U.S. plan to save Great Lakes not likely this year

The Detroit Free Press carries this article on the lack of progress on a comprehensive plan to restore the Great Lakes:

Congress appears likely to adjourn this year without adopting a sweeping Great Lakes restoration plan that says it will take $20 billion and five years to slow the escalating environmental degradation of the giant waterways.

Even worse, conservationists say, Congress could end up cutting existing Great Lakes cleanup programs at a time when scientists warn the lakes are on the verge of a collapse that could permanently damage the U.S. environment and economy.

The lakes -- Superior, Huron, Erie, Michigan and Ontario -- make up 95% of the fresh water in the United States and provide drinking water to 25 million people. And they help produce a third of the nation's gross state product.

The restoration plan before Congress, called the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, is essentially a blueprint to save the Great Lakes. It was drafted by a presidential commission made up of business leaders, environmentalists, Indian tribes, scientists and state and local government officials.

About $8 billion of the recommended federal share would go to improve aging sewer systems to prevent overflows. The remainder would be used to clean up mercury pollution, restore wildlife habitat and wetlands and fight invasive species such as the zebra mussel, which has starved native fish by devouring plankton.

Great Lakes lawmakers also are scrambling to get Congress to approve money for a permanent barrier to keep plankton-gobbling Asian carp from invading Lake Michigan from the Illinois River.