Great Lakes threats demand regional approach, leaders say

State and local environmental leaders this week said they must push a regional approach as the best way to tackle issues threatening the Great Lakes.

U.S. Congressman Brad Schneider (D-10th) assembled a meeting in Highland Park on Thursday, April 17, to discuss efforts to protect the Great Lakes from a range of threats, including invasive species, climate change and nearby oil and gas drilling.

A coordinated Great Lakes effort could create a major national force, if coastal states agree to band together, officials said.

In the hour-long discussion, Schneider brought together Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, Waukegan Mayor Wayne Motley, Midwest Director of Natural Resources Defense Council Henry Henderson, Director of the Illinois Sierra Club Chapter Jack Darin, Alliance for the Great Lakes President Joel Brammeier and Todd Main of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Great Lakes Commission.

The afternoon meeting ended in a rousing call-to-action by Motley, who has worked to clean up Waukegan’s harbor. He urged the others around the table to collaborate locally as a start to shepherding a regional Great Lakes effort.

“That lake and those lakes are vital to everyone’s well-being, not just for me and my children but for their grandchildren and generations to come,” he said. “If we don’t set the table today, it’s going to be too late.”

Motley and Rotering flanked Schneider in an upstairs board room at Highland Park City Hall.

During the session, Main pointed to “an under-utilized” maritime system that exists on the Great Lakes and the proximity of rail networks that could provide a more environmentally-friendly transportation option to the region, if the system he said dates back to the 19th Century is modernized.

“We need to put time and thought into what we want to do,” Main said.

The leaders discussed approaching the issues affecting Lake Michigan as a broader Great Lakes concern — viewing the lakes as a single ecosystem.

While invasive species, oil spills and other issues may differ in each of the eight states that border individual Great Lakes, “when that problem leaves one community, it becomes a problem for others,” Brammeier said.

Darin pointed to a greater voice a group approach could bring to the Great Lakes as a whole. He also floated the idea that the 10th district could become a national “laboratory” for such a regional approach.

“We have the opportunity to leverage some pretty substantial investments” as a group, he said.

The others agreed and offered their insights.

“We’re all dealing with diminishing resources,” Rotering said. “We’re collaborating and bringing in partnerships already. We certainly can apply that to this situation.”

Wrapping up the discussion, Schneider said: “We need to emphasize the issues of the Great Lakes and the importance of the Great Lakes and bring to that a sense of urgency.”