> Home > Legislative Tracker Home > Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Implementation Act

Water:
Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Implementation Act

Our Position: support
Bill Number: HR5100
Sponsor: Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
Legislative Session: 2006

In December 2005, the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration proposed a strategy to protect and restore the Great Lakes.  Based on a consensus-driven process that involved over 1500 people in the region, the strategy focuses on a range of issues from coastal health to toxic pollution to scientific monitoring.

Now, Representatives Emanuel and Ehlers, together with Senators DeWine and Levin, have introduced legislation that would pass into law many of the recommendations from this strategy.  Known commonly as the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act (CLCIA), HR 5100 and S2545 would protect the Great Lakes from mercury, untreated sewage, and invasive species like the Asian carp.

Specifically, the legislation would:

• Stop the spread and further introduction of invasive species such as the Asian carp
• Restore fish and wildlife life habitat
• Help communities improve their wastewater infrastructure by reauthorizing the State Revolving Loan Fund
• Clean up polluted sediment through the Great Lakes Legacy program
• Reduce mercury pollution by setting up grant supported research and phase-out
• Improve Great Lakes restoration programs by establishing and making permanent the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force and the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration

Status

Action Needed

Please contact your Senators and Representative and tell them to support the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act.  If they have not already signed on as cosponsors, encourage them to take the next step to restoring and protecting the Great Lakes.  You can find your members of Congress online or reach them at the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

You can also get involved by writing letters to the editors of your local newspapers about the bill and how it would help protect and restore the Great Lakes.

Contact

Emily Green
Director, Great Lakes Program
Sierra Club- Madison Office
emily.green@sierraclub.org
608-257-4994

Background

For more information, please visit www.restorethelakes.org