NEMW Logo (new)
Northeast-Midwest Institute
Weekly Update
 
November 14, 2013
In This Issue
Senate Great Lakes Task Force Asian Carp Letter
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Audit Now Available
Toward Sustainable Water Information Blue Ribbon Project Steering Committee Update
Senate Great Lakes Task Force
Asian Carp Letter   

On Wednesday, November 6, 2013, all sixteen Great Lakes Senators  wrote the Army Corps of Engineers to request that it identify remaining steps needed to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. The letter comes in advance of the January, 2014 release of a Corps report, the Great Lakes-Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLRMIS), looking at the feasibility of movement of invasive species between the two basins. The Corps GLMRIS report, authorized in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA 2007), must assess the potential points where invasive species, including Asian carp, could cross between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins, and provide a specific recommendation on how to prevent further movement. The Transportation Act, MAP-21, passed in 2012, moved up the study's completion date from November 2016 to January 2014. In light of the change, the Corps informed Congress it would no longer have time to select and recommend any one option and instead will present Congress with multiple options needing further thorough vetting and study. The Senators' letter calls for the Corps' specific plan to vet those options so work can begin as soon as possible.

 

For more information, please contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

 

 
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Audit Now Available

On Friday, November 8, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its highly-anticipated report on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). The report reviewed the Administration's GLRI program, costing over $1.3 B so far, for protecting and restoring the Great Lakes ecosystem. The report highlighted good public communication and interagency working relationships, but recommended better progress assessment in order to fully capture program impacts.

 

Major findings include:

  • Measures of Progress - The FY2010-14 GLRI Action Plan lists 28 Measures of Progress, however, the majority of the over 1,450 projects funded through GLRI do not directly correspond to any specific measure. It was GAO's assessment that progress is occurring and being measured, but not being effectively related to the overall Action Plan.
  • Adaptive Management - GAO recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency, the lead agency of the GLRI, develop and incorporate an Adaptive Management Plan for GLRI moving forward for purposes of project selection and implementation. The plan should allow the agency to apply lessons learned to future projects.  
  • Timeline - GAO suggested it may be unrealistic to expect region-wide and long-term impacts to become evident on the timescale of the GLRI implementation. As evidenced in past GAO reports, these impacts are also generally difficult to measure.  GAO recommended further consideration and incorporation of long-term results into progress measures. 
  • Outside factors - The GLRI Action Plan currently excludes major factors when considering projects, such as inadequate water infrastructure and climate change. These exclusions may inhibit the progress of GLRI, and GAO recommends addressing these factors in the next Action Plan.

The report, along with a list of the recommendations and the Administration's response, is available here.

 

For more information, please contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

 
Toward Sustainable Water Information
Blue Ribbon Project
Steering Committee Update   
The NEMWI "Toward Sustainable Water Information Project" convened the project's Blue Ribbon Steering Committee for a progress update.  The Steering Committee reviewed and approved of the progress of two case studies evaluating the data that are needed and available to answer specific policy questions about how shale gas development and nutrient enrichment might affect water resources.  The case studies will determine whether existing water monitoring programs at the federal, state, and local levels are collecting data that can be used to answer these policy questions.  Findings from the two case studies will be expanded upon in a State of the Region Report to identify the types of data and data provision mechanisms the region as a whole might need to help policy makers to make effective decisions.  The project is supported by a grant from US Geological Survey 

 
For more information, contact Elin Betanzo, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

   


   

The Northeast-Midwest Institute: Taking the Rust out of the Rust Belt!

   

 

Quick Links