President Obama's proposed 2012 budget would cut $125 million from projected funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and a Republican vision for the budget would cut even deeper.
Environmentalists say the funding cuts, coming via reduced funding for the Environmental Protection agency, would stall progress on addressing longstanding problems faced by the Great Lakes.
Much work remains to to prevent problems such as “beach closings and swimming bans,” says EBA Senior Advisor Cameron Davis. “Things like habitat loss and trying to clean up our toxic hot spots that continue to threaten public health and property values around the region.”
Another area that is addressed by the initiative is the prevention and monitoring of intrusive species like the Asian Carp. Thom Cmar, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says money from the program has already helped build electric barriers to try to keep the fish out of the Great Lakes and surrounding waterways.
President Obama has called for $350 million for the initiative in 2012, down from $475 million in 2010. But House Republicans have proposed a continuing resolution that would decrease that number to $225 million.
Joel Brammeier, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, says the plan is meant to build year after year, so funding uncertainties can disrupt work on the ground and could lead to increased costs in the long run. That's because many projects are implemented in phases, and if too much time passes before they begin, changes might need to be made to engineering and construction plans.
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