Political Quotes

“last week, my colleagues from the Great Lakes and I introduced the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2008. This bill will reauthorize the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002, which significantly benefited efforts to clean up contaminated areas of the Great Lakes. The focus of the Legacy program is to clean up ``Areas of Concern'' in the Great Lakes. These are sites that do not meet the water quality goals established by the United States and Canada in the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The primary reason that these areas fail to meet water quality goals is the result of contaminated sediments from industrial activity. This contamination results in fish advisories, degradation of fish and wildlife populations, taste and odor problems with drinking water, beach closures, and bird and animal deformities or reproductive problems. The existing Legacy program has funded several projects throughout the region to remove contaminated sediments in Areas of Concern. In fact, almost 800,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments have been removed since the program was created in 2002. This is material that has been safely removed from riverbeds so that it no longer poses a threat to human health or the wildlife. Still, there are 13 Areas of Concern in the State of Michigan alone.”