Great Lakes Threatened

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIGGINS. Mr. Speaker, the Great Lakes are one of the most overlooked and unappreciated national assets. They are the largest source of freshwater in the world and contain 20 percent of the freshwater on Earth.

The Great Lakes face many challenges. Agricultural runoff, sewer overflows, and other pollution makes its way into the Great Lakes from across the northeast and the Midwest, leading to unsafe water quality and public health concerns. Also, invasive species hitch a ride in the ballast water of oceangoing vessels, like the zebra mussel, or swim up the Mississippi River, like the Asian carp, and threaten to alter the lakes' fragile, closed ecosystem.

In recognition of the importance of the Great Lakes and to combat the threats to their health, in 2010, 11 Federal agencies announced a plan to implement the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an ambitious action plan to remove toxins, clean up the lakes, and protect them from further pollution and invasive species.

I am concerned that funding for this important program has been uneven. It was funded at $475 million in fiscal year 2010, fell to $300 million this year, and is funded at just $250 million in the fiscal year 2012 Interior Appropriations bill the House will consider next week.

However, the mere existence of this special cleanup funding is evidence that Congress and the administration recognize the Great Lakes are a unique natural resource that deserves protection.

In 1969, the Cuyahoga River famously caught fire, symbolizing the abysmal water quality of the water in the Great Lakes basin. Legislation from the Clean Water Act and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has gone a long way toward returning the lakes to good health. However, the Great Lakes face a new threat beyond water quality: the diversion or removal of water from the Great Lakes basin.

In recognition that due to national and global trends, the value of freshwater will increase, as will the incentive to remove it from the Great Lakes, the eight States that border the Great Lakes entered into a compact with each other and two Canadian provinces on the use of Great Lakes water. Congress ratified the agreement, and it was signed into law by President Bush in 2008.

Among the most important provisions of the compact are restriction on the removal or diversion of water from the Great Lakes basin. The underlying goal was to prevent any one State from plundering the freshwater in the Great Lakes.

So it is with great concern that I learned yesterday that the Ohio State legislature had passed legislation to permit businesses to remove 5 million gallons of water a day from Lake Erie. In New York, we are about to adopt a far more reasonable limit by requiring a permit for the withdrawal of 100,000 gallons per day. The Ohio bill, if adopted, would violate the spirit of the historic Great Lakes compact and force a race to the bottom among the eight signatory States, which will result in an accelerated level of diversions and further reduce the water level in the Great Lakes beyond the impact of Ohio businesses. Such an outcome is unacceptable.

The consequence of such a large scale removal of water from the Great Lakes basin would have a devastating environmental and economic impact in my community. Water levels in the Great Lakes are already on the decline, and the additional large-scale removal of water will lead to algae blooms and reduced water quality, negatively impacting aquatic wildlife and the associated fishing industry, and reduce recreational boating and commercial shipping activities.

In my community of western New York, this action would threaten the progress we are making in Buffalo toward reclaiming the waterfront as an engine of recreational and economic opportunities.

I wrote to Ohio Governor John Kasich yesterday encouraging that he conclude, as have his predecessors Bob Taft and George Voinovich, that this legislation poses a danger to the health of our greatest regional asset, and suggesting that he veto this ill-advised legislation. I hope that he will heed that advice so advocates for the Great Lakes can focus attention on the restoration initiative and on cleaning up the lakes instead of having to fight to protect them from massive withdrawals of freshwater for profit when the issue was supposed to have been settled years ago.

Now more than ever, it is critical that the Great Lakes remain vigilant and united against the threat of water diversion.

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