By David A. Wise
WisBusiness.com
A coalition of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River mayors has announced an initiative to highlight and advance environmentally sustainable practices by municipalities in the region.
The initiative, dubbed Green Cities Transforming Towards Sustainability, focuses on protecting water resources and coastal areas, encouraging low-carbon energy, adopting green land use and building design, and advancing green economic development.
During a press conference at the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative Conference in Milwaukee, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, flanked by more than 30 mayors from the region, said the municipalities will all focus on one area each year. This year, Daley said, municipalities will focus on addressing storm-water runoff entering the Great Lakes.
He said activities of the initiative, funded with initial support from the Joyce Foundation, will include ensuring best practices, offering training, entering into research partnerships, raising funds for projects, providing recognition awards and reporting annual progress.
“As mayors we are stepping up the the challenge of protecting the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence,” Daley said.
At the conference, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett highlighted work the city has already done to address storm water runoff. That includes building the deep tunnel system, which he said has reduced sewer overflows from an average of 60 per year to two, installing green roofs on the downtown library and municipal buildings, and creating a natural drainage basin on the Menomonee River on the city’s west side.
“Milwaukee takes the protection of the Great Lakes and our water resources very seriously,” Barrett said.
The organization’s executive director, David Ullrich, said other projects municipalities have engaged in include expanding the use of rain barrels, restoring shore lands, and creating buffer zones along rivers to help deal with runoff.
Ullrich said the Joyce Foundation has donated $100,000 to seed the initiative, which he said the group hopes to leverage into about $400,000 to $500,000 to assist projects.
DNR Secretary Matt Frank, delivered the luncheon keynote at Thursday’s conference, highlighting the success of the Great Lakes Compact and state and federal efforts to restore the Great Lakes and protect water resources.
He also discussed challenges the Great Lakes faces in dealing with the spread of invasive species, non-point source pollution, and in understanding and dealing with the possible effects of climate change on the region.
He highlighted a federal commitment to finish a second of barrier to stop Asian carp from moving into the Great Lakes from the Chicago Sewer and Sanitary Canal in addition to a commitment to build a barrier on the Des Plaines River to prevent the spread in the event of flooding.
Frank encouraged the federal government to advance rules to establish tough standards for ballast water treatment of cargo ships to prevent the spread of other species.
He pointed to the oil spill in the gulf, calling it “frustrating” and “sobering” and called for greater energy conservation and a move toward renewable and alternative energy sources.
