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MICHIGAN ADVANCE: Dingell joins advocates in underscoring need for Great Lakes research funding

Great Lakes advocates and researchers on Friday cautioned against funding cuts to a critical research institute, warning that the loss of staff and funding could have dire consequences.

That included U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), who emphasized the importance of continuing to fund efforts to keep the Great Lakes clean and healthy.

Dingell, alongside members of the University of Michigan Water Center, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research, spoke about her concerns at Ann Arbor’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens on Friday.

The administration of President Donald Trump is proposing steep cuts to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and the group warned that the Great Lakes could lose another vital layer of protection as the president zeroes out funds for several key programs supported by the agency.

Mike Shriberg, director of the University of Michigan Water Center, noted that NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Lab had already lost 35% of its staff, while the remaining employees are under duress as they work to make up for their lost colleagues and face increased bureaucratic demands.

While the House and Senate have proposed bills maintaining funding for NOAA programs that the president eliminated, they do not restore the cuts that have already been made.

The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research is one agency at risk of losing its staff and funding, with Greg Dick, the institute’s director, emphasizing the critical nature of the group’s research.

The institute’s work centers on threats that impact the daily lives of the people of the Great Lakes Region, Dick explained, including threats like coastal flooding, oil spills and extreme weather.

One of the key ways the institute protects the health and safety of the Great Lakes region is through its work on harmful algal blooms, he added.

“These unsightly, smelly and highly toxic algae blooms now occur in all five Great Lakes,” Dick said. “They threaten the amazing waters that provide recreational opportunities, support numerous small businesses and serve as a source of drinking water for nearly 30 million people.”

In 2014, Toledo, Ohio lost access to drinking water for 72 hours due to a harmful algal bloom, leaving half a million people without access to tap water for a long weekend, Dick said.

The homes, businesses and hospitals affected by the crisis were estimated to have lost a total of $65 million.

In combatting these growths, the team at the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research takes weekly samples to measure the amount of toxins and the quality of the water, works with partners to develop a five-day forecast of how algal blooms will grow and move, and utilizes cutting-edge tools to track new toxins, Dick said.

The work is driven by 50 scientists and staff members at the University of Michigan, whose work is almost entirely funded by NOAA.

Laura Rubin, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition warned that cutting great lakes science programs will cost more on the back end, when the government ultimately has to address problems that arise from abandoning these efforts, like managing invasive sea lampreys and harmful algal blooms.

Additionally, every $1 invested into Great Lakes restoration and science produces $3 in economic benefit, Rubin said.

Rubin also stressed that these programs have succeeded due to their partnerships between state and federal governments.

“States cannot do this job by themselves. The federal government provides the ability to manage large landscape restoration projects and scientific inquiry that demand coordination and strategic direction across state and international and sovereign boundaries, as well as integrated science monitoring and technical experience,” Rubin said.

Joel Brammeier, president and CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, emphasized that the Great Lakes Restoration movement was built on decades of science that has largely been supported by federal funds.

Dingell also called attention to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which was established in 2010. The program provides funding to states, tribes and local communities, for on the ground efforts to address the largest concerns facing the Great Lakes.

In January, Dingell alongside U.S. Reps. Bill Huizenga (R-Holland Township), David Joyce (R-Ohio) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), reintroduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act with the support of several other lawmakers from the Great Lakes region. The bill would extend funding for the program from 2027 through 2031.

In the U.S. Senate, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) also introduced legislation to extend funding for the initiative.

Although the initiative has extraordinarily high value, the program is designed to supplement organizations’ base funding, Shriberg said. If the core funding is lost, that supplementary funding is no longer useful.

Dingell said she is also cosponsoring a bill to protect funding designated for NOAA, specifically for the National Weather Service and Great Lakes programs, from being reduced or redirected. It would also require the Administrator of NOAA to report to Congress each year that they are complying with the act’s requirements, Dingell said.

“Here’s the new reality, we can require we pass it in the appropriations bills, and then the administration isn’t taking the money we’ve authorized and spending it,” Dingell said, noting the Great Lakes is one issue you can still bring the state’s Congressional delegation together on. “We have to find a way to make sure that funding authorized and needed is getting to where it needs to go, and it needs to be done in a bipartisan way.”