MADISON, Wis. – With shorelines on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, Wisconsin has a vested interest in keeping the Great Lakes clean.

On Wednesday and Thursday, a coalition representing business, industry, and environmental organizations will meet with members of Congress to rally support for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The Trump Administration wants to cut funds to the Initiative by 90 percent.

Chris Danou, government relations director for the Madison-based group, Gathering Waters, speaks to the importance of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative:

"What it does is provide a substantial amount of funding for a fair number of restoration projects for water infrastructure projects, for trying to fix some of the pollution issues we have with sedimentation and nutrient flows into, say, Green Bay," he explains. "Those are the kind of things that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative does."

In total, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has funded more than 3,500 projects across the Great Lakes region.

The Great Lakes congressional delegation also has a strong history of supporting the Initiative.

Todd Ambs, campaign director for the Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition, says there was a strong negative reaction to the Trump Administration's first proposal to zero out the Initiative, and then this year proposing a 90-percent cut.

"In both cases, Congress – pretty much immediately, in a bipartisan fashion – came forward and said they were going to ignore that request, and that they would be moving ahead with continuing to be supportive of $300 million a year for this important restoration work," he said.

The groups will also urge Congress to continue to be supportive of budgets for federal agencies that implement the restoration work.

Danou refers to the Great Lakes as "probably the key to the long-term future of the upper Midwest." They are the source of drinking water for more than 48 million people and, according to the coalition, directly generate more than 1.5 million jobs.


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ELKIN, N.C. -- Surry and Wilkes County residents will have cleaner water with less pollution and less sediment, thanks to a recently completed stream restoration project led by Resource Institute.

Hurricanes Michael and Florence in 2018 exacerbated the region's erosion and sediment problems.

Richard Everhart, consultant at the Resource Institute, said high sediment levels previously forced the city of Elkin to shut off water intakes to its reservoir during significant storm events.

"And again, with any kind of heavy rain event, it's obvious that the watershed's not in that great of shape," Everhart observed. "A lot of sediment, water that should be running clear, runs red, so there were a lot of different issues."

The project stabilized 3,500 feet of stream, and reduced sediment load in the Creek. Engineers restored Big Elkin Creek's natural pattern of pools, riffles and runs, and protected stream banks with structures made of rock and wood.

Everhart pointed out trees will be planted to help protect the banks and create wildlife habitat, and added the project will boost flood resiliency and enhance opportunities for outdoor recreation.

"Landowners, groups, local government, they all need to reach out and understand there are opportunities out there to address these kinds of problems, even sometimes when they're as large as this one and look as daunting as this one," Everhart explained. "The resources are there, and the work can be done."

Jake Byers, senior water resources engineer for Ecosystem Planning and Restoration, said stream restoration costs can be significant, but the long-term benefits pay for themselves.

"The landowners themselves are continuing to lose land from bank erosion," Byers noted. "Land that they're still paying taxes on that doesn't necessarily exist because it's been washed down the stream."

In addition to the Resource Institute, the project was completed by the City of Elkin, Surry County, Watershed NOW, and North State Environmental.

PAGE, Ariz. -- The federal Bureau of Reclamation is taking emergency measures to shore up water levels in Lake Powell, to preserve the reservoir's ability to generate hydropower.

Late last week, officials ordered an additional release of 50,000 feet per second from the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming, to maintain Lake Powell's water levels at 3,500 feet. Bureau officials project without this intervention, water levels would soon fall below the amount necessary to run the generators at Glen Canyon Dam.

Gary Wockner, executive director of the nonprofit Save the Colorado, said the upstream water release is too little, too late.

"This idea of just letting more water out of the other reservoirs is, at best, a very short-term band-aid," Wockner argued. "It does not solve anything. It only just elongates the problem; it doesn't actually address the problem."

Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., provides power and delivers water to 40 million people in the Lower Colorado River basin, including millions of Arizonans. Agricultural interests would see water cutbacks first, before they would reach residential users.

The Bureau also plans additional water releases from Blue Mesa Reservoir in Colorado and Navajo Reservoir in New Mexico later this year.

Wockner charged the Colorado River's managers with being more interested in keeping the generators turning than raising the water levels.

"This is really more about electricity than water," Wockner contended. "And here's the thing: There's all sorts of alternatives to make electricity, but there are no alternatives to make more water. Letting more water out of Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming doesn't fix anything."

Both Lake Powell and it's larger cousin, Lake Mead, are currently at 35% of water-storage capacity and dropping. The move to increase inflows is part of a 2019 agreement about how to apportion Colorado River resources during a continued drought.

Save the Colorado is among the groups advocating Lake Powell be shut down, to let the Colorado River return to its original course, a change Congress would ultimately have to make.

MINNEAPOLIS -- "Only you can prevent forest fires" is among the more iconic public awareness campaigns. In Minnesota, new funding aims to make boat owners embrace a different civic duty: combating aquatic invasive species.

That includes putting tools in their hands to get the job done.

The new two-year state budget includes $1 million aimed to stop the spread of a specific threat to Minnesota lakes, Starry Stonewort. The money will allow cleaning stations to go up at landings at affected lakes for boaters to use.

Jeff Forester, executive director of Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates, said there also will be a lot of community-level outreach to change social norms in the water recreation community.

"Kind of like "adopt a highway," and instead of picking up garbage or not throwing garbage, you're cleaning your boat," Forester explained.

Forester pointed out Starry Stonewort is the key focus, because of how quickly it can spread to surrounding lakes. It has been detected in at least 16 Minnesota lakes, and the state hopes to avoid what happened in Michigan, where as many as 2,500 lakes are infested.

Those involved with the program noted the stations are easy to use, and cleaning usually takes 3 to 5 minutes.

Mark Apfelbacher, president of CD3 General Benefit Corporation, the Minnesota-based company that developed the stations, said the process is not intimidating. The self-service kiosks feature information on invasive species. Boaters then simply pick up the blowers, vacuums and other tools and quickly make sure their watercraft is clean.

"We wanted to make sure that we're creating something that's not 'Big Brother,' but 'fun uncle,' that gives people the tools to take the actions themselves," Apfelbacher touted.

Forester acknowledged the challenges in making connections with out-of-state boaters. He contended lake associations can play a role in having conversations with cabin owners who visit from places like Iowa.

"The lake association can then reach out to those people and say, 'Here's why it's important, here's what you can do. It's not a big deal, but it just needs to become a habit,'" Forester emphasized.

Water protectors said developing the new habit can go a long way to protect the ecosystems in Minnesota's lakes from drastic changes.