Transportation and Sustainable Development program
Project Updates: Spring 2007

1. Support for Corps Habitat Initiative
   In December, 2006 the Commission was awarded a contract to help support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Habitat Initiative (CHI). The CHI aims to develop four main products: 1) a funding data base for habitat protection and restoration; 2) an inventory of current and potential habitat restoration and protection projects, 3) a suite of criteria for the Corps to evaluate potential projects; 4) an implementation plan that applies the first three products. The Commission is serving as a subcontractor to Public Sector Consultants of Lansing MI—the principal contractor—in support of item 2 above. The Commission’s role is two-fold: 1) create a data base to house an inventory of habitat restoration and protection projects across the great Lakes region; and 2) conduct a series of outreach meetings to individual states to inform them of the CHI, demonstrate how to enter projects into the data base through a web-based project form and encourage state participation.

   Staff have completed four of eight state workshops as of to date (PA, IL, MI, and MN) and four more are planned to be completed before the end of May, 2007. Through the state workshops, GLC staff is compiling feedback on the CHI in general and the habitat project entry web form. State comments have been incorporated into the web form where feasible. The initial deadline to submit projects for the Corps is June 15, 2007. (An FAQ about the state workshops is attached). Non-technical issues and questions raised at the workshops are being compiled by staff and will be part of the Commission’s final report for this contract. An overriding issue raised by the states at the workshops has been the need for some level of assurance that federal agencies (not just the Corps) will use the data base as part of their funding process for habitat restoration and protection. V. Pebbles is the project manager. See www.glhi.org.

2. Cities Investment in Great Lakes Protection and Restoration
   This one-year project, awarded by the Joyce Foundation in December 2006, aims to characterize local expenditures throughout the Great Lakes basin to protect, enhance and restore the Great Lakes. The Commission is the lead, but is partnering closely with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative (which has a subcontract for this project) to develop a list of eligible restoration and protection activities in consultation with a group of local experts. A survey will be developed and administered to local units of government throughout the Great Lakes basin during summer of 2007. The results of the survey will be analyzed and presented in a final report that documents local investment in Great Lakes protection and restoration. The final report is expected in late 2007. V. Pebbles is the project manager. For more information, see www.glc.org/glinvestment.

3. Joint Project Agreement with NOAA Coastal Services Center (CSC)
   The focus of the Joint Project Agreement since the last update has been to complete a work plan to carry out a suite of activities to address regional needs identified in Great Lakes Regional Needs Assessment. The needs assessment focused on three issue areas: ports/navigation; coastal community development (CCD) and data information integration and distribution (DIID). The three reports are online at www.glc.org/regionalneeds. Key work plan elements include:

   • enhancing the coastal pages on GLIN;
   • establishing mechanisms for enhanced regional coordination among coastal managers and between the coastal management community and the GLC (e.g., focus groups, a list serv, Great Lakes Day);
   • integrating NOAA data and information sources and services with those in the Great Lakes region and delivering such to regional stakeholders by building on related initiatives, such as RDX data exchange and GLOS;
   • planning and conducting a scoping workshop to examine the benefits of coastal infrastructure and potential strategies for a regional response to maintain and protect that infrastructure, and
   • training on a Habitat Priority Planner—a GIS-based tool that was originally developed for Lake St. Clair, but has been updated to apply to any geography (will help support habitat recommendations of the GLRC).
   V. Pebbles is the project manager. The Join Project Agreement with the NOAA Coastal Service Center extends through August, 2009.

4. Sustainable Land Use:
   Great Lakes Smart Growth Briefing Paper and Jurisdiction Profiles
   In preparation for the 2006 Semiannual meeting, staff prepared a draft briefing paper on status and trends in Great Lakes state planning and smart growth. To develop this paper, staff prepared profiles of individual state policies and programs. At the 2006 Semiannual meeting, staff was directed to develop profiles of the Great Lakes provinces. Among the findings are that 27 percent of the Great Lakes Commission membership is from agencies that administer a state land use program. Staff is finalizing this paper as part of a general issue brief to be published shortly. This paper will also be presented by B. Lameka as part of a panel on land use in the Great Lakes at IAGLR 2007. More information is online at www.glc.org/meeting/sgprofiles

   State Land Use Roundtables: The state land use roundtable series engages GLC staff in planning and conducting of land use roundtables in individual states, as endorsed by a Commission resolution in 2001. Each roundtable is crafted to build on past GLC work (multi-stakeholder report and resolution) and recent state initiatives and accomplishments to advance and link urban revitalization and open space protection. Funding has been provided by U.S. EPA to support 6 roundtables; 5 have been completed as of this update:

   • Michigan Roundtable, January, 2003
   • Ohio Balanced Growth Roundtable, January, 2005
   • Wisconsin Waterfront Revitalization Conference, April, 2005
   • Pennsylvania Land Use Roundtable, September, 2005
   • Indiana Coastal Connections 2006 Land Use Policy Roundtable, April 2006
   Planning is underway to hold a New York roundtable on September 18, 2007 in Albany. V. Pebbles is project manager. See www.glc.org/landuse

   Great Lakes Sustainable Land Use Web Site
   Staff continue to maintain Great Lakes Sustainable Land Use–a GLIN “sister” web site that features news articles related to land use from around the region that are updated daily and links to relevant state, federal and regional web sites. www.glc.org/bridges

   Note: See other program area updates for complementary land use projects and activities.

5. SOLEC
   V. Pebbles continues to represent the Commission on the SOLEC Steering Committee. SOLEC 2006 took place November 1-3, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with the theme of “chemical integrity.” Pebbles served on a committee to select success stories and emceed the awards ceremony for that.

6. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Review
   Commission staff spanning multiple program areas has participated on various working groups set up as part of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement review process. Most of that work wrapped up by the end of calendar year 2006. Commission staff continues to monitor progress of the GLWQA review through existing mechanisms (e.g. BEC meetings).

7. Great Lakes Dredging Team
   The Great Lakes Dredging Team (GLDT) will be participating in a review led by the National Dredging Team (NDT) of the National Dredging Policy and the 2003 NDT Action Agenda to reaffirm the adequacy of the national policy and agenda in support in support of the U.S. Marine Transportation System (MTS). The project was initiated by the federal interagency cabinet-level Committee on the Marine Transportation System. The primary activity for the GLDT will be to communicate with regional and local stakeholders, solicit their review and comments, and organize the input into a coordinated regional response by the end of June. Final recommendations at the national level are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.

   GLDT staff is also in final stages of development of an illustrated brochure outlining dredging needs in Great Lakes harbors and navigational channels, the criticality of timely and environmentally responsible dredging in the Lakes to the region’s marine transportation system, and the overall importance of the issue to the North American economy. Other upcoming GLDT activity includes:

   • Reconvening the Windows Advisory Team comprised of experts from multiple disciplines and geographic areas in the Great Lakes to continue work toward a scientifically sound and cost effective process for determining environmental dredging windows in the Lakes, and one that one that would provide maximum value for the states;
   • Hosting a delegation from the Chinese Dredging Association June 6 to share information and education on beneficial use of dredged material, and
   • Continuing exploration of a possible conference or workshop bringing together watershed managers in the Great Lakes basin, dredging practitioners, port interests and other appropriate stakeholders to discuss potential new approaches to regional sediment management.

8. Great Lakes Recreational Boating Economic Benefits Study
   The good news is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, after a lengthy review process, has 1) posted the final draft of the study on its Detroit District website and 2) allowed the Great Lakes Commission to move forward with plans to release study findings. This study documents the regional impact of Great Lakes recreational boating in its entirety, including boater spending patterns and volumes, the contributions to state economies by marinas and charter fishing operators, and the dollars and jobs generated by Great Lakes watercraft manufacturers. A primary motivation for the study was to demonstrate, through documentation of economic benefits, the federal interest in maintaining authorized recreational harbors in the Great Lakes.

   The full draft of the study can be accessed at the Detroit District website www.lre.usace.army.mil, using the following path: Projects and Studies/Planning Studies/John Glenn Great Lakes Basin Program/Recreational Boating. See also within this briefing book an executive report of key findings.

9. Soo Lock Expansion Project
   As of this date, a Limited Reevaluation Report (LRR) revisiting initial benefit-cost ratio calculations for the project has been forwarded to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) John Paul Woodley with a recommendation to proceed with construction despite the fact that the benefit to cost ratio is below equity. The recommendation to proceed was made by USACE staff on the basis of national security and the unacceptable risk of having only one large lock at the Soo. The LRR and is still awaiting Woodley’s action. In Congress, the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 was recently passed in the House with language calling for full federal funding of the project which would add a second lock large enough for 1,000-foot class vessels, which represent a majority of the U.S.-flag carrying capacity on the Great Lakes. TSD staff has been active in advocacy efforts supporting this WRDA provision, specifically advocating for the House language to be included in a Senate WRDA bill. The Commission is also working toward finalization of a Project Cooperation Agreement with the Corps formalizing the Commission=s role as non-federal sponsor of the project.