Losing protections for Great Lakes

The Trump budget would cut $427 million from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative's budget. As a result, the federal government would stop supporting the cleanup that brings two dollars for every dollar invested. Why is this important to the people of Illinois and the United States?

The Great Lakes contain nearly 20 percent of the world's fresh water. Fresh water is scarce and becoming scarcer with ever more droughts, floods and pollution. To stint at this investment imperils the United States' most important resource, the water more than 40,000,000 people drink, most likely the water you and your family drink.

Numerous threats to the Great Lakes include dead zones from nutrient runoff, pollution from stormwater overflow, plastic pollution, invasive species, chemical dumping and wetland degradation. Recently, the EPA noted a spill of a potential carcinogenic chemical hexavalent chromium in Lake Michigan, and an Asian carp was found close to Lake Michigan.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative works to keep our water clean by lessening the degradation caused by multiple polluting factors. The initiative works to clean up toxic substances, combats invasive species and restores ecosystems to protect native species.

To repeat, for every dollar spent on GLRI, two dollars are returned.

We have been blessed with a great treasure, water, a great gift of life for millions, a place for recreation and commerce, a thing of beauty to enjoy. To fail to protect this treasure is shortsighted at best, immoral at worst. We need to invest, not disinvest, in this precious resource.

Susan Spengler

Palatine