{"id":353389,"date":"2010-02-23T11:10:41","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T16:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.circleofblue.org\/waternews\/?p=12144"},"modified":"2010-02-23T11:10:41","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T16:10:41","slug":"great-lakes-cleanup-to-get-2-2-billion-in-federal-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/353389","title":{"rendered":"Great Lakes Cleanup To Get $2.2 Billion in Federal Funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The EPA plan released Sunday aims to clean up top pollution sites; block toxic runoff from cities and farms; restore sensitive wetlands; and establish a \u201czero tolerance policy\u201d toward invasive species like the Asian carp.<\/em><span id=\"more-12144\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.circleofblue.org\/waternews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Algae-Bloom-290.jpg\" alt=\"Algae Bloom\" title=\"Algae Bloom\" width=\"290\" height=\"208\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-12180\" \/>The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has laid out the details of a five-year blueprint that will clean and protect the world\u2019s largest freshwater source from its \u201c150 years of abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson unveiled the plan Sunday at a meeting with Great Lakes politicians including Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland\u2014co-chairs of the Council of Great Lakes Governors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis action plan outlines our strategy to protect the environmental, human health, and economic interests of the millions of people who rely on the Great Lakes,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n<p>Specific goals of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Collecting or preventing the release of 45 million pounds electronic waste, 45 million pills of unwanted medicines, and 4.5 million pounds of household hazardous waste;<\/li>\n<li>Cleaning up 9.4 million cubic yards of toxic sediment;<\/li>\n<li>Cutting runoff from cities and farms and improving habitat in lake watersheds;<\/li>\n<li>Reducing algae blooms at Great Lakes beaches to reduce the number of beach closures; and<\/li>\n<li>Performing a comprehensive assessment of the Great Lakes\u2019 entire 530,000 acres of coastal wetland, including 10,000 miles of shoreline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Congress has authorized $475 million for improving the Great Lakes ecosystem this year, $60 million of which would go to the fight against the invasive Asian carp. Earlier this month, President Barack Obama proposed to direct $300 million of his 2011 budget request to the plan. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative assumes similar funding allocations in each of the plan\u2019s subsequent years.<\/p>\n<p>While most environmental groups have praised the plan, one group leader questioned the amount of attention being given to Asian carp to the detriment of broader lake protection efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Skelding, campaign director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, warns that too much funding is being diverted to the fight against the carp, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.record-eagle.com\/statenews\/local_story_051223016.html\"><em>The Associated Press<\/em> reported<\/a>. He also called on President Obama to match Congress\u2019 2010 funding level of $475 million in his 2011 budget request.<\/p>\n<p>Mich. Sen. Patty Birkholz, R-Saugatuck Township, said she supports efforts to block invasive species but does not want to see large portions of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative diverted towards the effort, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlive.com\/outdoors\/index.ssf\/2010\/02\/asian_carp_may_swallow_federal.html\"><em>The Grand Rapids<\/em> Press reported<\/a>. Birkholz, who&#8217;s district includes 25 miles of Lake Michigan Shoreline and the popular harbor village of Saugatuck, said she&#8217;d rather see other funding used for that effort. <\/p>\n<p>Sources: <a href=\"http:\/\/greatlakesrestoration.us\/action\/wp-content\/uploads\/glri_actionplan.pdf\">Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan<\/a> (PDF), <a href=\"http:\/\/yosemite.epa.gov\/opa\/admpress.nsf\/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d\/8f1d360db17327c1852576d20053ca01!OpenDocument\">EPA news release<\/a>, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.record-eagle.com\/statenews\/local_story_051223016.html\">The Associated Press<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mlive.com\/outdoors\/index.ssf\/2010\/02\/asian_carp_may_swallow_federal.html\">Grand Rapids Press<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The EPA plan released Sunday aims to clean up top pollution sites; block toxic runoff from cities and farms; restore sensitive wetlands; and establish a \u201czero tolerance policy\u201d toward invasive species like the Asian carp. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has laid out the details of a five-year blueprint that will clean and protect the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4010,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}