Communities Want a Healthy River and Lake

Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River provide drinking water to several million people, support multi-billion dollar industries, offer unparalleled recreation and fishing opportunities, generate renewable hydroelectric power, and are home to an impressive array of wildlife. Perhaps most importantly, the river and lake enhance the quality of life for everyone in the region. It is no wonder then, that the residents of New York State support modernizing an outdated management plan that is slowly killing the health of the lake and river.

As a grassroots organization working to protect the environment throughout New York State, Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) has lead a large-scale public outreach campaign on the issue of Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River water level management over the past few years. We conducted direct public outreach in numerous communities along the south shore of Lake Ontario up to the St. Lawrence River.

What did we find when we spoke directly with families across the region about this issue? Whether it was the mother with small children that loves taking trips to the beach on weekends, a recently retired man that spends countless hours on a boat fishing, or the college student that cares passionately about protecting the health of our waters for future generations, we spoke with a broad range of New Yorkers that care passionately about the health of our waters and overwhelming support the adoption of Plan 2014.

Members of the public signed petitions, wrote letters and emails, and made phone calls to key government officials in support of Plan 2014, contributing toward the nearly 23,000 expressions of citizen support that have been generated by CCE and our partners in recent years.

Despite this growing wave of support for Plan 2014, the federal governments of the U.S. and Canada have yet to adopt the plan. U.S. Secretary John Kerry and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion can help restore the health of the lake and river with the simple stroke of a pen. We can’t let up now— they need to know that we can’t wait any longer. We need your help to demand action today!

Please join Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Save The River/Upper St. Lawrence Riverkeeper, American Rivers and countless other Americans and Canadians in asking Secretary John Kerry and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion to protect and restore the St. Lawrence today.

This blog post was originally posted by American Rivers as part of the America’s Most Endangered Rivers® series spotlighting the St. Lawrence River.

New York Should Invest in its Ocean and Great Lakes

New York State is currently in the middle of its budget negotiations (read: battle) and Governor Cuomo has put forth his proposal. He has thirty days to make amendments and then the Senate and Assembly will put forth their versions.  After the requisite back-and-forth, a final budget will be approved by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.  The budget is supposed to be finished by April 1st.

As you probably know, CCE advocates for the New York State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) every year.  The EPF is an important piece of the New York State budget, but specifically, I would like to talk about the Ocean and Great Lakes line of the EPF.  In 2005, the Ocean and Great Lakes line was added to the EPF and it is used by eight state agencies to advance important conservation and restoration projects along New York's beautiful coasts.  Unfortunately, the Ocean and Great Lakes line has been stuck at $5 million dollars and there is so much work to be done.  Now is the time to up that investment.  Recently the New York State DEC released the draft Ocean Action Plan, a blueprint for protecting our ocean and estuaries.  Additionally, implementation of the DEC's interim Great Lakes Action Agenda is underway and it identifies the most pressing problems facing the lakes, and provides specific goals and activities to address these problems.  With these plans in place it is time to use them and really invest in our ocean and Great Lakes economies.

In 2010, ocean sector industries like fishing and tourism contributed more than $21.7 billion to New York’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and supported nearly 300,000 jobs.  The largest ocean economy sector is tourism and recreation: in 2010, tourism and recreation contributed more than $16.5 billion to the state GDP and supported nearly 254,000 jobs.  The Great Lakes also contribute significantly to the state’s economic well-being, supporting a sport fishery valued at more than $2.27 billion that generates nearly 12,000 jobs. In addition, Lakes Erie, Ontario and the St. Lawrence River provide the foundation for a multi‐million dollar tourism industry in the New York Seaway Trail region, serve as a key water resource for hydropower generation and manufacturing industries, and allow for recreational boating opportunities that contribute over $600 million a year to New York’s economy.

In order to implement important goals laid out in both of the Ocean Action plan and the Great Lakes Action Agenda,  additional funding is needed in the Ocean and Great Lakes program.  It's time for the Ocean and Great Lakes program to funded at $10 million and for the state to take these resources, and their contributions to the state economy, seriously.

So please take a minute and contact your Senator and Assemblymember.  Ask them to increase funding for the ocean and Great Lakes.