[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 22, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H1542-H1545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WORLD WATER DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Graves of Louisiana). Under the
Speaker's announced policy of January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 30 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome the Congressman and
doctor, Dan Benishek, from Michigan's First District, which encompasses
Marquette and Mackinac Island and Traverse City, to name a few famous
towns and island. I welcome him to participate this evening as well as
our other colleagues from the Great Lakes.
I rise tonight to mark the occasion of World Water Day. As such, I
would like to discuss the Great Lakes, an American freshwater treasure,
irreplaceable on our globe. Actually, it is the largest source of
freshwater in the United States and represents about 20 percent of the
world's freshwater supply.
The district that I represent, which is a little south of Michigan,
down in Ohio, sits nestled across Lake Erie's entire south coast,
extending from Cleveland all the way west to Toledo and encompasses all
of Ohio's ports but for one.
There should be a sign, actually, on the Ohio Turnpike nearby that
marks our shoreline as the step-off point, since Lake Erie is the most
southern of all the lakes, as the largest body of freshwater on the
face of the Earth.
I see our dear colleague, the co-chair of the Great Lakes Task Force
with me, Congressman Mike Kelly of Erie, Pennsylvania, who has joined
us. It is also a great port city, nestled along these Great Lakes.
Let me begin by saying, since the passage of the Clean Water Act in
1972, Lake Erie itself has been on a path to recovery. It got very sick
back in the 20th century.
Point sources of pollution, such as inadequate wastewater treatment
facilities and infrastructure and industrial outfalls have been slowly
coming. Since back then and the passage of the Clean Water Act and the
establishment of Earth Day, they have been coming into EPA compliance.
One needs no further proof in tracking the rebirth of America's
symbol, the bald eagle, than to really track Lake Erie's health. Lake
Erie is the shallowest of the lakes; and, therefore, it is kind of the
canary in the coal mine. What happens there will happen in the other
lakes subsequently.
The bald eagle had actually become an endangered species by the time
of the 1970s, and only two eagles were left on our great lake, Lake
Erie. There were no eaglets being born.
Due to the Clean Water Act's passage and literally the banning of DDT
and the repair of many of the industrial outfalls, which we are still
working on, and the combined sewer overflows, what happened, as we
moved into the 21st century, was human progress.
Today hundreds of baby eaglets are being born across Lake Erie, and
they are flying other places around the country. Amazingly, the bald
eagle has been taken off the endangered species list. So progress is
possible. Humans can really repair the environment if they are
dedicated to us.
For those of us who live in Lake Erie's western basin, which is the
far western part of the State, the health of our lake is a living
reality and access to freshwater has become the background noise of our
daily lives, becoming more pronounced when tragedy strikes, as it did
most recently in Flint, Michigan, and Sebring, Ohio, with lead in
freshwater.
{time} 1645
Our region works and plays with a new normal that includes very
frequent water quality reports now, updates on beach postings--whether
you can swim or not--water utility fee increases, and a general concern
about a troubling set of scientific questions that still go unanswered.
Unfortunately, this administration has not recognized these concerns
and seeks to cut Federal support to Great Lakes States by $148 million
for next year. Some would call that an oxymoron; it makes no sense in
view of what is happening across our region, but it is happening.
This evening--and I am going to yield to my colleagues before I get
into these topics--I would like to address the water infrastructure
needs of the Great Lakes, harmful algal blooms, which literally shut
down the city of Toledo's water system a year-and-a-half ago, denying
fresh water for 3 days to citizens, to businesses, and to institutions
in that region because of something called microcystin, which is the
toxic part of certain types of algal blooms which we are trying to
address. So harmful algal blooms will be one of my topics.
Another topic will be the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which
is so important to all of us in helping to improve our Great Lakes.
Stopping the Asian carp is another topic.
The next topic will be the Great Lakes navigation system itself, an
antiquated system that has to be updated for this 21st century.
Finally, I will discuss the harbor maintenance fund. These are all
major issues across the Great Lakes region, which we would like to
place on the Record this evening.
[[Page H1543]]
I would like to ask my colleagues to join me. Congressman Benishek, I
thank you again so very much for being a leader for the Great Lakes and
for coming down this evening.
I now yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Benishek).
Mr. BENISHEK. I thank Ms. Kaptur very much for setting up this time
for us to come together on the floor to talk about the importance of
the Great Lakes. I also thank Mr. Kelly for being here as well.
It is nice to know there are some issues that are truly bipartisan. I
believe that protecting our Great Lakes is really one of those.
The Great Lakes are a vital part of our life in Michigan,
particularly my district. I have more Great Lakes frontage than any
other district in the country. I have three Great Lakes in my district
with over 1,500 miles of frontage on three of the Great Lakes. We have
more shoreline than any district in the country other than the State of
Alaska, but that is all saltwater up there.
I do not think there is a person in my district who does not consider
the lakes a vital part of their lives, whether it is fishing or
swimming or sailing or kayaking or just plain sitting by the water. We
love our lakes. It is a pure Michigan experience. I encourage you all
to visit.
Since coming to Congress, one of my top priorities has been working
to keep the Great Lakes clean so that future generations may also enjoy
them. I want my grandkids and their kids to experience the joy of their
first local fishing derby on a summer day or going ice fishing with
their buddies in the winter. The joys of living on or near the Great
Lakes inspire us all to ensure that they stay clean for future
generations.
However, we treasure our Great Lakes not only for their beauty and
recreation they provide, but the incredible value they provide to our
economy. In Michigan alone, outdoor recreation generates $18.7 billion
in consumer spending and supports nearly 200,000 jobs.
Protecting the Great Lakes requires action on many fronts, which only
makes sense. As Ms. Kaptur said, these five Great Lakes represent more
than 20 percent of all the fresh water in the world. That is why I have
worked along with so many other of my midwestern colleagues to provide
adequate funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, something
the President always seems to cut back on in his budget.
This bipartisan effort, which must be renewed every year to guarantee
that this important program continues, gives local communities across
the Great Lakes the ability to clean up local beaches, preserve natural
wildlife habitats, and to restore local watersheds, among many other
useful products for the Great Lakes.
In my district alone, GLRI funds support projects like the Grand
Traverse Bay Watershed Protection Project and the Beaver Island
Archipelago Invasive Species Initiative. These programs help protect
the Great Lakes while at the same time providing a boost to the local
economy.
The Soo Locks also have a major impact on our economy. Maintaining
the integrity of the current lock system and ensuring the construction
of a second lock is vital for both our national economy and our
national security. Some people do not even realize that these locks
exist. They are basically the Panama Canal of America. Much of the iron
ore that is made into steel, which a lot of the industry in America
depends on, passes through this lock. It would cause a major crisis if
it should fail.
I am proud to have led a trip with other Members of Congress to the
Soo Locks last summer to raise the importance about the importance of
these locks. While we have secured funding for a new Economic
Reevaluation Report from the Corps of Engineers, we must continue to
raise awareness about the importance of this project while we await the
publication of this report.
Another issue that concerns all of us in the Great Lakes region is
the threat of invasive species. From sea lampreys to quagga mussels
that are already present in the Great Lakes, to the Asian carp which we
are currently trying to prevent from gaining access, invasive species
present a constant threat to this precious resource.
I have worked closely with the gentleman from California (Mr.
Thompson) to reorganize the Congressional Invasive Species Caucus, and
we are working to make invasive species a priority in this Congress.
While I will be leaving Congress at the end of this term, it is my
hope that we can continue to work together this year in a bipartisan
and constructive manner to protect the Great Lakes. I am willing to
partner with anyone who is willing to do that. I thank Ms. Kaptur for
doing this Special Order hour.
Ms. KAPTUR. I thank Congressman Benishek very, very much. I thank him
for his leadership on Great Lakes issues. That is a vast district that
he represents and one that is vital to our country. I thank him for
participating this evening.
Before I yield to Congressman Mike Kelly of the Third District of
Pennsylvania, I just want to say that the region that we are talking
about, the Great Lakes, actually, if it were a country on its own,
would be the third largest economy in the world. We are talking about a
vast and important part of our Nation with more fresh water than any
other part of the continent.
The Great Lakes navigation system, including the Soo Locks that
Congressman Benishek referenced, encompasses this vast region, and the
Seaway that is a part of this that was actually built by President
Eisenhower--it was built back in the 1950s--constitutes through the
locks the shortest distance between the heartland of America and the
ports of northern Europe and many other global destinations.
Most people have never been through the Soo Locks because we tend to
move commerce through the locks. We have some tourism, obviously, but
it really is a busy industrial corridor and has the lowest cost
transportation. Waterborne transportation is the lowest cost mode of
transportation. So you have the big containers and so forth that move
through the Seaway, and then we have the interlake trade, which is
heavily industrial, as Congressman Benishek referenced.
In recent years, the number of passages through the locks that go all
the way from Duluth all the way out through Massena, New York, going
throughout these Great Lakes, this whole system has averaged about
10,000 vessels per year. That is down a bit from prior years because
what has happened is the vessels got larger and they could carry more
freight. But the system exists. It operates every day.
The ports and channels of the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Seaway
System support over 226,000 jobs in both the United States and Canada
because the Seaway is operated by both countries, and it brings a total
of $33.5 billion in business revenue to the United States and Canada
annually. For Ohio, our largest trading partner is Canada, and some of
those goods move across the water.
In the United States alone, the system supports over 128,000 jobs and
produces a total of $18.1 billion in business revenue annually. Over
42,000 of these jobs are direct jobs in the iron ore and steel
industry, which Congressman Benishek referenced. The Great Lakes region
produces 90 percent--90 percent--of America's iron ore, and the Great
Lakes region also manufactures 58 percent of automobiles on the roads
in the United States and Canada. I think Congressman Kelly knows a
whole lot about the automobile industry. So this manufacturing and
commodity supply chain can only function through the Great Lakes
navigation system, which needs modernization.
I am more than pleased to yield to the co-chair of the Great Lakes
Task Force here in the House of Representatives, the very esteemed
gentleman from Pennsylvania's Third District (Mr. Kelly) centered at
Erie.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentlewoman. I often refer to
the gentlewoman not as Representative Kaptur, but as ``Our Lady of the
Lakes'' because, truly, we share a lot of the same concerns when it
comes to an absolutely incredible gift from God that has been given to
us. It is in our stewardship now. It was put in our care and custody
with the idea that we are going to pass it on to the next generation in
better shape than what we received it.
I think when we look at the Great Lakes, there are so many things you
[[Page H1544]]
can say about the Great Lakes. Oftentimes it is hard to sit back and
say, what is it exactly that the Great Lakes represent?
We have already said it is one-fifth of the world's fresh water, not
one-fifth of America's fresh water, not one-fifth of the continent's
fresh water, but one-fifth of the world's fresh water.
It is 6 quadrillion gallons of fresh water. I have absolutely no idea
what that figure would look like other than this: if you were to look
at the lower 48 States and you were able to pour the water from the
Great Lakes over the lower 48 States, it would cover it to a depth of
9\1/2\ feet.
So when you put it in that perspective, all of a sudden it starts to
make sense and you start to focus on it, and you say this truly is a
gift from God. This is truly a gift that we have to look after.
Too often it is said, well, you know, just let things go, because if
you let them go, they will usually work out on their own.
My goodness, nothing could be further from the truth. We have seen
the great damage to the Great Lakes, and we have also seen that over
the years we all of a sudden have become very much aware of it.
I would just like to say in the district that I represent,
Pennsylvania's Third District, Erie, Pennsylvania, Presque Isle was on
the list, and it was one of those things that said this is an area of
concern. So the attention was turned to what do we have to do to save
Presque Isle.
Now, in 2012 it was the first one of these properties that was taken
off the list of concern through the efforts of not only the Erie
community, but through the efforts of Congress, and also through the
efforts of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Now, we stand here today, and as I have said, I have always referred
to the gentlewoman as ``Our Lady of the Lakes.'' There is nothing more
precious to us than this great amount of water that we have, potable
water. If we were to turn our backs on it or for some reason to think
that it is not important or that it is not critical or that it is not a
gift from God that has been put in our care and custody and is up to us
to protect, then we have fallen far from where we are as a people and
as a nation.
I would like to read one excerpt. A friend of mine named Art Grayhead
is an Army veteran, Special Ops guy. He is also a Native American. To
him, the Great Lakes represent not only a body of water, but also
something precious and also something that has a much deeper religious
meaning. He gave me a book called ``The Living Great Lakes.'' It is
written by Jerry Dennis. I am going to read it because I think it is
worded so magnificently by Mr. Dennis:
To appreciate the magnitude of the Great Lakes you must get
close to them. Launch a boat on their waters or hike their
beaches or climb the dunes, bluffs, and rocky outcrops that
surround them, and you will see, as people have seen since
the age of the glaciers that these lakes are pretty darn big.
It is no wonder they are sometimes upgraded to the ``Inland
Seas'' and the ``Sweetwater Seas.'' Calling them lakes is
like calling the Rockies hills.
So when you see them and conceptualize in your head what it is that
we are talking about and what it is that we are concerned about and
what it is that has been put in our care and custody, none of us can
ever turn away and say: ``This doesn't fall on our watch'' or ``We
don't have to worry about the Great Lakes.''
We have to worry about the Great Lakes, we have to guard the Great
Lakes, and we have to pass it on to the next generation so they, too,
can enjoy all the benefits from it.
We talk about the economic consequences and the environmental
consequences. There is nothing in the life of everyday Americans that
is more important than our Great Lakes.
I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio. She certainly has
fought this battle for a long, long time. She has always been a great
champion of the Great Lakes. So many of our Members who live around the
Great Lakes champion it every day. But it is not just for us, it is not
just for those States around the Great Lakes. It is for every single
American. I thank the gentlewoman so much for her concern, her
dedication, and more than anything her passion.
Ms. KAPTUR. I thank Congressman Kelly so very much. I thank him for
his passion and for participating this evening and for all the effort
he puts forward on our Great Lakes Task Force to try to elevate this
region of the country as so vital to our future.
{time} 1700
And when the gentlemen were talking about Great Lakes and the word
``lakes,'' there are some people who have said they should have been
named the Great Seas.
I had an experience with schoolchildren a few years back. I loaded up
a schoolbus with children who came from a region that wasn't close to
the lake, and I took them out to Lake Erie. Their first reaction was
actually fear when they saw how big it was. They said: Oh, the ocean.
So, it isn't like a little puddle jumper. These lakes are vast. You
have described them well. Most Americans have not visited them, so they
don't have a complete understanding of how massive these lakes really
are. There is nothing else like them on the face of the Earth.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I can remember as a child my parents
taking us to Lake Erie for summer vacation. I had no idea what I was
going to see, but as we got closer to Erie, my dad said: See, Mike,
there it is. There is the lake. I said: It looks like it is going to
come crashing on us.
Because, you know, as you get closer to those bodies of water, as the
horizon, the water and the sky meet together, and as you are
approaching it, it looks like: My goodness, I can't imagine anything
this big.
In the eyes of a child, I looked at it and I was completely taken
away. I couldn't believe it. That has only increased as I have aged and
I have watched that marvelous, marvelous gift from God that we have and
that we have to protect.
Again, I thank the gentlewoman. It is always a pleasure being with
her on the floor talking about our Great Lakes. It is always a pleasure
working with her. The passion she has to protect our Great Lakes is
absolutely incredible.
Ms. KAPTUR. The gentleman has the same passion.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Yes, ma'am.
Ms. KAPTUR. This is a moment I am glad that is actually being
broadcast because we are down here tonight on a bipartisan basis
discussing a vital resource that this Nation shares with Canada. We
work well together. Most of the news is about how Members of Congress
don't work together, they don't do this, and here we are participating,
after hours--we are not required to be here--and we are talking about
something we believe to be truly irreplaceable for our country.
I thank the gentleman for his leadership, and I will share this story
with him.
When I was a little girl, I still remember the seventh grade when our
grandparents and parents took us to Erie, Pennsylvania, to Presque
Isle. I remember that. It was such a big deal. It was a long trip from
Toledo, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania, and I still remember our relatives
there and understanding how big that waterway really is, how we went
swimming at Presque Isle back in those days--the 1950s, I guess.
So I have always had an affinity for Erie, Pennsylvania, remembering
back to those early times and what a good time we had. The people of
Erie were so hospitable.
It is great to have the gentleman as a leader in the Great Lakes Task
Force and coming down here this evening to make time for the Great
Lakes. I thank him very much. I thank him for his concerted leadership
and all he has done to be a champion not just for Presque Isle, not
just for Lake Erie, but for our entire Great Lakes system.
I yield to gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), the vice chair of
the Great Lakes Task Force, who has come to Congress with all this
energy and intelligence and capacity to make a difference for the
country. And then what was handed him in this last 2 months was the
terrible tragedy in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, with lead in the
water pipes and the water system there. So many people in Flint are so
unnecessarily ill and the community is damaged. All of America wants to
help Flint.
[[Page H1545]]
I thank Congressman Kildee so much for coming down tonight.
Mr. KILDEE. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for her
leadership. Congresswoman Kaptur has always been a great ally for me
and even my predecessor, my uncle, on working to preserve and protect
this incredible natural asset that we have--the Great Lakes.
Listening to Congresswoman Kaptur and Congressman Kelly refer to your
childhood, we all--those of us from the Great Lakes region--remember
and recall, from our childhood, our introduction to the Great Lakes.
The very shape of my home State of Michigan is defined by the lakes.
Lake Huron is on the east, Lake Michigan is on the west, a touch of
Lake Erie, and, of course, Lake Superior to the north. It defines the
shape of our State.
As a child, I still remember the first time experiencing the lakes,
and they did seem as though they were something that were so big, they
was almost impossible to comprehend. But it was also something that, as
a child, I took for granted. We all took for granted that the lakes
would always be there, that they would always be pure, that they would
always be clear and cold--the way we recalled them as children.
Of course, what we come to know, as policymakers, is that we can't be
put in a position to take that for granted. We have to actively protect
that incredible gift that has been handed to us simply as a creation of
God. We have this enormously special stewardship.
Two things I want to point out that I think are part of the
stewardship responsibility that we have to and for the Great Lakes.
One, of course, is to defend the lakes against any threat that might
manifest now or might manifest generations from now, whether that is
working to protect the lakes from invasive species like Asian carp or a
very special obligation that I think we have right now, working with
our friends across the border on the Canadian side, and that is to
protect the lakes from unnecessary and unwarranted threats.
There has been, in the planning stages, the possibility of a nuclear
waste storage facility that would be on the eastern shore of Lake
Huron. It would be six-tenths of a mile from the shore of that lake. I
am pleased to see that our friends within the new Canadian Government
have sort of taken a pause to reevaluate whether that site is the best
site. Of course, my position and the position of many Members of
Congress, Democrats and Republicans, has been that there is a special
line that we must draw when it comes to protecting the lakes.
We have a chance to ask that--in this case, the Canadian Government,
and specifically the Ontario Power Generation--they reconsider the
location of a nuclear waste storage facility so that now, 100 or 200
years from now, if some event may occur that would release some of that
material, we would never put the lakes at risk.
That is something that we can do. It is a tangible set of steps that
we can take. But it is just an example of the special responsibility
that I know I now have as a Member of Congress representing the Great
Lakes region.
It is not until you are sworn into office and take an oath to uphold
the Constitution and represent the people that you live with back home
that you come to understand the magnitude of that responsibility,
especially for maintaining the lakes.
Of course, the other point that Congresswoman Kaptur mentioned is
that we also have a special responsibility to continue to take
advantage of the fact that we have been given this gift, and we have to
use it in a way that is sustainable but also allows us to use the pure
and clear lake water in a way that protects us.
Of course, the very bad decisions that were made at the State
government level that led to the crisis in my hometown of Flint were
decisions to move temporarily away from using lake water for our
drinking water to using river water in the Flint River as our primary
drinking water source. It is almost unimaginable that that would
happen, considering that we are literally surrounded by the greatest
source, the largest source of surface freshwater on the planet and that
a community would temporarily use that drinking water.
It also makes the point that the protections of our water resources
are special protections that we have to make sure are adhered to. This
crisis in Flint, or any other crisis, such as the issue that I know
Congresswoman Kaptur is very familiar with--you may have already
addressed the algal bloom that you dealt with in the lake that affected
drinking water in Toledo and other places--we have a special
responsibility to make sure that we are, through our Environmental
Protection Agency and State environmental quality agencies,
aggressively defending the Great Lakes, not just to maintain their
natural beauty, not just to maintain them as recreational assets, but
to make sure that, when we use that water for something as fundamental
as drinking water, we know it will always be safe and protected.
I want to thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on the issue of
the Great Lakes and for including me as a part of this bipartisan
effort to make sure that we always take care of this unique and special
stewardship responsibility to protect the greatest freshwater source on
the planet.
Ms. KAPTUR. I thank Congressman Kildee so very, very much for coming
down. He has his hands full in trying to repair the damage in Flint. We
respect him so much for the leadership he has shown there, because that
could happen anywhere. Sadly, it happened in Flint, Michigan, and he
and the delegation and the entire Great Lakes region have really
provided stellar leadership.
We all are here to try and help him and the citizens of Flint. He is
focusing national attention on the importance of water infrastructure
and what can happen when systems age. You have brought this to the
attention of the American people. We can all learn from the experience
in Flint.
I want to thank my colleagues for coming to the floor tonight to
discuss the important challenges that still remain in the Great Lakes
of water infrastructure improvement, addressing the harmful algal
blooms, making sure there is significant support in the Great Lakes
Restoration Initiative, stopping the Asian carp from coming into the
Great Lakes, improving our Great Lakes navigation system, and making
sure that the harbor maintenance trust fund is available for the Great
Lakes.
I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________