The Great Lakes are a vital, irreplaceable resource

The Great Lakes are a vital, irreplaceable resource

This was a good weekend for Lake Erie. For all the Great Lakes, in fact.

First, the administration of President Barack Obama unveiled a five-year plant to protect the Great Lakes against further environmental damage and to work toward reversing more than a century of damage done to the lakes through pollution from industry, urban sewers and farm chemical runoff.

Closer to home, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was elected co-chair of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, joining Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle. Strickland has a record of recognizing the importance of the Great Lakes to all of the Great Lake states and the importance of Lake Erie to Ohio. The council’s goal is environmentally responsible economic growth, working with both public and private sectors among the eight Great Lakes states and with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Qu bec.

Enormous potential

The value of the Great Lakes to long-term economic development cannot be underestimated. At a time when other areas of the nation are outgrowing their natural resources, the Great Lake states sit on the shores of the largest body of fresh water in the world.

For too long, the lakes — which provide drinking water to more than 30 million people and contribute to economic development through tourism and recreation and shipping that supports manufacturing — were taken for granted.

That’s no longer the case.

The states that border the lakes and the cities that sit on their shores have been doing a better job of reducing pollution and undoing some of the past damage. But it is a job too big for those various entities to do alone or in concert with each other,

Lisa Jackson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Sunday that the administration’s $2.2 billion plan represents a commitment to “creating a new standard of care that will leave the Great Lakes better for the next generation.”

One goal is a “zero tolerance policy” toward future invasions by foreign species, including the Asian carp. The carp has been making its way up the Mississippi River toward the lakes after escaping from southern fish farms. The administration is going to have to do more than make promises to stop the carp’s migration, it is going to have to take on Chicago area interests, because the shipping canal linking Chicago to the Mississippi offers the most imminent access point to the Great Lakes for the carp.

Today’s biggest threat

As important as it is to clean up environmental hot spots and to stock the lakes with desirable game fish, the carp has the potential of eventually eliminating the $7 billion sport fishing industry through its voracious appetite for plankton, a building block of the lakes’ food chain.

That’s where the Council of Great Lakes Governors and Strickland can weigh in. Ohio’s governor has made preventing the spread of Asian carp and the introduction of other invasive species that arrive at the lakes in ships’ ballast water a top priority. The council can evaluate the administration’s plan and express its concerns if some of the immediate priorities are misplaced.

Working together, the states and the federal government have an opportunity to avert a potential immediate threat to the well being of the Great Lakes and to make real progress in restoring lakes Superior, Michigan, Erie, Ontario and Huron to the incredible natural resource that they are. This effort is of special importance to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ontario and Qu bec. But it is in the best interests of all of the United States and Canada as well. The lakes helped make these countries great, and they remain a key to future prosperity.