NEMWI to Host Green Shipping Briefing

The Northeast-Midwest Institute will hold a briefing on the Green Shipping Corridor Network (GSCN) on Monday, June 3rd, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. (EDT).

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway is the largest deep-draft inland navigation system in the world, and GLSLS maritime trade is an engine of the regional economy. According to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation’s recent economic impact study, cargo moved on the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Seaway System in 2022 was worth $26.1 billion dollars, and supported more than 241,000 jobs. 

Announced by the U.S. and Canadian governments at COP27 in 2022, the GSCN is a binational initiative to reduce emissions in shipping in order to combat climate change and continue to grow Great Lakes shipping as an industry. Already, major investments are helping ports and shipowners facilitate this transition. This briefing will cover the need, plans, and vision for the GSCN, and the work being done on the ground to move to a more sustainable future

Panelists include:

• The Great Lakes Commission

• Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation

• Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority

• Port of Cleveland

For all questions, please contact Great Lakes Program Manager Alex Eastman at aeastman@nemw.org.

House Appropriations Committee Releases Topline Budget Numbers

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations has announced topline numbers for their FY25 budget bills, as well as a schedule for planned markups. The proposed budgets total $1.6 trillion, with a 1% increase to defense spending and a 6% decrease to non-defense spending. Those cuts are not evenly distributed – funding in the Interior, Environment, and related agencies bill, for example, would drop by 10%.

These proposals are likely non-starters in the Senate, especially because while they technically adhere to the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), the agreement reached last year to increase the debt ceiling, they toss out the “side deals” which were a significant part of that agreement. Taken together, the FRA plus the side deals would increase spending on both defense and non-defense by 1%, a sharp contrast with the Committee’s proposal.

The Committee also plans to move at a brisk pace, with Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) saying that he hopes to markup all 12 bills out of Committee by August in an effort to avoid last year’s long, drawn-out appropriations process. See the planned schedule below for the bills that NEMWI tracks, and expect line-item analysis of Great Lakes priorities from NEMWI here as they become available.

NEMWI Releases Scorecard on State Legislature and Environmental Agencies PFAS Response

The Northeast-Midwest Institute this week released a scorecard and report on state legislature and environmental agency PFAS response. This scorecard and report detail the actions of each state’s legislature and environmental agency in the northeast-midwest region, and scores them on their response to PFAS contamination in their state. The score of each state provides a good indication of which states are doing exemplary work at combatting PFAS contamination, and which states need to take more action.

This new PFAS scorecard and report ranks the northeast region as strongest in terms of PFAS policy-making, followed next by the mid-Atlantic region, with the midwest region ranking lowest. Among the states, Vermont ranks as the strongest in PFAS policy-making, both in the northeast region and among all of the states in the northeast, mid-Atlantic, and midwest. New York ranks the strongest among the states in the mid-Atlantic region. Ranking lowest among the states in all three regions is the state of Ohio.

States were graded on a scale of 0-10 with 10 being the highest score. There were 10 separate indicators that states were graded on, including spending, legislation that has been passed or introduced, future legislation, action plans, drinking water limits, and enforcement against PFAS manufacturers. The report also gives recommendations to each state for what they should be doing next, as well as what the region as a whole should take action on next. 

In addition to the scorecard, the report also touches on other important developments in PFAS policy. There is a section that discusses the details of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the funding that will go towards PFAS contamination. There also is a section that reviews the nationwide lawsuits against manufacturers like 3M and DuPont that have recently been settled.

Both the scorecard and the report were researched and written by Northeast-Midwest Institute Intern Aiden Meyer, a student at Nazareth University.

Read the report here.

Senate EPW Releases WRDA Bill Text,

Schedules Markup

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Friday released the bill text for the Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA). WRDA authorizes water infrastructure projects to be conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and is passed every two years. The bill text includes a number of Great Lakes and Invasive Species provisions.

Most critically, the text increases the federal cost share of Operations and Maintenance of the Brandon Road Interbasin Project from 80% to 90% after construction is complete. This follows WRDA 2022, which increased the federal construction cost share from 80% to 90%.

The text directs USACE to deliver a report to Congress within a year of the bill’s enactment on the Corps’ work on invasive species. The report would cover the Corps’ projects across the country, the progress they are making, how invasive species impact the Corps’ work in general, and what further recommendations they have. The text would also extend several invasive species projects, including the Corps’ joint Invasive Carp project with the Tennessee Valley Authority in the Cumberland River watershed, which was supposed to be finished by September 30th of this year, but instead will be extended to 2029. The text would also authorize two more demonstration programs, in Oregon and California, to control harmful algal blooms.

Finally, several Ohio municipalities would receive environmental infrastructure funding for water and wastewater infrastructure: Cuyahoga County would receive $5 million; Bloomingburg, $6.5 million; Akron, $13 million; East Cleveland, $5.5 million; Ashtabula County, $1.5 million; and Struthers, $500,000. The state of Pennsylvania would receive $38.6 million for those purposes as well.

The Senate will hold a markup on the bill text on Wednesday, May 22nd. NEMWI will continue to monitor WRDA 2024.

Read the bill text here.

House Agriculture Committee Releases Farm Bill Text

The House Committee on Agriculture, led by Chair and Great Lakes Task Force Member Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-PA), last Friday released text for the Farm Bill. Congress passed an extension of the 2018 Farm Bill last year, but that is set to expire this fall.

Focusing on the Conservation Title, one hurdle left to clear is what to do with funds for conservation programs under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). There is broad bipartisan consensus that these funds, allocated to programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), among others, should be rescinded and folded into the Farm Bill under those same programs. Instead of a $14 billion short-term investment, this would allow for an increased baseline for these programs in perpetuity, increasing funding for conservation by $44 billion over the next 25 years.

There is disagreement, however, about the climate provisions for that spending. Under the IRA, those conservation funds are reserved for “climate smart agriculture.” The section-by-section summary released by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, led by Chair and GLTF Co-Chair Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) (the Senate Committee has not yet released bill text) maintains the climate smart language, while the House’s bill text does not. This means that, were the House bill to become law, those conservation funds could be used on practices that do not necessarily improve climate resiliency or reduce emissions.

Beyond that, however, there are many points of agreement in the Conservation Title between the House and Senate versions. The bill text includes hundreds of bipartisan bills, including the PRECISE Act, legislation from Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and Angie Craig (D-MN) that would allow for the use of “precision agriculture” under the CSP and EQIP. Precision agriculture is the use of tools like GPS and automation to make farms more efficient and reduce waste. Another bipartisan effort in the bill text, based on legislation from Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Jared Huffman (D-CA), is the development of a USDA program that would provide grants to States and Tribes to implement soil health programs. More points of comparison between the House and Senate versions will be clearer when the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry releases its bill text, expected in the next few months. The House Agriculture Committee will hold a markup on Thursday, May 23rd.

NEMWI will continue to follow the Farm Bill process.

Alliance for the Great Lakes Hosts

Plastic Pollution Webinar

The Alliance for the Great Lakes hosted a webinar on May 10 to discuss recent developments in plastic pollution research and avenues for policy solutions. According to Alliance for the Great Lakes senior policy advisor Andrea Densham, “It’s really clear that plastics are impacting substantial amounts of ecosystems within the rich and vibrant Great Lakes community.”

Plastic production has risen in tandem with pollution in the Great Lakes region. Over the past thirty years, waste generation has tripled from 100 megatons per year to more than 300. The ubiquitous presence of microplastics on beaches and in waterways poses unique threats to aquatic wildlife, resulting in health complications that have not been extensively documented. While speakers highlighted a need for further research, all emphasized the importance of strategies that mobilize a variety of constituencies.

Dr. Timothy Hoellein opened the webinar with a poignant reflection on the growing waste problem: “We’ve come to accept the pervasive presence of pollution as part of our understanding of nature.” Volunteer citizen scientists with the Alliance for the Great Lakes' “Adopt a Beach” program have collected data on the prevalence of pollution while conducting cleanups for the past few years, revealing some worrisome trends. 75-80 percent of the trash recovered from rivers is made of plastic, and between 90-95 percent of this plastic is small fragments, food-related, or smoking-related.

Pre-production pellets (“nurdles”) used in manufacturing have become a growing concern and account for a rising share of plastic pollution. When fish or other aquatic species consume these microplastics, they ingest a biofilm home to a “unique community of microbes” and contaminants that can be transferred up the food chain. Dr. Charlyn Partridge noted that researchers have observed an increase in the biological concentration of plastics (Great Lakes fish contain an average of 52 plastic particles within their bodies), but studies that have attempted to quantify the resulting health impacts have yielded inconclusive results.

Andrea Densham concluded the webinar with a call to action, stating: “Each one of us has a role to play: innovators and businesses, funders, the public, and all levels of the public sector." She noted that the development of successful policy solutions will require engagement with a variety of stakeholders at the municipal, state, national, and bi-national levels, but previous legislative initiatives can provide a model for implementation. In Illinois, new legislation has strengthened state pollution monitoring efforts, banned polystyrene foam, and required businesses to fill consumer-owned reusable containers. At the national level, Senator Richard Durbin introduced the Plastic Pellet Free Waterways Act, which would require manufacturers to contain pre-production pellets. These solutions constitute an important step forward, but effective regulation that targets upstream production (“extended producer responsibility” laws) have not yet been developed.

You can find a recording of the webinar here.

Reported by NEMWI Intern Ethan Groboski, Brown University 

EPA Announces $300 million in Brownfield Investment 

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced $300 million to clean up Brownfield sites. Brownfields are abandoned and blighted properties that are or may be contaminated with a hazardous substance, and funding from the EPA helps remediate these areas and make them economically viable. The funding is in two categories: $231 million was awarded through the Multipurpose, Assessment, and Cleanup (MAC) Grant Program, and $68 million in loans were made through the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) Grant Programs to existing recipients that had exhausted their funding, but had shown progress in their cleanup efforts. 

Of the $231 million of MAC funding, $128 million was awarded to the Northeast-Midwest region, and $60 million went to Great Lakes states. The Buffalo Niagara River Land Trust is one of the grantees. They will use $500,000 in funding to remediate several parcels of land, turning abandoned properties into “pocket parks,” small public green spaces with waterfront access to the Buffalo and Niagara Rivers. Their goal is to improve the lives of Buffalo residents with these spaces without inducing gentrification. Another grantee is the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation, which plans to use $500,000 to expand production of the Hillson Nut Company, an 80-year-old, family-operated company in Cleveland. They hope that this project will also spur other development projects in the area. 

View a full list of grantees, and other information about today’s announcement here.

Connect With the Northeast-Midwest Institute

on Social Media

The Northeast-Midwest Institute is on social media with new updates and information on its regional research and policy education program and with announcements for upcoming briefings and events. NEMWI is posting our research reports on current regional issues and ongoing policy education on the page to make keeping up with our policy work easier than ever. The Institute also is updating the page with announcements of upcoming policy briefings and webinars. NEMWI is excited for the opportunity to connect with as many people as possible 

Please check out our LinkedIn here, our Twitter/X here, and our Facebook here. Be sure to like and follow us to keep up to date with NEMWI!