Lake Erie’s recurring algae problem could eventually force Toledo to move its drinking-water intake into deeper waters farther from shore, a project U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur said she has been told could cost billions.
Other cities around the Great Lakes face comparable reckonings with their infrastructure for tapping the lakes’ water or treating their sewage, but “many of our cities do not have the money” to handle it, Ms. Kaptur said Tuesday during a news conference at Glass City Metropark. She was there to promote a bill she sponsored in March to create a Great Lakes Authority.
Such an agency could become a focal point for federal grants to modernize the systems they use both to collect drinking water and to reduce pollutants’ flow into that resource, she said. It is envisioned as being similar to the Appalachian Regional Commission whose 420-county jurisdiction includes counties in southeast Ohio.
Quoting a sign at the water plant in Washington that reads “Water is Life,” the Toledo Democrat said the Great Lakes represent “this motherlode of fresh water that we have to take care of” and creating a Great Lakes Authority would “lift some of the financial burden off our local agencies” and help the region move toward the future.
Cosponsors of the legislation include U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D., Mich.) and seven other House of Representatives Democrats from Michigan, Illinois, New York, and Wisconsin. It was referred upon its March 22 introduction to two House committees: Financial Services, and Transportation and Infrastructure.
Ms. Kaptur (D., Toledo) said Tuesday she hopes to have its provisions rolled into an upcoming reauthorization bill for the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
The congressman was flanked at the news conference by Toledo city councilmen Sam Melden and Nick Komives as well as counterparts Margo Puffenberger of Maumee and Nick Rubando of Bowling Green.
“This is about the entire region of northwest Ohio,” Mr. Rubando said, noting that while Bowling Green does not touch Lake Erie itself, it relies on the Great Lakes’ largest single tributary, the Maumee River, for its drinking water.
“We can’t have economic development if we don’t have clean drinking water,” Mr. Rubando said. “This really is a bipartisan issue. We can come together and chart our own destiny.”
“It’s in everyone’s interest to have clean drinking water,” Ms. Puffenberger agreed.
Mr. Melden said Toledo is “on the frontlines of fresh water for our region and “it’s really important to protect it and stand up and work for it every day” at all levels of government, while Mr. Komives said creating a Great Lakes-specific entity would ensure the region is “prepared for any federal dollars that might come down and head our way.”
The region’s abundance of fresh water can be a major draw for people relocating from other places where climate change will be disruptive, Mr. Komives said, but only if it’s taken care of.
“We are not a rust belt. We are a place for opportunity,” he said.
Ms. Kaptur said that besides city water and wastewater utilities, other potential uses exist for funding channeled through a Great Lakes Authority.
They include electric power supplies for pumping water longer distances as may be needed for relocated intakes, ditch management, and retention systems for stormwater runoff throughout the watershed. The latter would seek to curb nitrogen and phosphorus flows that feed algal blooms in the lakes.
“There is no political boundary around the Great Lakes watershed,” Ms. Kaptur said, also explaining that while she envisions the authority to initially work only on the American side, she anticipates Canadian interest as well.
First Published August 30, 2022, 9:45 p.m.
