|
Great Lakes
Article:
Save the Lakes' is top priority
of residents reviewing plan
John C. Kuehner
Plain Dealer
02/25/04
Audrey Wahl provided suggestions Tuesday on a developing
multibillion-dollar plan to protect and restore the Great
Lakes.
But in reality her message was: Save the Great Lakes.
"We can live without fossil-fuel energy," the
Cleveland woman said. "But you can only live several
days without clean water. We need to reprioritize what's
important."
Wahl was one of several dozen people who provided feedback
Tuesday at Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus
in Parma on a nine-point priority list developed by the
eight Great Lakes governors.
The list sums up the problems facing the Great Lakes
from cleaning up and controlling pollution to stopping
non-native species to proposals to divert water out of
the region.
The governors created the list at the urging of the Great
Lakes congressional delegation. Two separate bills are
pending in Congress that would earmark up to $6 billion
for protecting and restoring the Great Lakes.
Anyone attending the session at CCC could write suggestions,
and experts were at the ready to answer questions. It
was the second of eight workshops planned across the Great
Lakes states. A similar meeting will be held today in
Erie, Pa.
By early summer, the Council of Great Lakes Governors
will put the lists together and compare and contrast issues
on a state-by-state basis, said Michael Donahue, the Great
Lakes Commission president.
But Donahue expects what the congressional delegation
will see is that issues that pose problems in Duluth,
Minn., are the same as those in Toledo, Cleveland or in
Rochester, N.Y.
None of the issues is new. But Donahue said the list
will show the federal government there's a groundswell
of support for restoration projects on a grand-scale basis,
rather than for nickel-and- dime solutions done on a state-
by-state basis.
Habitat issues and sustainable- use practices using the
resource without depleting or impairing it drew the most
comments Tuesday.
Many people urged greater public access to Lake Erie
and more public ownership of its shoreline.
"It's like having the Grand Canyon in your back
yard and not being able to go see it," said Kurt
Krause, Mentor's director of Parks, Recreation and Public
Lands.
|
