Trump Budget Proposal Guts Great Lakes Pollution Cleanup: Report

Environmental Protection Agency funding for pollution cleanup in the Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater supply, would be cut by 97 percent under President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal. The proposal would slash funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to $10 million, down from $300 million this year.

Overall, the EPA would lose $2 billion in funding — a 24 percent cut in funding — and some 3,000 employees would lose their jobs as Trump appears to be making good on campaign promises to begin work to abolish the agency. He called dismantling the EPA “an inspirational goal” but said it would require both thought and time to determine where to assign certain programs currently overseen by the agency.

The GLRI has funded the restoration of wildlife habitat, efforts to combat invasive species and the cleanup of polluted watersheds.

The proposed Great Lakes cleanup cuts were first reported by the Oregonian, which obtained the budget document from the National Association of Clean Air Agencies. The White House has also proposed cuts for water pollution cleanup programs in the country’s two largest estuaries — Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound — from $73 and $28 million to $5 million and $2 million, respectively.

Some programs would be completely eliminated, such as a San Francisco Bay program and several state grant programs, including those aimed at reducing diesel emissions, water quality testing at beaches and radon testing.

Michigan’s two Democratic senators — Debbie Stabenow, of Lansing, and Gary Peters, of Bloomfield Township — both slammed the proposed cuts.

On Twitter, Stabenow called the plan “outrageous,” and Peters said the cuts would have “devastating effects.”

Though the EPA was created by an executive order by a Republican president, Richard Nixon in 1970, the agency has become increasingly political. Neither Gov. Rick Snyder nor Attorney General Bill Schuette, who is often mentioned as a candidate to replace him, have publicly commented on Trump’s proposal to gut the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Detroit Free Press columnist Stephen Henderson said both politicians should speak out about the proposed Great Lakes pollution cleanup cuts. Schuette criticized the Obama administration’s lax approach to regulation of shipping discharge, a leading contributor to invasive species, Henderson wrote.

Snyder, whose final term in office has been dogged by the Flint water crisis, knows from experience “what it looks like when you sweep into office damning regulation, slash it dramatically to make a point and pat yourself on the back for your efficiencies,” Henderson wrote.

Among the Great Lakes, Lake Erie is known for its huge, toxic algae blooms, including one in 2014 that cut off the Toledo, Ohio, drinking water supply. A small portion of southeast Michigan was affected as well.

Photo by Rachel Kramer via Flickr Commons