Coalition Supports EPA’s Great Lakes Action Plan
Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition
Contact: Lindsey Bacigal, BacigalL@nwf.org, (734) 887-7113
Jordan Lubetkin, Lubetkin@nwf.org, (734) 904-1589
Coalition Supports EPA’s Great Lakes Action Plan
Plan prioritizes community health, along with ecosystem health, as well as actions to confront climate crisis, promote economic revitalization.
ANN ARBOR, MICH. (May 29, 2024)—The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is supporting the EPA’s new draft five-year plan to oversee federal investments to restore and protect the Great Lakes and the interconnected waters that feed it – waters that more than 42 million people depend on for their drinking water, health, and quality of life.
“The EPA’s new plan charts a course for continued success in addressing threats to our Great Lakes, drinking water, and communities,” said Laura Rubin, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition. “We are glad to see a strong EPA action plan that prioritizes ecosystem health alongside community health and the need to confront the climate crisis. Federal restoration investments have been producing results for communities across the region, yet serious threats remain. EPA has put forward a plan that can benefit the region’s environment and economy, and, importantly, help communities that have been hardest hit by pollution and environmental harm.”
The EPA’s draft “Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan IV,” once finalized, will prioritize federal actions to clean up toxic pollution, reduce farm and urban runoff, restore fish and wildlife habitat, and manage invasive species, in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, in comments submitted Friday to the agency on the draft plan, applauded the agency for the plan’s focus on community health alongside ecological health; commitment to community engagement; solutions that confront climate impacts; importance of local workforce development and economic revitalization; actions to benefit communities hardest hit by pollution and environmental harm; and equitable access to restoration benefits.
The Coalition also asked EPA to consider updating the plan to better address runoff pollution and help coastal communities adapt to climate impacts.
The action plan, which will run through fiscal years 2025-2029, is expected to be finalized by the start of government’s next fiscal year, which begins October 1. The plan guides the EPA oversight of federal funds allocated by the U.S. Congress through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Currently, the U.S. government invests more than $368 million per year to restore and protect the Great Lakes.
The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and many of its members submitted recommendations for the EPA’s action plan last summer during a serious of public engagement sessions hosted by the agency. Many of those recommendations were accepted and integrated into the current draft plan.
Since 2004, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition has been harnessing the collective power of more than 180 groups representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. Learn more at HealthyLakes.org or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Bluesky, Mastodon, and Threads @HealthyLakes.
