LANSING – The Michigan Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that will be developed by the end of the year will be a blueprint for the state to expand its work on improving the condition of the lakes. But the initiative will also be a tool to seek funding from the incoming federal administration, Lt. Governor John Cherry said in unveiling the development process Wednesday.
The new initiative will be based on a number of recommendations, particularly the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy. But Cherry said the inter-departmental groups working on the Michigan plan will also look to recommendations released Wednesday by the Michigan United Conservation Clubs in developing the plan.
The goal is also to have the plan ready to take out for public hearings later in the year, he said.
Among the subjects to be addressed in the plan are reduction and removal of pollutants, prevention of further invasive species, and protection and restoration of coastal wetlands and habitats.
Those had also been the goals of the regional collaborative, but Cherry said that plan has seen little action. “The regional collaborative strategy has failed to live up to its promise because the federal administration has failed to fund this effort,” he said.
And he said one of the uses for the plan will be to seek federal funding. “I look forward to a new federal administration that will do more than call the Great Lakes a national treasure,” Cherry said.
But he said the plan will also allow the state to move forward on some efforts without federal assistance. “Together we will show Washington that the people of Michigan will not sit back and hope our Great Lakes stay clean and safe,” he said.
While it will be a statewide plan, Office of the Great Lakes Director Ken DeBeaussaert said the Michigan initiative will be designed to be implemented on a watershed basis. “One generic plan may not help the individual Great Lakes,” he said.
Donna Stein with the MUCC said the proposal also leaves open the possibility of partnerships to cover the costs of some of the projects. “We believe that the state’s budget woes do not need to limit our thinking,” she said.
The MUCC report makes 15 recommendations, including identifying and protecting those areas most critical to the health of the lakes and implementing regulations to reduce the introduction of mercury, dioxin and other pollutants into the lakes. The group also called fixing the combined sewer overflows along the Detroit and Rouge rivers and expanding sanitary surveys of beaches to prevent beach closings. The surveys should be covered by federal funds with a change in federal law, the group said.
But MUCC also called for some state funding efforts, including creation of a $1 million “rapid response plan” to prevent spread of invasive species as soon as they are found. It also recommended creation of a dam removal fund to provide loans to communities seeking to remove hazardous structures.
The report said the Great Lakes could also be used as an economic development tool if they can be restored. “It will be extremely difficult to bring young minds and new economic engines to the Great Lakes region if the Great Lakes are seen as polluted, the fishing poor, the fish unsafe to eat, and the beaches closed,” the report said.
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