President Bush says he wants the federal government to help coordinate clean-up of the Great Lakes. The Environmental Protection Agency will spearhead the so-called Great Lakes Interagency Task Force. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bettina Kozlowski has more:
Transcript
President Bush says he wants the federal government to help coordinate
clean-up of the Great Lakes. The Environmental Protection Agency will
spearhead the so-called Great Lakes Interagency Task Force. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bettina Kozlowski has more:
The Task Force is charged with coordinating existing federal, state and
local programs and presenting a unified plan to the President next
spring.
EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt will head the task force.
He says the central body will coordinate strategies to attract more
federal funding.
“We can do a better job at managing the 140 programs we already have
and bring a better payload to the Great Lakes. The role of the federal
government is to simply join with the cities, with the other states and
to become a convener and then to step back into our place as a full
participant.”
Leavitt hopes the partnership will tackle the problems with
contaminated water, fish and wildlife, and curb the spread of invasive
species such as the Asian carp.
U.S. Congressman Rahm Emanuel and environmentalists say the plan is a
smoke screen.
They say the Administration is trying to distract voters from its poor
record on the environment. Illinois Democrat Emanuel says the Great
Lakes need funding, not another study.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bettina Kozlowski.