Huizenga helps pass bill to update Great Lakes environmental maps

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) on Dec. 3 led fellow members in the U.S. House of Representatives to unanimously pass bipartisan legislation to update the environmental sensitivity index maps for the Great Lakes region.

“In the midst of a divided Washington, it’s important that Congress comes together to prioritize the protection of the Great Lakes,” said Rep. Huizenga, co-chairman of the Great Lakes Task Force, adding that accurate assessments of coastal resources at risk of severe damage from an emergency or a natural disaster are critical for local communities.

The maps include information on endangered and threatened species, vulnerable shorelines, and widely used community resources, such as beaches, parks and boat ramps, and also are vital to disaster planning, recovery, research, and restoration efforts, the congressman said in support of the House-approved Great Lakes Environmental Sensitivity Index Act of 2020, S. 1342.

Introduced in May 2019 by U.S. Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Todd Young (R-IN) in the Senate, the bill would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to update at least once every seven years its environmental sensitivity index products for each coastal area of the Great Lakes, according to the congressional record bill summary. The Senate previously approved the bill on Nov. 16.

The identical House version, H.R 2551, also was introduced in May 2019 by U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), who sponsored the bill, along with Huizenga, U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), and others. 

“While the Great Lakes hold over 20 percent of the world’s freshwater, provide drinking water to more than 48 million people, support over 1.3 million jobs, and generate billions upon billions of dollars in economic activity, the environmental maps for the Great Lakes region have not been updated in more than 20 years,” Rep. Huizenga said prior to the House vote. “This bipartisan legislation would provide a critical update so we can better protect public infrastructure from erosion, properly plan in case of an emergency, and more effectively restore habitat for endangered species.”

Rep. Huizenga also noted that the current state of erosion and high-water damage along Lake Michigan and throughout the Great Lakes shoreline is at a crisis point as communities throughout the region have declared state of emergencies due to high-water dangers posed to roads, bridges, harbors, and wastewater treatment facilities, among other structures.

“As we continue to see disasters and emergencies in the Great Lakes region, government at all levels must be prepared and have up-to-date information to act upon,” he said.