By JOHN FLESHER

AP Environmental Writer

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A comprehensive plan to tackle the Great Lakes’ most pressing environmental problems — from invasive species to sewage overflows — is on track despite complaints about inadequate federal funding, an Environmental Protection Agency official said.

A $20 billion ecosystem restoration blueprint crafted by a public-private coalition is boosting the Great Lakes’ national profile and has favorable long-term prospects, said Gary Gulezian, director of the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office.

“In the 30 years I’ve been working for the EPA, I’ve never seen as much national attention paid to the Great Lakes as in the past couple of years,” Gulezian said in an interview with The Associated Press while attending a conference this week on protecting the region’s coastal sand dunes.

Recent congressional approval of legislation authorizing $80 million over five years to restore fish and wildlife habitat addresses a primary goal of the restoration initiative, Gulezian said. The total is twice as much as previously authorized.

The money won’t actually be spent unless included in separate appropriations bills. But Congress probably wouldn’t have endorsed such a boost in Great Lakes funding without the plan, known as the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, Gulezian said.

“I think it’s paying off,” he said, adding that President Bush’s last two budgets had sought a combined $100 million to clean up contaminated Great Lakes sediments. “That’s a lot of money to request. I don’t think that would have happened if we didn’t have this collaboration.”

The plan’s support from a wide range of interest groups is important because Congress wants the region to “speak with one voice” when seeking money, Gulezian said.

Bush appointed a Cabinet-level task force in 2004 to coordinate Great Lakes cleanup efforts. The task force oversaw the collaboration, which involved officials from federal, local and state governments as well as American Indian tribes, academics, and activists.

The group released its strategy in 2005. It outlined a series of threats to the lakes’ ecological health and proposed remedies and funding.

Among the proposals: tighter controls on oceangoing ships believed to ferry exotic species into the lakes; habitat restoration; improved drinking and waste water systems; quicker cleanup of heavily polluted sites; reducing toxic discharges and runoff.

While Bush championed Great Lakes cleanup during campaign visits to the region in 2004, critics accused him of backtracking after the election. His 2007 budget proposal called for a 9 percent reduction in lakes funding, including cutbacks in 14 of 22 programs tied to the restoration initiative.

Gulezian said the criticism was unfair.

“I see continuing support from the administration and from Washington for this effort,” he said. “It takes a while for the political system to digest a number like $20 billion, especially when there are many competing priorities in this country.

“We’re dealing with the hurricanes, we’re in a war, we have budget deficits. It’s difficult for anything to move forward but this is really being kept alive; it isn’t being swept under the rug.”

Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office, agreed House and Senate approval of the fish and wildlife habitat money was reason for optimism.

Another hopeful sign: Some powerful members of appropriations committees have joined the entire Michigan delegation in endorsing the $20 billion plan.

“It doesn’t get the job done, but it’s a step toward getting it done,” Buchsbaum said. “This is going to be a constant battle and the more money we try to obtain for the Great Lakes, the steeper the hill we have to climb.”

Gulezian heads a team of officials from nine federal agencies working to make sure the restoration plan is implemented.

But even if the entire plan were put into place, the task of restoring and protecting the Great Lakes wouldn’t be over, he said.

“It’s a never-ending job,” Gulezian said. “There are always new problems, and problems that we thought were solved are re-emerging. These are dynamic systems and they respond to lots of different things.

“It’s going to take continued vigilance and investment, and that’s the attitude to adopt, instead of ’just get the $20 billion and the Great Lakes will be fixed forever.”’

Posted 10/5/2006