“Charge those lines!”
- General Winfield Scott Hancock, Gettysburg, July 2, 1863

That was the command given to Colonel Colvill of the Minnesota 1st in the midst of the second day of fighting outside of the previously unknown and sleepy hamlet of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  Colvill, along with only a portion of the famed Minnesota 1st Regiment of 262 men, had just arrived on the battlefield after an arduous 20-mile march toward the sound of the developing battle.  Upon their arrival on the scene, Union forces were in chaos along the soon to become hallowed grounds known as Cemetery Ridge south of Gettysburg.  Sixteen hundred Confederates from Alabama, under the command of Gen. Cadmus Wilcox, moving quickly to take the high ground along this important place on the battlefield.The men of the Minnesota 1st were seasoned veterans of the Civil War, having the distinction of being the first unit to volunteer for the Union cause back in 1861.  They had seen action from Bull Run to Fredericksburg, and when this command to charge into the oncoming Alabamans was given, they knew full well the order meant the highest sacrifice.  Without hesitation the 262 Minnesotans rushed down Cemetery Ridge, which looks more like a casual hill at this place on the field, to clash with the advancing Confederates.  The ensuing bloody encounter slowed the Confederate advance for only a few minutes.  As a result, the Minnesota 1st experienced the highest casualty rate of any military unit in American history with 88% of those charging down that hill either killed or wounded.

To casual observers of the legislative process, some of the activities can seem like senseless sacrifices without much gain — like the charge of the Minnesota 1st.  That certainly would appear to be true for the environment communities’ effort to pass SF2349 to protect our water from pollution caused by new and dangerous mining being proposed in northern Minnesota.  After a great deal of effort from several of our MEP organizations and our chief author Sen. Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan), we finally secured hearings on this sensible piece of legislation.  The bill focuses on improving the damage deposit mining companies must have in place before they can start mining to ensure that they operate the mine safely and clean it up upon closure.  This new mining of precious metals is much different than iron ore mining and has produced significant environmental damage in other parts of the country due to sulfuric acid and heavy metal runoff.

On Monday and Wednesday of this week, the Senate Environment and Natural Resources committee chaired by Sen. Satveer Chaudhary (DFL-Fridley) held in-depth hearings on the environmental review process of the first mine seeking permits, known as Polymet.  After extensive hearings, the committee finally took up SF2349 late Wednesday night.  After over 10 hours of hearings with detailed scientific analysis, emotional appeals from both sides, and some very spirited debate, the hearing reached its climax at around 9 p.m.

Unfortunately for the environmental community, these hard-fought hearings ended in the bill being withdrawn by the chief author due to lack of assurances that the bill would pass.  If one only focuses on this result and the circumstances of a single bill, it would certainly look to the casual observer like this whole effort regarding SF2349 was a meaningless sacrifice.  So this time a broader perspective may be helpful.

For example, if one only focuses on the senseless sacrifice of the 88% casualties the Minnesota 1st suffered in those few minutes on the second day of Gettysburg, you would lose the broader significance.  It is well established by historians that without the sacrifices of the Maine 20th on the far southern flank of the Union forces and the Minnesota 1st on Cemetery Ridge, the Battle of Gettysburg would have been a Union loss.  The charge of the Minnesota 1st bought only a few minutes, but they were precious minutes.  While the Minnesotans were holding off the advancing Confederates, Gen. Hancock was able to move Union reserves into good positions up on Cemetery Ridge, saving the high ground.

Without the Minnesotan’s sacrifice, Confederate forces would have split the forming Union lines requiring Union forces to fall back even closer to the nation’s capitol.  Because of the great sacrifice of the Minnesota 1st, Cemetery Ridge was held to become the central point of the greatest Union victory in the war on July 3rd in the famed failed Confederate attack known as Pickett’s Charge.

SF2349 may have been lost in legislative terms, but our objective is not to just pass bills.  Our objective is to use all of our resources to protect our lakes, rivers and streams along with our valuable outdoor resources such as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  Passing bills is only one tool in this very important endeavor.  Although the bill failed, there were bright lights shown on the process with over 10 hours of intense hearings.  The mining companies now know there is a very engaged group of Minnesotans willing to sacrifice to protect our valuable resources.  These efforts help strengthen the resolve of the critical agencies charged with the protection of our environment and highlighted gaps in their environmental review process that now must be addressed.

It is disappointing to lose a bill as a lobbyist, but there’s much more to do in the mining area around regulatory actions, community organizing, public relations, and further legislative hearings.  It is good to see the Legislature taking their role of oversight of our state agencies seriously.  In addition to the hearings we received this week in the Senate, the House Environment Policy Committee will hold oversight hearings Thursday, March 18 on the non-ferrous mining financial assurance regulations, shining further light on the process.  Therefore, it is more important than ever to rededicate ourselves to this great cause of protecting our wild places from this potentially dangerous mining.

Additional News on Budget Issues at the Capitol:  I promise not to use any more sobering civil war analogies for the rest of the year in this little blog; this legislative session is sobering enough by itself.  The major reason for the downcast faces at the Legislature is the depth of the financial crisis we face, not only in the state but in our nation as a whole.  Minnesota is not alone in its struggle to balance its budget.  Washington State is planning on closing over 40 state parks, Connecticut moved to release many of its state prisoners early, and Arizona has sold its state capitol office buildings to investors for upfront cash and is now leasing the buildings back.

The forecast that the Minnesota Legislature uses to balance its budget was recently released, showing slight improvement in the state’s budget shortfall for this legislative budget.  Instead of a $1.2 billion budget deficit, we are now facing just under $1 billion.  This is still about 3% of the state’s discretionary general fund budget that must be corrected in the face of the fact that the Governor and the Republicans will not allow a tax increase.  Because there are no reserves left, the Legislature has no other option but to cut programs.  The process of adjusting the budget has begun in each of the different finance divisions this week.

Both the House and Senate finance divisions responsible for the DNR, PCA and BWSR have provided their initial recommendations.  Overall both the House and Senate recommendations have about $3 million more in cuts than the Governor proposed earlier.  The reason for this is that the Governor’s budget made recommendations based on some federal money that is hard to count on and the Legislature is being more realistic in the level of cuts necessary to balance the budget.  The Governor was also able to sustain smaller general fund cuts in the environment areas by raiding some of the dedicated accounts like the Game and Fish Fund in DNR and the Environment Fund at PCA.  The legislative committees did not raid dedicated funds, but as a result, need to find deeper cuts in the general fund areas they oversee.

Legislative recommendations for cuts in our major agencies are noted below in millions of dollars. 

House
DNR: $9.941 (4.7%)
PCA: $1.700 (9.1%)
BWSR: $2.029 (6.5%)

Senate
DNR: $13.271 (5.6%)
PCA: $1.602 (8.2%)
BWSR: $2.224 (7.2%)

As you can guess, these are very difficult actions for legislative committees.  The budget-cutting bills should be completed by the end of March and become part of the overall negotiations for the completion of the session.

The other major financial activity this session is the passage of the Omnibus Capital Investments Bill.  That legislation took a major step forward on Thursday of this week with the passage of the final conference committee report.  The Governor and the Legislature were not able to reach a final agreement, but the Legislature chose to send their latest draft with the hopes that the Governor would sign the bill and line-item veto those projects he did not like – which he has agreed to do as of this morning.  His last offer to the Legislature was a bonding bill in the neighborhood of $725 million.  The bill the Legislature sent to the Governor is just under $1 billion. 

This action is another one of those strange legislative things it’s hard to understand from the outside.  There is no way the Legislature could get the super majority of 60% necessary in each body to pass the legislative bonding bill if they reduce the package.  Too many members would have lost the projects they wanted.  Therefore, it was easier to keep the coalition of votes together with a higher dollar amount and let the Governor do the difficult work of paring the bill down after it passes.  The votes of the legislators would always remain so long as there was at least hope that their provision would survive line-item veto.  That way the Legislature gets the bill passed and the Governor gets a smaller bonding bill in the end.

The Legislature treated the environmental provisions in the bill very well by providing almost one quarter of the total dollar amount towards conservation and environment projects.  This is a little better than our historic average in the past.  They also maintained a pretty solid set of transit projects.  Now, we just wait to see what the Governor will line-item veto. 

Good news for the new Vermilion State Park.  The last version the Capital Investments bill did contain the language necessary to finalize the purchase from U.S. Steel of land on Lake Vermilion for the park.  That means that if the Governor exercises only his line-item veto authority and does not veto the whole bill, the new state park will have received its final needed approval. 

I apologize for the length of this report, it has been a busy week as the committees wrap up their budget bills and try to meet the first committee deadline.  They should continue to be very active through the rest of March.  So stay tuned.

Minnesota Beach Sweep started 13 years ago when Great Lakes Aquarium partnered with Ocean Conservancy for the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC). The ICC is the oldest running cleanup efforts of its kind and involves 123 countries around the globe. Focused on removing man-made debris from coastline of all kinds, ICC volunteers also collect data about the debris they gather. This data becomes part of the global database and is used to enhance efforts to protect and restore global waterways. This year, Great Lakes Aquarium has also partnered with Conservation Minnesota for the 13th Annual Minnesota Beach Sweep 2009.

During Minnesota Beach Sweep 2008, Minnesotans from across the state picked up over 11,000 cigarette butts, over 1,000 food wrappers and over 600 caps and lids. Volunteers across the state are encouraged to clean up a beach in your area. The Great Lakes Aquarium will provide all garbage bags and data sheets. The Great Lakes Aquarium will also provide each volunteer with a free tote bag as appreciation for a commitment to stewardship.

For more information and to sign up for your free Beach Sweep Clean-up kit, please visit the Minnesota Beach Sweep website or contact Margret Scott, Minnesota Beach Sweep Coordinator, at 218-740-3474 ext 1025, email mscott@glaquarium.org.

Details on the Duluth meeting:

August 4, 2009, 4-6pm CDT
EPA Mid-Continent Ecology Laboratory
Gitchee Gumee Conference Center
6201 Congdon Boulevard
Duluth, MN 55804

Directions:
Website.

The proposed $475 million in President Obama’s 2010 budget would be the biggest federal commitment to the Great Lakes in decades.

From Stupak’s release: “I continue to have concerns that the Great Lakes Compact is not strong enough to protect the Great Lakes against diversions through privatization, commercialization and exportation,” Stupak said. “There is no question that Congress intended for the compact to protect Great Lakes water but the wording of the compact leaves some question. That is why I have introduced this resolution to put Congress on record in opposition to the exploitation of Great Lakes waters.”

“Twins 4, Cardinals 2. The Twins’ Magic carpet took Minnesota to the moon Sunday night. It was born by the sound of 55,000 exploding voices in the Metrodome and hundreds of thousands more from border to border in one floor-stomping, chest pounding declaration: We’re No.1.”

- Jim Klobuchar, Star Tribune, 10/26/87

Prior to 1987, Minnesotans had suffered for three decades under an inferiority complex because of our major-league teams. Four Super Bowl failures, no Stanley Cup in the state of hockey and, our only major-league team with any success, the Lakers basketball franchise, deserted us for Los Angeles of all places. Those of us who were in the stands for the ‘87 Baseball World Series actually believed we were spiriting our beloved Twins to victory by being as loud as we possibly could while waving those silly white homer hankies. We were determined to end the streak of almost champions right then and there under that Teflon roof. We actually believed we caused the normally cool St. Louis Cardinal pitchers Danny Cox and Todd Worrell to crack in the sixth by forcing them to issue three walks to load the bases. We were convinced it was our cheers that sped Twins’ shortstop Greg Gagne down the line on an infield hit to the plate, the eventual game-winning run following those three walks.

It was no doubt our raucous cheers that turned this ragtag team of misfits into world champions. How else can you explain Juan Berenguer turning from a B rate middle reliever into “Senior Smoke,” firing fastballs by one of the best hitting teams in baseball, like he was Cy Young himself. We believed the energy from the stands would propel our boys to a World Series victory and redeem us from our prison of self-doubt. For Minnesotans, that 1987 World Series was special. It was great to win the series again in 1991, but the moment third baseman Gary Gaetti scooped up the last attempt at a hit by the Cardinals and fired the ball over to Minnesota native Kent Hrbek for the last out of game seven, we felt a rebirth of pride in our great state. We all walked away from the dome actually believing it was our cheers that made it happen.

Well, overall the 2009 legislative session certainly will not be remembered with such glorious nostalgia as the ‘87 World Series. Even though the path to a final state budget was quite different this year, the result was essentially the same. The session ended with the same partisan rancor we have come to expect over the last couple of decades. Fortunately, like the Minnesota fans in the ‘87 World Series, the people of Minnesota spoke loudly and willed into being one of the greatest environmental successes in Minnesota history despite the political rancor of the 2009 legislative session.

Last fall, Minnesota voters spoke with a very loud voice in adopting the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Constitutional Amendment. More Minnesotans voted for this initiative than any thing or any person on a Minnesota ballot in our history. The 2009 legislative session was tasked with finalizing the first set of critical investments from this dedicated sales tax fund. On Monday evening, with only 45 minutes remaining in the session, the Minnesota Senate completed the last legislative act necessary to approve more than $300 million in new projects dedicated to protect lakes, rivers and streams and Minnesota’s Great Outdoors.

The Omnibus Culture and Outdoors Resources Finance Bill (HF1231) was sent to conference committee late last week with advocates hoping for a smooth and quick conference committee given only four days left in the session. Unfortunately, those last four days of searching for a compromise in the conference committee on HF1231 were anything but smooth. Any Minnesota Twins fan back in 1987 — if they were being honest with you — still had a nagging fear deep down inside that they were trying to suppress with their primal screams that somehow something would go wrong before the final out. That was no different this year with the Legacy Amendment funding.

It was clear the Legislature wanted to finish the session with one of their last actions being the adoption of the Legacy funding. After a brutal session, they wanted to cap it off with a positive finish. Unfortunately, the conference committee quickly broke down into an impasse, unable to even agree on how to negotiate. Those of us who had been involved in the long battle for the constitutional amendment started to have nagging fears we would have to relive the 2007 legislative session. That year the constitutional amendment was passed out of the conference committee late in the session, but the clock ran out on its adoption due to partisan squabbling on the House floor. Like memories of the four Super Bowl defeats of the Vikings, the Legacy fans in the Legislature were a little bit nervous that the Legislature would miss an opportunity to start making critical investments to protect our Great Outdoors.

There were inklings from the House conference committee chair, Rep. Mary Murphy (DFL-Hermantown), that the House of Representatives would be willing to delay the investments a year in order to do public hearings over the summer and make the first set of investments starting in 2010. The statements both on MPR and in the Session Weekly on Friday sent a shockwave through the Legacy fans. There appeared to be some wide differences between the House and Senate approaches on the clean water and culture sections of the bill. There was also the minor squabble of whether to name the council overseeing the conservation portion of the Legacy funding after Senator Lessard simply because he was still living. There were also minor concerns raised regarding the Forest Legacy appropriation of the conservation funds with respect to wetland banking.

When the conference committee first met on Friday, there appeared to be no desire on the part of the House to enter into global negotiations and only a desire to discuss their many differences. Most veteran Capitol observers were worried by these delay tactics of the House, but hoped they were simply just positioning themselves in the conference committee negotiations. Fortunately, the voters spoke at full volume last November and the legislative leaders heard that loud and clear. By Saturday offers started to move back and forth between the conference committee negotiators. By Sunday evening rumors were spread that even though there were no meetings, the majority of the issues had been worked out.

Finally, late Monday afternoon, after several delayed committee start times and with only hours left in the session, the conference committee rolled out their final proposal; not, however, without some more drama. Those representing the interests of the hunting and fishing groups had concerns with some definitions in the bill putting parameters around the constitutional language of “enhance, protect and restore.” They also expressed concerns about a couple other provisions. The final conference committee action was delayed again until early evening with the clock ticking towards a midnight adjournment. A final solution was worked out to deal with some of those minor issues in the Revisor’s bill that comes late in the session to fix mistakes. It was agreed the issues surrounding the words “enhance, protect and restore” will be examined closer by the Outdoor Heritage Council during the interim, but the language would be left in the bill.

Finally at 10:20 p.m., the conference committee report was first adopted in the House on a vote of 103 to 31. The Senate took up the conference committee report just prior to 11 o’clock and finished debate by 11:16 p.m. — less than 45 minutes from the constitutional adjournment time. The Senate gave the conference committee report a unanimous endorsement. The bill is now in the hands of the Governor who could line item veto some provisions, but has made no indications in that regard. Highlights from the bill include:

• $151 million to the Clean Water Legacy initiatives
• A continued commitment to test all of the state’s waters within the next 10 years
• $36 million for Forest Legacy to preserve 187,000 acres of Upper Mississippi Forest
• $65 million over the next biennium to support Minnesota’s state, regional, and metro parks and trails
• Requirements to develop long-term plans to ensure the constitutional funding goes to its intended purposes
• Renaming the Lessard Outdoor Heritage Council the “Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council” (LSOHC)

The bottom line for the environment was increased investments in preserving our Great Outdoors. Despite the historic budget crisis faced by the Legislature, they honored the will of the people from the last election. There were no significant raids of environment and conservation funding in the regular omnibus finance bill. There was concern that the constitutional amendment would simply be used to backfill cuts to existing programs, but for the most part that did not happen. A closer analysis of the budgets will be made to ensure that the constitutional requirement that these new funds go to supplement and not replace traditional sources of funding is adhered to.

The general analysis from Capitol observers is that the final package of Legacy funding is a big win for our Great Outdoors. Special thanks should go to the two chairs of the conference committee for overcoming their significant differences. Rep. Murphy surely put a scare into us earlier in the negotiations, but worked diligently to make sure there was a good compromise in the end. She said on the floor at final passage that chairing this committee was the “best ride I have taken in my 33 years at the Legislature.” I believe her old friend from Duluth, Willard Munger, would have been proud. Sen. Dick Cohen (DFL-St. Paul) was the Senate chair of the conference committee. He’s widely considered the architect behind the coalition of advocates that supported the adoption of a constitutional amendment in the last election. He used all his 33 years of experience in the Legislature to patiently and persistently move towards this well-regarded compromise. This will certainly be recognized as one of his crowning achievements in a distinguished legislative career. There are many more individuals who deserve thanks, but they are too numerous to mention in this small column.

The $300 million in new projects dedicated to protect lakes, rivers and streams and Minnesota’s Great Outdoors is a major victory. It was gratifying to see the legislators using MEP’s messaging on how much Minnesotans value their Great Outdoors. Legislators deserve credit for making no real attempt to raid this newly dedicated resource, but certainly the MVP for the session are the Minnesota voters who sent a loud message in November. Thanks to you the voters, the true fans of the Great Outdoors, we had a successful session. Stay tuned next week for the final installment of these capitol updates where I will give my picks for legislative players of the game. After that I am off to enjoy some of our Great Outdoors we just invested in.

Today the health of our lakes is threatened by problems such as invasive species and untreated sewage. Unless America invests in the lakes these problems will get worse and the price we pay will be higher. An independent report concludes that restoring the health of the Great Lakes will result in $50 billion in new jobs, industrial development, and increased property value.

The plan for Great Lakes restoration and economic recovery is a multi-year strategy for tackling the problems, and calls for action to modernize sewage treatment, clean-up polluted harbors, restore wetlands, and prevent unwanted, new species from invading the lakes. Each of these steps is essential if we are to restore the lakes and revive our economy.

Because Congress controls the federal government’s purse strings through the annual appropriations process, it is critical that Minnesota’s Congressional delegation take the lead in matching the President’s commitment.

We must act now to restore this great American resource. Every day we wait, the problems get worse and the solutions get more costly.

With that being said, there are a number of hugely important items that offer hints into the impacts this administration will have on conservation and environmental projects of interest to Minnesotans.

The biggest change in environmental policy likely to come about in the President’s first term is what is known as cap-and-trade (PDF).   The idea is simple.  National annual carbon emissions are capped at a specific level, which decreases annually.  Polluters must purchase or trade for emissions credits in order to pollute legally.  By decreasing the cap (number of credits) annually, the price of credits will follow a generally upward trend.  The dividend created from the sale or auction of these credits is then partially invested in renewable energy and efficiency projects.  The remainder of this dividend is distributed throughout the economy by using it to compensate consumers for increased prices. President Obama would use the money to pay for his Making Work Pay tax credit.

Additionally, the budget includes a number of provisions that will have important implications for state conservation and environmental programs:

35% increase in overall funding for the EPA is fiscal year 2010
This historic increase is above and beyond the $7 billion in funding the agency will receive for projects in the economic recovery package.  We applaud this bold and necessary move.  However, proposed funding for subsequent years will grow only slightly, at a rate unlikely to even keep up with inflation. The increase is primarily for clean water; the budget includes $3.9 billion a year in funding for clean water and clean drinking projects. This is enough funding to cover approximately 1,000 clean water projects and 700 drinking water projects each year.  This 34% increase in funding for clean water projects is in addition to money already allocated in the economic recovery package.

Access to clean water is a hugely important priority in Minnesota.  As we reported last year (The President’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2009 Federal Budget: Impact on Environment & Natural Resource Protection in Minnesota), the Clean Water State Revolving Fund is the primary tool for enabling local communities to fix water pollution problems caused by aging or inadequate wastewater treatment infrastructure.  When wastewater is not adequately treated, it carries bacteria and pollutants into groundwater, lakes, and rivers, threatening human health and causing serious environmental harm.

Minnesota, like many states, has serious and urgent wastewater treatment needs. Many communities are relying on antiquated systems that were built decades ago and have reached the end of their useful lives. In other communities, water treatment systems have not kept up with population growth, overburdening some systems and pushing others to their maximum capacity. Moreover, a  2008 report by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (PDF) found that nearly 100 small Minnesota communities with limited financial resources have instances where there is no functioning treatment system at all and raw untreated sewage is being discharged directly into surface waters or ground areas.

Reinstatement of the tax that paid for Superfund
This excise tax, primarily on oil, is projected to raise $17.2 billion over ten years.  This money will be used to clean up hazardous sites such as the New Brighton/Arden Hills/TCAAP site in Ramsey County or the St. Louis River site near Duluth.  All told there are 25 eligible sites in Minnesota and over 1,200 nationwide.

$475 million to clean up the Great Lakes
Collectively, the Great Lakes are the world’s largest freshwater resource.  But we have been neglecting this resource for years.  This vitally important initiative was originally requested by the Bush administration, but it never received the funding it needed to get off the ground.  Those of us in Minnesota have been fighting for such an initiative for years, and are extremely glad to see it coming to fruition.

Check out a previous post on the Great Lakes funding.

As mentioned at the outset, there is simply too much in this budget proposal to summarize all of the potential impacts on conservation and environmental policy in Minnesota.  Overall we can say that this budget proposal gives us reason to be optimistic about conservation and environmental policies under President Obama.

Are there other pieces of conservation and environmental policy in Minnesota addressed by President Obama’s budget that we should be paying attention to?  Help us out by responding in the comment section below and letting us know what you have found.  Please use links and citations when possible, so we can be sure to find exactly which provisions you are referring to.

Additionally, there could be as much as $1 billion in other Great Lakes restoration and economic recovery funding provided to the Great Lakes states through increased funding for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund programs. Thirty-five million people rely on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, and millions more benefit from the commerce and business that depends on the waters of the Great Lakes.

The Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP), working as part of the 110 member Healing Our Waters® – Great Lakes Coalition, applauded the announcement. This investment is a major victory for the Great Lakes, and represents the largest, most serious commitment to Great Lakes restoration in a President’s Budget in history. Along with the participation in Great Lakes Day in Washington, D.C. this February by the White House Council of Environmental Quality Director Nancy Sutley and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the President’s Budget demonstrates he is serious about his $5 billion campaign commitment to the Great Lakes. It is clear he understands that unless America invests in the Great Lakes these problems will get worse and the price we pay will be higher.

Today, the health of our Great Lakes is seriously threatened by problems such as untreated sewage and invasive species. The plan for Great Lakes restoration and economic recovery is a multi-year strategy for tackling the problems, and calls for action to: modernize sewage treatment, clean-up polluted harbors, restore wetlands, and prevent unwanted, new species from invading the lakes. Each of these steps is essential if we are to restore the lakes and revive our economy.

Members of Congress ultimately hold the purse strings for the federal government through the annual appropriations process, so it is critical they match the President’s initiative in their own budget resolution and appropriations to restore this treasured resource. MEP and the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition will be working in the coming weeks to ensure the Great Lakes Congressional Delegation does what’s necessary to provide the funding the President has called for to create jobs, revive our economy, and restore the Great Lakes. You can learn more and contact your Members of Congress by visiting www.healthylakes.org.

(Thanks to the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition for this information.)

As the article notes, “In the Twin Ports, that polluted runoff flows through ditches, culverts, creeks, storm sewers and streams eventually into Lake Superior. On the way they help damage streams like Miller Creek and the St. Louis River.”

Now, no elected official or candidate will sway many votes by calling for ‘reform of the EPA stormwater pollution program.’ But it’s this kind of unglamorous work that will move us toward meeting the goals of the Clean Water Act. Let’s hope the report provides an impetus for that work.