Great Lakes Cleanup Could Generate Billions for Region, Report Says

By John Myers, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Sep. 6–Residents of the Great Lakes region are losing billions of dollars in economic benefits because Congress has failed to enact a restoration plan for the Great Lakes environment.

That’s the finding of a report released Wednesday by a panel of economists gathered by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution and released with the National Wildlife Federation.

The report seeks to quantify for the first time the value of cleaning up beaches, improving fish and wildlife populations in and near the lakes, halting exotic species and cleaning up toxic hotspots in harbors.

The authors looked at direct effects, such as increased recreation spending by more tourists and residents, and indirect benefits, such as increased property values near cleaner lakes.

If the lakes are restored, the value of residential homes in the region would increase between 1 percent and 10 percent — totaling at least $50 billion, the report notes — based on similar real estate market changes in other regions.

Increased spending around cleaner lakes would add at least another $30 billion to $50 billion to the region, according to the report. That includes spending related to increased fish populations (at least $1.1 billion benefit), cleaner beaches for recreation ($5 billion), and better near-shore bird and wildlife habitat ($100 million).

The report underscores that “if our lakes are sick, our economies are sick,” Andy Buchsbaum, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lake’s National Resource Center, said in a telephone news conference.

“A simple cost-benefit analysis would clearly conclude ‘do the project, do the cleanup,’ ” said Bob Litan, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a co-author of the report.

The Great Lakes restoration plan was unveiled in Duluth in July 2005. It was proposed by President Bush and included the input of more than 1,500 scientific, environmental and economic experts.

The $26 billion cleanup plan calls for an end to sewage overflows, beach closings and invasions of new exotic species while pushing for restored wetlands near the lakes and a quick move to clean up contaminated hotspots in harbors. It was supposed to be accomplished within 15 years and was modeled after federal cleanup efforts for the Florida Everglades and Chesapeake Bay.

About one-fourth of the money was expected to come from state, regional and local sources, and three-fourths from federal programs.

“If you care about job creation … these types of [environmental restoration] investments are potentially the most important for job creation,” said John Austin, vice president of the Michigan Board of education and another co-author of the report.

Since being announced, the restoration plan has languished for two years. Little of the money has been included in the president’s annual budgets and Congress has failed to pass most of the plan’s elements.

Supporters hope the report sparks new interest and action.

“This report shows that making a $26 billion investment in the Great Lakes will have economic returns that far exceed the cost,” Buchsbaum said. “This gives us a way to talk to members of Congress who may not be concerned with the wonders of the Great Lakes … with our way of life here, but who want to see if their investment pays off.”

The report was released at the third annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference in Chicago where about 250 scientists, environmentalists, business and community leaders, regulators, tribal leaders, lawmakers and recreation leaders are gathered to discuss the stalled restoration plan.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

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