Great Lakes Governor Ed Rendell held a historic meeting with most of the nation’s governors and President-elect Barack Obama in Philadelphia Tuesday to discuss an economic strategy for the nation. The Governors made several suggestions to rescue the economy while improving our aging infrastructure. Updating wastewater treatment systems and protecting drinking water were among the top three recommendations.

“These immediate solutions will drive economic recovery. Investments in ready-to-go infrastructure projects are a cost-effective creator of high-paying jobs,” National Governor’s Association Chair Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell stated in a joint press release issued by the NGA and the National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL). “These investments should include a broad array of infrastructure projects including airports, bridges, highways, transit systems, ports, rails, clean water, sewers and broadband. We should target high-priority projects so funds can be obligated and invested so that we will see the effects quickly,” he added.

It just so happens that HOW recently sent a letter to the leadership in the US Congress recommending that money be included in the economic recovery package to fully update and restore the Great Lakes region’s sewage system and improve drinking water and public health. An investment of $6.5 billion would go a long way toward fulfilling the restoration goals of our strategic plan. The region’s Mayors and Chambers of Commerce have also requested infrastructure dollars to fix the ailing waste water systems.

A day before this week’s high-powered meeting; the National Governors Association released a paper that recommends avenues for federal investments that would hopefully turn into an economic boon. At the meeting, Obama stressed the need to choose projects that could put people to work quickly. Drawing on the experience of the Japanese who during a severe economic downturn in the 1990s invested heavily in infrastructure projects only to find they took too long to implement. Obama will be looking for “ready-to-go” projects that can begin within 90 to 120 days.

The NGA outlined a number of “ready-go-go” infrastructure projects across the nation and requested $136 billion to pay for them – 70 percent of which would go toward transportation projects. As for ready-to-go wastewater infrastructure, NGA argues that there are more than $9 billion projects in this category and another $6 billion in ready-to-go drinking water infrastructure projects (NGA cites the Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Agencies and the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities, as well as the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, respectively).

Congress could easily increase funding for the state revolving loan funds and at the same time temporarily release states from the need to produce matching funds freeing up money to update the sewers and create jobs. In fact, both the House and Senate have proposed waiving the state’s obligation to match the funds for now. The revolving fund has been a “critical tool for updating the sewerage systems in the Great Lakes,” Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, chair of the Council of Great Lakes Governors told HOW last month. Full funding of the revolving fund would amount to $1.35 billion.

The money is more than needed, our antiquated sewer systems are crumbling and global warming brings the threat of more floods from severe weather which further undermines the combined sewer systems that our region invested in more than a century ago. It seemed like a good idea then, but as we have seen it is failing us and creating a danger to public health, our regional economy and the sustainability of 90 percent of the nation’s surface fresh water. A Sierra Club study of just 20 cities perched on the Great Lakes found that that handful of municipalities are dumping 24 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Lakes each year. Crisis is just around the corner.

We agree with NGA and NCSL and we would hope that of the $15.2 billion they requested for water infrastructure projects, the Great Lakes states would garner $6.5 billion. And guess what – most of these are “ready-to-go” yesterday, let alone within 90 to 120 days. Not only that, but for each billion spent, Obama could expect 47,000 jobs to be created and 282,000 is a solid start toward his pledge to create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years.

The economic benefits the Great Lakes region would see just from updating the sewers, overflows into a number of other economic arenas. “Great Lakes beaches generate jobs and billions in local revenue. Small businesses providing beach-related services generate hundreds of millions of dollars – and summer jobs – every year. Clean water is also critical to marinas and Great Lakes boating, which generated $16 billion in direct revenue in 2003. Closing a beach or marina because of a sewer overflow puts all this at risk,” states our appeal to Congress.

So, it appears the nation’s governors, the state legislatures, the region’s mayors and Chambers of Commerce, as well as our coalition are in agreement over the best ways to start down the road to economic recovery. Let’s keep the drum beat going for a significant investment in water infrastructure projects in the Great Lakes region while Congress and President-elect Obama plan their strategy.

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