A proposed $50-million cut in funding for efforts to clean up the Great Lakes in the U.S. could be felt on our side of the border too.
The Healing Our Waters - Great Lakes Coalition has carried out 2,000 projects in the Great Lakes basin over the past six years. Director Todd Ambs says while those projects were carried out in the U.S., they've had a positive impact on the Canadian side of the lakes too. Ambs says his group has tackled cleanups around Belle Isle, on the shores of the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair.
The funding cut represents about 20% of the coalition's $300-million budget, and Ambs says with less money some projects will take longer to complete.
"One of the things this money has gone towards is to address a lot of legacy contamination problems, so these toxic hotspots that we have around the Great Lakes basin," he says. "It just makes the eventual cleanup just that more expensive."
He says those contaminated hot spots affect the health of residents living nearby along with the economic well-being of their communities.
Ambs hopes to reverse the funding cut. "We really think it's a non-starter and we will be working hard with our congressional champions in both the Democratic and Republican parties."
