Senators should oppose repeal of Clean Water Rule

member Brown to secure full funding of $300 million for the GLRI in the federal budget process. In addition, they were able to secure language in the federal budget process to increase the GLRI funding by $30 million a year through 2021.

The Initiative is a federal funding program started in 2010 by then president Barack Obama to kickstart the restoration of the Great Lakes. Since its inception, more than $2.9 billion has been allocated for over 4,000 projects. The GLRI is a widely praised bipartisan successful program. For every dollar invested in restoring the Great Lakes, at least double is returned, and in some cases returns are realized at six times of the investment.

Ohio has received more than $246 million for more than 334 projects to restore habitat for wildlife, reduce toxic algae and prevent and manage invasive plants and animals. Among these projects is the 171 Blausey Tract wetland restoration in the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, where farmland is being transformed into wetland habitat. The restored wetland filters pollutants out of the runoff from adjacent farm fields, reducing the amount of toxic-algae-causing pollution flowing into Lake Erie. The added benefit of restoring this wetland is the creation of additional bird and fish habitat — especially valuable in a migratory-bird path.

The GLRI is just one federal program among many for which Brown and Portman have rallied together. They have worked together to pass meaningful legislation to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes, provide funding to communities to get lead out of water and much-needed funds and guidance to upgrade water infrastructure.

Recently Portman and Brown, as part of the federal budget process, secured legislation to provide local communities with flexibility to prioritize investments in wastewater and stormwater projects as well as green infrastructure, such as wetlands to reduce polluted runoff.

I urge the senators to continue to work together to protect the small streams and rivers that feed the Maumee, Sandusky and Cuyahoga rivers and other waterways flowing into Lake Erie, as well as wetlands that cleanse water of pollutants before it flows into rivers and lakes.

These wetlands and streams are critical to reducing toxic algae, improving water quality and protecting Ohioans’ drinking water and wildlife. More than 3 million Ohioans, including over a million in Franklin County, depend on these small streams as the source of their drinking water.

Congress is now considering a bad piece of legislation to fast-track the repeal of the Clean Water Rule, which protects small streams and wetlands, and to circumvent the approximately 900,000 comments the U.S. EPA received in support of the rule.

I urge Portman and Brown to help protect more than 3 million Ohioans’ drinking water by opposing any attempts to repeal the Clean Water Rule.