A welcome, bipartisan push for Great Lakes cleanup

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Of the eight states with Great Lakes shoreline, President-elect Donald Trump carried five in 2024 while Vice President Kamala Harris won three. That political split is a surprising reason to be optimistic that the U.S. Congress will act before the year’s end to reauthorize a critical program with a vital mission: cleaning up decades of industrial pollution around these inland seas.

There’s long been broad support for the program, known as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Now, with it set to expire in 2026, a bipartisan coalition of Great Lakes politicians is commendably flexing its political muscle to reauthorize the GLRI this year, which would extend it through 2031. The urgency is appropriate. Passing the bill now demonstrates commitment to the ongoing cleanup work. It also prevents the need to reintroduce the bill next session, when lawmakers face a crowded agenda and a new government efficiency committee could put programs like it at risk.

Having bipartisan backers should help GLRI clear a divided Congress. Great Lakes politicians’ advocacy powered the $475 million reauthorization bill through the U.S. Senate Wednesday night and hopefully will lead to its U.S. House passage in the typically chaotic weeks before the year’s end. The conscientious GLRI coalition includes four Minnesotans: Rep. Pete Stauber, a Republican, Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat, and the state’s two Democratic senators: Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith.

Toxic waste, damaged habitat and waters that aren’t safe for swimming or fishing along the Great Lakes’ U.S. and Canadian shorelines are the regrettable legacy of the less enlightened era before modern clean water regulations. In the 1980s, 43 of the most degraded areas around the Great Lakes were designated “Areas of Concern. One of them: northern Minnesota’s St. Louis River estuary.

Unfortunately, insufficient remediation progress followed that designation. But the GLRI, launched in 2010, ambitiously aimed to end almost a quarter century of inaction.

Since then, the GLRI has provided “over $3.7 billion to 16 federal organizations to strategically target the biggest threats to the Great Lakes ecosystem, including invasive species, harmful algal blooms, and loss of fish and wildlife,” according to a Nov. 12 letter from four U.S. House representatives urging colleagues to swiftly reauthorize the GLRI.

The missive makes a strong argument by noting the historic progress made since 2010. Five areas of concern have been delisted and over “6,700 river miles have been cleared of dams and other barriers, resulting in expanded wildlife habitat and increased biodiversity. Additionally, nearly 479,000 acres of habitat, including 65,000 acres of coastal wetlands, have been restored to improve ecosystem resilience,” wrote Reps. David Joyce, R-Ohio, Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich.

Joyce is the House bill’s lead author. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is the Senate’s lead. The four Minnesotans are cosponsors, which reflects well on them and the state. Vice President-elect JD Vance is also a cosponsor.

Minnesotans can see for themselves that the GLRI has worked. The St. Louis River in the Duluth area has long been considered among the most challenging areas of concern to remedy. Reasons include its vast size and that it straddles two states. But last summer, a public celebration marked the opening of a new waterfront recreation area on a site, once home to a U.S. Steel operation, that had been closed to the public for decades. Thanks to the $165 million cleanup effort, Duluth residents and visitors can now enjoy “acres of rolling green space with a new, walkable peninsula, a 2-mile extension of the Waabizheshikana Trail and safe habitat for both aquatic life and woodland creatures,” the Star Tribune reported.

The St. Louis River estuary is still listed as an area of concern, but delisting could potentially take place early next decade. That goal, as well as continuing the work on other areas of concern across the Great Lakes, hinges on the steady funding stream provided by reauthorization.

Finishing this work is a “moral imperative,” said Nelson French, a retired state employee who put together a visionary “business plan” about a decade ago to tackle St. Louis River pollution.

This in an investment in future generations’ health and well-being. The Great Lakes system holds “one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water supply and nine-tenths of the U.S. supply,” according the Great Lakes Commission, providing drinking water for more than 40 million in the U.S. and Canada. “The lakes directly generate more than 1.5 million jobs and $60 billion in wages annually,” with recreation generating “more than $52 billion annually for the region.”

This week, Klobuchar said the Great Lakes are “integral to our way of life” and added that “we are working on bipartisan basis to get the bill through both houses as part of a year-end package or through the House.”

Stauber’s support is critical with Republicans controlling the U.S. House. “Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes are national treasures, a key pillar of our economy, and the backdrop of countless special memories for my family and many others,” he said in a statement Thursday. “Protecting the Great Lakes has always been a top priority of mine and I am proud to advocate for this bipartisan bill that will support ecosystem restoration, combat the spread of invasive species, and keep our waters clean. I’m glad it passed the Senate, and I hope the House can do the same soon.”

Stauber sent a strong letter on Friday urging key House committee members to move the GLRI bill. His office said it’s still unclear when the House could vote. The northeast Minnesota congressman was just elected to his fourth term and is increasingly influential in Washington, D.C. Expediting the GLRI bill’s passage through his chamber is a fine place to wield that clout.