The initial response to the administration's "Great Lakes Strategy 2002 - A Plan for the New Millennium" is good. But environmentalists first want to see the details and then the check needed to pay for any changes.
State officials also are approaching the plan with some caution.
The plan was outlined Tuesday by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Christy Todd Whitman during a stop in Muskegon, Mich.
She talked mainly about the Great Lakes, but also discussed such topics as emissions from coal-powered utility plants like the one in Eastlake.
The Great Lakes plan calls for accomplishing several goals. Among them are:
n Reducing concentrations of PCBs - known to cause cancer - in Great Lakes lake trout and walleye by 25 percent by 2007.
n Reducing the infusion of any other aquatic or land-based invasive species by a substantial amount by 2010.
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n Speed up sediment remediation so all contaminated sites would be cleaned up by 2025.
However, the Bush administration did not recommend any additional funding to accomplish these goals.
That is a sticking point for Northeast Ohio environmentalists like Dennis Plank of Lakewood, who is an executive committee member of the Sierra Club's Northeast Ohio chapter.
"It sounds like it is a step in the right direction, but the bad news appears to be that there isn't any additional financial resources being made available," Plank said.
"That seems to indicate that it isn't a very high priority with this administration. Maybe the administration plans to spend the money elsewhere, like the military."
State natural resources officials also are hopeful.
But some, like Sam Speck, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, want to review the plan's fine print.
"While we continue to study the details of the plan released (Tuesday), we certainly agree with its vision and we welcome the efforts of federal agencies to coordinate their work to improve the Great Lakes," Speck said
Speck said the plan's chief targets appear to align themselves with goals set forth by the Great Lakes governors as well as the Great Lakes Commission.
"In particular, its priorities should complement our work here in Ohio as we implement Gov. Taft's Lake Erie Protection and Restoration Plan," Speck said.
Plank said the plan is doomed to fail from the start unless Native Americans are specifically brought into the loop on the administration's call for action.
"Native Americans are on the front lines in the battle to protect the environment. They need to be involved in any plan," Plank said.
Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, R-Madison Village, said he is aware of the Bush Great Lakes plan and believes it is not window dressing.
"I believe that the president and administrator Whitman have outlined a bold plan in addressing problems facing the Great Lakes," LaTourette said.
LaTourette said since Sept. 11 the government is experiencing financial restraints, but with an improving economy the plan does signal the direction the Bush administration intends to go.
"They didn't say all of this work would be accomplished tomorrow. In order to start, you have to have a plan and I commend them for developing one," LaTourette said.
Whitman also addressed a Bush administration plan that would establish mandatory emissions reductions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury being generated by coal-fired power plants.
Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative - released in February - would permit utilities to sell or trade pollution credits.
This plan falls short of environmentalists' wishes, although the Bush administration argues just the opposite.
"We support a multi-pollutant reduction plan that provides flexibility, stability and certainty over the long-term," said Joe Mosbrook, spokesman for FirstEnergy, which owns coal-fired power plants in Eastlake and Ashtabula.
"Although the administration's plan is still without details, it does seem to provide for those objectives, but it's still early and there are a lot of other proposals out there," Mosbrook said.
