their collective shorelines.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Michigan, said in the letter:

“I understand that we are facing difficult choices and cuts have to be made as we begin these efforts. However, I ask for the sustainment of funding for the Great Lakes. The vitality of these waters are essential to the region and to the nation — they are a treasure that must be restored and protected. We must not let our efforts to protect the Great Lakes diminish. The bottom line is that it takes money to keep up the good work and I ask that they not be forgotten in next year’s budget.”

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