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Great Lakes plan all washed up
Hit with hurricane sticker shock, the Bush administration nixes $20 billion restoration

By Michael Hawthorne
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 7, 2005

After a year of promises to make the Great Lakes a greater national
priority, the Bush administration is pulling back from an ambitious $20
billion plan to restore and protect the world's largest source of
freshwater.

Three months after the plan was released for public comment, administration officials are finalizing a report to President Bush that concludes federal spending on the Great Lakes should remain "within current budget projections," meaning no new money should be allocated.

Instead, federal, state and local officials should concentrate on "improving the efficiency and effectiveness of existing programs," according to the draft report, a copy of which was obtained by the Tribune.

Without the administration's support, Congress likely will not endorse more aggressive--and more expensive--efforts to clean up contaminated ports, fix aging sewer systems, block invasive species and improve the shoreline.  Legislation calling for more spending on the Great Lakes already is bottled up in House and Senate committees.

An electronic copy of the administration report, dated Sept. 26, does not specifically mention the recent hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast.

But political leaders and environmental activists throughout the Great Lakes region have worried their goals would be sidetracked by skyrocketing costs to clean up the hurricane damage.

"We're still in an era of post-Katrina sticker shock," said U.S. Rep. Mark
Kirk (R-Ill.), who is leading a bipartisan group of lawmakers asking for $4 billion over five years to tackle problems facing the lakes.

The administration is scaling back its plans even as federal, state, tribal
and local officials meet this week in Rochester, N.Y., to discuss how best to spend the proposed $20 billion.

Bush formed the group during his re-election campaign last year and ordered it to hammer out a restoration plan within a year.

The group's deliberations formally began in December with an elaborate
ceremony at the Chicago Hilton and Towers featuring Native American
drummers, bagpipers and speeches from Mayor Richard Daley, governors and Cabinet officials.

A spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality said the administration hasn't made a final decision.

However, another administration official involved in the deliberations said the report is nearly done and reflects the views of many top federal
officials.

"The federal government will consider the [Great Lakes] plan an advisory document only, and will weigh its recommendations against all other competing priorities within the federal budget," the report states.

Kirk and other lawmakers from the region have been trying to win more
congressional support for their efforts to improve the Great Lakes. They already are urging potential presidential candidates to make the issue part of their campaign agendas during the next election.

"As we enter a lame-duck presidency, the vision of Congress becomes much more important," Kirk said. "We'll take what we can get from the
administration but we have to move forward."

For most of the last year, public pronouncements about the Great Lakes from Bush administration officials have suggested sweeping changes were in the works.

"The unique nature of these majestic lakes and their role in the cultural,
economic and environmental well-being of our nation requires us to take bold action in their defense," Stephen L. Johnson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said when the proposed restoration plan was released in July.

Three months later, the administration report says top officials at the EPA and other federal agencies have serious concerns about the wish list, which called for $20 billion in new federal spending on the lakes in the next 15 years.

The proposal "does not take into account the ongoing federal, state, tribal and local investments in the Great Lakes and how to focus those substantial resources to maximize results," the memo states.

Federal programs related to the Great Lakes already will cost about $5
billion during the next decade, the memo states.

Many of the problems facing the lakes will cost considerably more to fix.
Cleaning up 31 toxic hot spots around the lakes is estimated to cost up to $4.5 billion alone. In the Chicago area, the sites include Waukegan Harbor, the Grand Calumet River and the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal.

The most expensive item on the wish list is nearly $14 billion to upgrade
sewage systems in cities around the lakes. Beaches occasionally are closed following chronic sewage overflows. But financing sewer improvements is a perennial battle in Congress.

For instance, the president's budget request this year included no money to continue work on the Deep Tunnel project, a system of tunnels and reservoirs in the Chicago area that captures storm run-off and helps keep human and industrial waste out of Lake Michigan.

Attempts to boost spending on the Great Lakes have been hampered in part by a Government Accountability Office report that found little coordination between federal and state efforts and few ways to measure progress.

But after a year of debate, many of those involved in efforts to improve
existing programs say more money is needed to help the lakes, the source of one-fifth of the world's freshwater. They point to other multibillion-dollar initiatives to restore the Everglades and Chesapeake Bay.

"I don't think we will bring the lakes back to health with existing
budgets," said Cameron Davis, executive director of the Alliance for the
Great Lakes. "There is a significant national interest in the Great Lakes
that deserves a significant national investment."