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Bush seeks $45 million to help clean Great Lakes

By LEE BERGQUIST
lbergquist@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Jan. 29, 2004

The Bush administration on Thursday proposed spending $45 million to help clean up contaminated sediments in the Great Lakes.

But whether any of that money would be earmarked for five polluted areas in Wisconsin is not known.

The Bush budget proposal for 2005 is $35 million more than current funding by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for such projects.

The state Department of Natural Resources has targeted five sites for help from the Great Lakes Legacy Act: the harbors of Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Green Bay and Superior, and the Menominee River, which divides Wisconsin and Michigan.

Great Lakes states have identified a total of 31 areas requiring remediation, including the Waukegan harbor in northern Illinois, which contain high levels of pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals.

"Certainly, it's positive that they are proposing more funding for cleanup of the Great Lakes," said Todd Ambs, administrator of the DNR's water division. "But it's not a huge amount of money with all of the challenges we have in the Great Lakes region."

A Great Lakes restoration bill in the House of Representatives is proposing spending $800 million over five years. A Senate bill calls for $600 million over 10 years.

Wisconsin's largest cleanup project is the Fox River, which is projected to cost about $400 million. In this case, paper companies are funding the cleanup.

But in other areas, such as harbors of the Great Lakes and their tributaries, "you can't often find responsible parties, but you know you've got a problem," said the DNR's Greg Hill, who is involved in water quality modeling and the Fox River.

These areas are more like "giant mix masters, where there are elevated levels of contamination, and we are trying to find out how to deal with that contamination."

In the Milwaukee harbor, the DNR has been making plans for remediation of portions of the Kinnickinnic River not dredged for navigation by the U.S. Coast Guard, Hill said.

Those plans are close to being finalized, he said.

Cameron Davis, director of the Lake Michigan Federation, said Congress' Great Lakes cleanup plans are "realistic . . . The missing link right now is the White House."

The EPA also said that the Bush administration will request $3 million for habitat restoration and $1 million for research on invasive species, such the zebra mussel and Asian carp.

From the Jan. 30, 2004 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel