Reporters obtained an unreleased report on damages caused by Great Lakes pollution at an awkward time for the Bush administration.
The report from scientific advisors to a U.S.-Canadian board that oversees the Great Lakes says toxic contaminants are causing a host of health problems in the Upper Midwest – the region that essentially gave George Bush his second term last year.
The disclosure comes a week before EPA is set to announce that it cannot increase spending on the Great Lakes because of hurricane rebuilding costs in the Gulf Coast and represents abandonment of Bush’s 2004 campaign promise to clean up the world’s largest reservoir of fresh water.
The unreleased report was obtained and provided to reporters by the Natural Resources News Service.
Ironically, before Hurricane Katrina struck in August, it appeared the administration would make good on its campaign promises. A blue-ribbon panel organized by the EPA recommended in July that $20 billion should go into Great Lakes restoration over the next 15 years.
But now the EPA will officially announce next Monday that it can’t afford to follow the experts’ advice, and instead will try to more effectively spend the $535 million a year already going into water quality programs in the region.
Environmentalists were already furious about the administration’s flip-flop, and they certainly won’t be mollified by the report disclosed this week. The enviros plan to release a report by Great Lakes researchers Thursday saying “swimmable beaches, clean drinking water and a healthy fishery” are at risk because of the EPA’s impending announcement.
The situation may be even worse than that. Scientists at the International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian panel that oversees management of the Great Lakes, said in the report obtained by NRNS that contamination also may be causing widespread human health problems.
As Booth Newspapers in Michigan noted today in a story about the report, the IJC’s scientists attribute rising disease rates, lower IQs and possible reproductive problems to pollutants that have plagued the Great Lakes for decades.
In a move suggesting it doesn’t want to focus too much on those problems, the EPA has scheduled Monday’s press conference to announce the clean-up delays in a tiny room in Chicago that bears little resemblance to the huge ballroom where Bush promised before the election last year that Great Lakes cleanup would be a top priority for his administration.
