Opening Statement
Chairman George V. Voinovich
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management,
the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia

“Great Lakes Restoration Management:
No Direction, Unknown Progress”
Wednesday, July 16, 2003

The hearing will come to order. Good morning and thank you for coming. We are here today to discuss what I believe is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing our nation – restoration of the Great Lakes.

This hearing is entitled: “Great Lakes Restoration Management: No Direction, Unknown Progress.” Specifically, the hearing will focus on a recent report by the General Accounting Office concerning the federal and state environmental programs operating in the Great Lakes basin and the funding devoted to them. This GAO report evaluates the restoration strategies used and how they are coordinated, and assesses the overall environmental progress made in the basin restoration effort.

Thirty-seven years ago, when I saw firsthand the effects of pollution on Lake Erie and the surrounding region, I knew we had to do more to protect our environment. At the time, Lake Erie was suffering from eutrophication and was known worldwide as a dying lake. Lake Erie’s decline was heavily covered by the media and became an international symbol of pollution and environmental degradation. I remember the British Broadcasting Company – the BBC – even sent a film crew to make a documentary about it.

I made a commitment then, as a state legislator, to do everything possible to stop the deterioration of the Lake and to wage what I refer to as the “Second Battle of Lake Erie” – to reclaim and restore Ohio’s Great Lake.

I have continued this fight throughout my career – as County Commissioner, State Legislator, Lieutenant Governor, Mayor of Cleveland, Governor of Ohio, and now United States Senator. I consider my efforts to preserve and protect Lake Erie and all of the Great Lakes to be among the most significant of my career and of my life.

Lake Erie’s ecology has come a long way since the mid-1960s. Today, people can enjoy Lake Erie. It is a habitat to countless species of wildlife, a vital resource for the area’s tourism, transportation, and recreation industries, and the main source of drinking water for many Ohioans. Lake Erie is certainly Ohio’s greatest natural resource. Together, the Great Lakes makeup the largest body of freshwater in the world, providing 40 million people in the U.S. and Canada with drinking water.

Although we have made progress in our restoration efforts, there is much more that needs to be done to improve and protect the Great Lakes. I emphasize that this is an urgent need that deserves and demands a well-coordinated effort, one that cannot be met by simply adding individual programs to those that already exist.

The GAO made it clear in its report – released earlier this year entitled: “An Overall Strategy and Indicators for Measuring Progress Are Needed to Better Achieve Restoration Goals” – that the number of programs is not the problem. Rather, the report states that while there are many federal, state, and local programs, restoration of the Great Lakes is being hindered because there is little coordination and no unified strategy for these activities.

Furthermore, the GAO found that although more than one billion dollars has been spent on restoration efforts on Great Lakes specific programs since 1992, it is not possible to assess comprehensive restoration progress because overall indicators for the Lakes do not exist.

I don’t know which is worse – the fact that GAO came to these conclusions or that I have not found anyone who is surprised by them.

The GAO recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency oversee these efforts to ensure that the programs are coordinated, that there is a comprehensive Great Lakes strategy, and that environmental indicators are developed to measure restoration progress.

This week, I joined Senators DeWine and Levin in cosponsoring the Great Lakes Environmental Restoration, Protection, and Recovery Act (S. 1398). This bill responds to the GAO report and to my long held concerns about Great Lakes restoration. In short, this bill moves us closer toward our goal of restoring the Great Lakes by providing funding and promoting coordination. Expanding on the Lake Erie Water Quality Index that I released in 1998 as Governor of Ohio, the bill directs the EPA to create a series of Great Lakes indicators of water quality and other factors for all of the Great Lakes.

Restoring the Great Lakes could be the greatest legacy any of us will leave on this earth. We must work hard to ensure that the progress we have made continues.

As many of you know, I was intimately involved in the creation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. As Chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, I was proud to sponsor the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, which approved this ambitious Plan. Earlier this year, I spoke at the 11TH annual Everglades Coalition Conference in Florida, and I told them – let me quote from my statement – “What I would love to do as Senator is to be able to put the same kind of coalition together that you’ve been able to do for the Everglades for the Great Lakes.” This is my dream.

Right now, we have the mayors getting together, the governors are developing priorities and objectives, a coalition of groups – Great Lakes United – have put together a restoration agenda, and we here in the Congress have put forth proposals earlier this week. However, the fact of the matter is that if we are going to get something done, we need to create a symbiotic relationship with all of the public and private players in the U.S. and Canada in order to develop a comprehensive restoration plan for the Great Lakes. I am most interested in hearing from the witnesses today on how we can get this done.

I also look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses about this GAO report, and to hearing their recommendations for the current restoration programs in the Great Lakes, as well as possible next steps to address this problem. I also would like to hear their views on our new legislation, S. 1398.

We have an impressive lineup of witnesses this morning, and I look forward to a very informative discussion.

I am pleased to welcome two of my friends and colleagues, Senator Mike DeWine, the senior senator from Ohio, and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan who will be testifying first this morning. I commend them on their excellent leadership as co-chairmen of the Great Lakes Task Force. I look forward to their invaluable input on this subject, especially because they requested the GAO report we are discussing today.

On our second panel, we will hear from (the people who conducted the study at) GAO and from several federal agencies that are involved programmatically with the Great Lakes, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

I met with Tom Skinner – EPA’s Region V Administrator – on a number of issues important to my state of Ohio, and I look forward to his testimony on the role of the Great Lakes National Program Office in managing the various environmental programs.

The third and final panel includes the Chairman of the United States Section of the International Joint Commission, Dennis Schornack. I also welcome his counterpart, the Chairman of the Canadian Section, Herb Gray, who I believe is also here today. I know that Mr. Gray is aware that the subject of restoration of the Great Lakes has been a burning issue for the U.S. and Canadian Inter-parliamentary Group that I have had the pleasure of participating in over the past few years.

Also on the third panel is Illinois State Senator Susan Garrett, and Chris Jones, Director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency who will testify on behalf of the Council of Great Lakes Governors.

Finally, Margaret Wooster from Great Lakes United will testify. Great Lakes United is a U.S. and Canadian coalition dedicated to preserving and restoring the Great Lakes. Last August, I held an Environment and Public Works Committee field hearing in Cleveland, Ohio to examine the increasingly extensive oxygen depletion – or hypoxia – in the central basin of Lake Erie. Great Lakes United testified at that hearing and was extremely helpful in shedding some light on the problem and in offering possible solutions.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Wooster about a recent report that Great Lakes United released on how to cleanup the Great Lakes. I look forward to hearing more about those recommendations for restoration in her testimony today.

I now yield to the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, my good friend Senator Durbin, for an opening statement. In the interest of time, I would request that other Senators submit their statements for the record.

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