Carl Levin Senate Floor Statement on the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2008

May 12, 2008 -- "Mr. President, today my colleagues from the Great Lakes and I are introducing the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2008 in order to reauthorize the Great Lakes Legacy Act. The Legacy program has been a program that has delivered real results in the Great Lakes and has broad support.

Lighthouses on Lake Michigan: Photo by Luiz Castro (CC)

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The purposes of the Legacy program are to cleanup and restore Areas of Concern. For those of you who live outside the Great Lakes region, Areas of Concern are sites in the Great Lakes that do not meet the water quality goals established by the United States and Canada in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The primary reason that these areas fail to meet water quality goals is the result of contaminated sediments--a result of the industrialization of the mid-west.

The existing Legacy program has funded several projects throughout the region to remove contaminated sediments. In fact, almost 800,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments have been removed since the program was created in 2002. Let me stress that this program has very real, on-the-ground results. This is material that has been safely removed from riverbeds so that it no longer poses a threat to human health or the wildlife.

There are 13 Areas of Concern in the state of Michigan which result in fish advisories, degradation of fish and wildlife populations, taste and odor problems with drinking water, beach closures, and bird and animal deformities or reproductive problems. Mr. President, these environmental problems are too grave considering the fact that the Great Lakes hold one-fifth of the world’s freshwater, supplies drinking water to tens of million people, and provides a $5 billion fishery.

The bill that I have introduced today builds on the existing Legacy program in several ways. First, it increases the authorization of appropriations from $54 million to $150 million in order to cleanup the Areas of Concern within 10 years. The bill gives the EPA greater flexibility to manage funds by allowing the EPA to distribute funds directly to contractors and would not require states to maintain previous year’s funding levels at a site. Under this bill, eligible projects would be expanded to include habitat restoration. Many Areas of Concern cannot be delisted until habitat restoration work is done. Also, the bill would give the EPA the discretion to provide Legacy Act funds to demonstration and pilot projects. Finally, the bill would clarify the role of polluters in participating in future projects.

Mr. President, we have been working for decades to try to get Areas of Concern delisted. This bill was drafted based on recommendations from a coalition of environmental and industry groups that are working hard to protect and restore the Great Lakes, and I want to thank them for their dedication. I hope that my colleagues will support this legislation to hopefully cleanup these sites. Thank you."

Source: Senator Carl Levin