#eparegion5

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Lawmakers urge Pruitt not to close Midwest EPA office

4/25/2017 - The Hill

The members — led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) — said the regional headquarters is charged with protecting most of the nation’s fresh water supply, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, and that it also regulates industrial pollution and works on Superfund clean-up efforts throughout the Midwest.

They said the office has a special responsibility to work with Canadian officials on Great Lakes water quality, and they noted the office oversees Flint, Mich., and the water crisis in that city.

“While shutting down EPA’s Region 5 Chicago office would make it more difficult and less efficient for the federal government to work in partnership with state and local communities, it is unclear that it would reduce costs to the EPA as a whole,” the members wrote.        

“We urge you to protect the environmental health and well-being of our states by keeping Region 5 intact and fully supporting its critical mission.”

EPA’s Region 5 covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Thirty-eight lawmakers signed the letter, including Republican Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/330521-lawmakers-push-back-against-reported-plan-to-close-regional-epa

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“If We Lose The EPA, We Lose Lake Erie”

2/24/2017 - Great Lakes Now

Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume, and yet it has the highest population living along it’s shorelines, which makes it more vulnerable to pollution and many other problems than the rest of the Great Lakes.

The Canadian province of Ontario as well as the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan share its shoreline. Nearly 12 million people get their drinking water from Lake Erie.

Its primary inlet is the Detroit River.

Lake Erie is important not just for its drinking water, beaches, swimming and boating, but for its fish.  The number of anglers on Lake Erie is greater than any other of the Great Lakes.

[...]

“Right now, excessive nutrient loading is causing three problems in Lake Erie:harmful algal blooms in the Western Basin; a dead zone – an area of zero oxygen – at the bottom of the central basin between Pelee point and Long Point; and then in the Eastern basin, excessive growths of cladophora.”

[...] Dr. Reutter says without regulations from agencies like the EPA and constant monitoring and vigilance from scientists, Lake Erie will suffer and could return to pollution levels of decades ago.