Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY), co-Chair of the Great Lakes Task Force, announced today that the House of Representatives has approved her legislation formally authorizing the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) for another five years. The legislation -- H.R. 5764, The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2014 - formally authorizes funding of GLRI at $300 million annually for fiscal years 2015-2019. The funding will be distributed among Great Lakes communities, including Monroe County. Local priorities such as cleaning up Braddock Bay and programs that test water quality at Monroe County beaches will continue to be eligible for funding.
"The Great Lakes hold over 20 percent of all of the surface fresh water on the planet and we have an obligation to future generations to keep it safe for drinking, transportation, and recreation," said Rep. Slaughter, co-Chair of the Great Lakes Task Force. "Over 26 million people in the Great Lakes basin rely on the lakes as their source of drinking water and it is absolutely critical that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative continue the work it has done over the last five years to restore these bodies of water. I thank my colleagues on the bipartisan Great Lakes Task Force for introducing this legislation with me and for their hard work and dedication to keeping the Great Lakes healthy and safe."
The Great Lakes contain about 85 percent of North America's fresh surface water and over 20 percent of fresh water worldwide and is home to more than 3,500 species of plants and animals. Studies have shown that more than 1.5 million jobs are directly connected to these five lakes, generating $62 billion in wages.
Over the past five years, the bill has provided over $3 million in funding for local projects, including work to delist the Rochester Embayment as an Area of Concern, water quality testing at Monroe County Beaches, and a feasibility study to restore the aquatic ecosystem of Irondequoit Creek among others.