[Green] Fwd: Fw: [EXTERNAL] DUE JULY 30: Sign Infrastructure Support Letter to Legislators

Tue Jul 27 19:38:47 CDT 2021

You have my approval, Vic.   Jim Grecni

From: Green <green-bounces at fuusm.org> On Behalf Of Vic Elam via Green
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2021 4:01 PM
To: Green Sanctuary List for Environment Issues <green at fuusm.org>
Cc: Vic Elam <elamva4 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Green] Fwd: Fw: [EXTERNAL] DUE JULY 30: Sign Infrastructure Support Letter to Legislators

I would appreciate approval from Green Sanctuary for me to sign on behalf in support of this effort, or for someone else to sign doesn't matter to me.

Thanks,

Vic

When the Earth, its products, its creatures become his concern, man is caught up in a cause greater than his own life and more meaningful. Only when man loses himself in an endeavor of that magnitude does he walk and live with humility and reverence.   - William O. Douglas

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Elam, Victor <victor_elam at fws.gov <mailto:victor_elam at fws.gov> >
Date: Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 3:57 PM
Subject: Fw: [EXTERNAL] DUE JULY 30: Sign Infrastructure Support Letter to Legislators
To: Vic Elam <elamva4 at gmail.com <mailto:elamva4 at gmail.com> >

Victor Elam (he, him) 

Refuge Manager

Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge

3982 Waverly Road

Williamstown, WV 26187

victor_elam at fws.gov <mailto:victor_elam at fws.gov> 

304-375-2923 X125

Cell: (620) 203-8514

I work and live in the traditional homelands of the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Delaware, Peoria, Seneca, Wyandotte, Ojibwe, Cherokee, and Miami peoples.

"When the Earth, its products, its creatures become his concern, man is caught up in a cause greater than his own life and more meaningful.  Only when man loses himself in an endeavor of that magnitude does he walk and live with humility and reverence."    -William O. Douglas-

  _____  

From: Harry <hstone at orsanco.org <mailto:hstone at orsanco.org> >
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2021 2:15 PM
To: Elam, Victor <victor_elam at fws.gov <mailto:victor_elam at fws.gov> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL] DUE JULY 30: Sign Infrastructure Support Letter to Legislators 

 This email has been received from outside of DOI - Use caution before clicking on links, opening attachments, or responding.  

The Infrastructure Bill is coming together, but we must tell legislators to ensure the Ohio River Basin is included in ecological restoration FUNDING 

Organizational Support for Ecological Restoration for the Ohio River Basin

As the infrastructure bill is coming together, there is much being included that is supportive of the Plan of the Ohio River Basin. Environmental remediation and resilience references the Great Lakes and Everglades - but we need to let our legislators know that the Ohio River Basin also has significant challenges. We are asking our legislators to ensure that funding for remediation and resilience includes robust funding for the Ohio River Basin. 

Your organization is invited to sign on to a letter of support for such funding (see letter below). If you have authority to give approval for such endorsement, please click  <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fohioriverbasinalliance.us18.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Def05f9dcf42394c9fba087edf%26id%3Dbb37c31f72%26e%3D464ec2f091&data=04%7C01%7Cvictor_elam%40fws.gov%7C01c84c9714b64d8b12fd08d9512aabe7%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637630065976587074%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=0AeV4iCW%2BwxiEO%2B%2B%2BvHsGP1pZXePT8jMpWUH6lLDYPg%3D&reserved=0> HERE to be a signatory. Because this appears to be coming together quickly in Congress - please act immediately! 

RESPONSES ARE DUE FRIDAY, JULY 30!
(By the end of the business day)

The Letter to Congress:

Dear [House and Senate Congressional Leadership]

We, the undersigned organizations, urge Congress to include investments in Ohio River restoration in an infrastructure package. Investments in the Ohio River ecosystem will help protect the drinking water for millions of people, reduce flooding to vulnerable communities, improve public health, and put local people to work now while setting the stage for long-term economic prosperity in local towns and cities. 

The Ohio River Basin holds great cultural, environmental, and economic importance to the nation and the 14-state region that includes Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

The Ohio River and its Cumberland River and Tennessee River tributaries provide drinking water to more than 12 million people, and over 25 million people in the region depend on the area’s water resources for their health, jobs, recreation, and quality of life. In addition, the Ohio River Basin drives 35 percent of the nation’s waterborne commerce and supports an estimated $43 billion in commodities transport. The region’s extraordinarily biodiversity serves as the foundation for a vibrant outdoor recreation economy that includes fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing, hiking, camping, paddling, swimming, and other activities. 

Since 1948, ORSANCO and its member states have cooperated to improve water quality in the Ohio River Basin. Other Basin states independently joined the effort to protect major tributaries like the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. Unfortunately, the Ohio River, and many of its tributaries and surrounding waters still face serious environmental threats that require increased funding to continue progress. Pollution and environmental harm from legacy mining waste, cancer-causing emerging contaminants, habitat destruction, sewage contamination, nutrient pollution feeding harmful algal blooms, and invasive species have led to source water threats, fish consumption advisories, and restrictions on recreation. Many of the most vulnerable people – low-income people, people of color, and Indigenous people – face disproportionate impacts.

The good news is that people in the region are coming together to address these serious threats. In the fall of 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a collaborative regional plan to address economic challenges and environmental threats to the region. The “Plan of the Ohio River Basin 2020-2025” provides a roadmap towards ecosystem restoration, economic recovery, and community revitalization. Among its recommendations are investments to upgrade traditional infrastructure, including locks and dams and drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater facilities, as well as funding to restore and protect the natural landscape so that it can help provide clean drinking water, reduce flooding, and support a strong outdoor recreational economy. The strategy calls for the crafting of a restoration and protection plan for the Ohio River Basin, which is currently being undertaken by the Ohio River Basin Alliance, a multi-stakeholder group of state and federal agencies, colleges and universities, non-governmental organizations, businesses, and industry. A final Ohio River Basin restoration plan is set to be released in the summer of 2022.

The restoration plan will provide a comprehensive assessment of work needed to restore and protect the Ohio River Basin and will lay the foundation for strategic federal investments to address the serious environmental threats to the Ohio River, similar to those provided to other iconic U.S. aquatic habitats like the Chesapeake Bay, Florida Everglades, Great Lakes, and Gulf of Mexico. These federal investments put local people to work, make drinking water safer, increase community resilience, improve public health, make fish and wildlife more abundant, and make recreational opportunities more accessible. These targeted investments also create new jobs and business opportunities, expand waterfront development, increase home values, and grow hometown pride. We believe that a similar state and federal partnership in the Ohio River Basin will lead to similar positive outcomes for the environment and economy.

Congress should jumpstart this effort by providing support for restoration and protection of the Ohio River in any forthcoming infrastructure or economic recovery bill. Investments to restore and protect the Ohio River Basin ecosystem go hand-in-hand with investments to restore traditional drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Restoring wetlands, forests, and habitat allows the natural landscape to absorb, filter, and reduce storm water and flooding. These actions lessen the burden on traditional water infrastructure, improve water quality, and reduce the risk of property damage and impacts to community health. Indeed, many water utilities are already investing in so-called nature-based infrastructure to help meet clean water goals. These investments in ecosystem resiliency also save money by reducing water treatment costs, regulating the timing of water flows, and reducing wear and tear on existing infrastructure. Investments to restore the Ohio River Basin ecosystem will complement efforts to tackle the $269 billion need over 20 years to repair and upgrade traditional drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in the 14-state region. 

Local, state and federal partners have been collaborating on successful restoration projects in the Ohio River Basin for years through programs like the Ohio River Basin Fish Habitat Partnership Program to remove old unsafe dams, restore shoreline habitat, reduce farm runoff, and confront other threats like acid mine drainage. Federal investments from this program and others are producing results in local communities, but serious threats remain. Unfortunately, current funding levels are not sufficient to confront the enormity of the threats at hand. Increasing federal investments now to bolster Ohio River restoration efforts will help the region address long-standing environmental challenges, as well as emerging threats such as toxic PFAS chemicals, new forms of plastic pollution, and emerging contaminants. Federal investments will also help communities become more resilient to a warming climate that is exacerbating runoff pollution, sewage contamination, and flooding. It is paramount that these issues be tackled with urgency. Delay in addressing these serious threats will only make the problems worse and more expensive to solve. 

To that end, we stand ready and willing to work with Congress to restore and protect this iconic resource and to make Ohio River Basin restoration and protection a national priority. We have common-sense solutions to protect the drinking water, public health, jobs, and quality of life for the more than 25 million people in the Ohio River region. We encourage you to include robust funding for Ohio River Basin restoration and protection in any federal infrastructure package.

Sincerely,

SIGNATORIES

If your organization would like to be a signatory on this letter to Congress,  <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fohioriverbasinalliance.us18.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Def05f9dcf42394c9fba087edf%26id%3D11a2b3b9cb%26e%3D464ec2f091&data=04%7C01%7Cvictor_elam%40fws.gov%7C01c84c9714b64d8b12fd08d9512aabe7%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637630065976587074%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=WZN0ta8hDSUz0QVJXNC%2FACZr%2Fe2PVMm%2FBzcvhktrPvM%3D&reserved=0> please complete this Google Form by COB Friday, July 30 and ORBA will add you to the list of signatories.

Your organization can help make a tremendous difference in our ecosystem and economy. Thank you. 

Our mailing address is:
Ohio River Basin Alliance
5735 Kellogg Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45230-7112
 <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fohioriverbasinalliance.us18.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3Def05f9dcf42394c9fba087edf%26id%3D8398835f0e%26e%3D464ec2f091&data=04%7C01%7Cvictor_elam%40fws.gov%7C01c84c9714b64d8b12fd08d9512aabe7%7C0693b5ba4b184d7b9341f32f400a5494%7C0%7C0%7C637630065976597031%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=OrcITFexi1VJ1Q37Vlr3C8NO5gRxKIRzEIKAqsU3hAU%3D&reserved=0> Add us to your address book

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Ohio River Basin Alliance · 5735 Kellogg Ave · Cincinnati, OH 45230-7112 · USA 

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