Buffalo News: "Great Lakes cleanup key to economic growth, study says"

Great Lakes cleanup key to economic growth, study says
Would boost property values, benefit downtown areas
By Jerry Zremski NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
Updated: 09/06/07 8:15 AM



WASHINGTON — The key to reviving the Great Lakes economy is reviving the lakes themselves, a group of researchers said Wednesday in a report that said a proposed $26 billion lakes cleanup would spur $50 billion in economic growth.

Communities such as Buffalo and Niagara Falls, whose waterways are currently underutilized because of pollution, could especially benefit from the proposed cleanup, which is languishing in Congress, the researchers said.

“The big payoff would go to communities that have ‘areas of concern,’ ” or toxic hot spots such as the Buffalo and Niagara rivers, said John Austin, non-resident senior fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, which prepared the study.

The report said local communities would see dramatically higher real estate prices near their waterways and dramatically lower water treatment costs. Meanwhile, recreation and tourism along the lakes would flourish once beaches became cleaner and less susceptible to temporary closures.

Downtowns that are close to the waterfront would benefit as well.

“If you think of the downtowns that border the lakes, there’s a lot of money there,” said Robert Litan, vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, another of the study’s authors.

The report examined the economic impact of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy, a proposed $26 billion program that would spend $13.7 billion improving wastewater treatment facilities that would eliminate the discharge of untreated waste into the waterways by 2020.

The proposal also would include the cleanup of the 43 areas of concern, which typically are overrun with toxic sediments to the point where they harm aquatic life and limit recreational activity.

Spending a total of $26 billion on the collaboration strategy would raise coastal property values by $12 billion to $19 billion, simply because Great Lakes basin waterfront areas would be more pleasant places to work and play.

“Remediation of contaminated sediment may also allow nearby residents and visitors to use these areas for recreational purposes without fear of adverse health effects,” the study said.

Cleaner water at the regions alone could spur at least $2.5 billion in long-term economic benefit, the study said.

In addition, the proposed program would save municipalities up to $125 million in drinking water purification costs and would produce “unquantifiable but significant economic activity by making the region more attractive to business and workers,” the report said.

The massive Great Lakes cleanup plan, which has the support of New York’s senators and House members of both parties, would begin under legislation that has been introduced by Michigan lawmakers in both houses of Congress.

However, neither of those bills has moved forward at all, due largely to a lack of interest among lawmakers from other regions of the country.

The bill’s supporters hope the study could change all of that.

“The benefits exceed the costs,” said Gary Becker, the mayor of Racine, Wis., who participated in a conference call that examined the report. “The program should move forward.”

Distributed without profit to ESA Great Lakes District members for environmental and educational purposes.