EPA hiring jobless workers for Great Lakes cleanup

Associated Press
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it will spend $6 million to hire unemployed people who can work on Great Lakes cleanup projects.

Congress has appropriated $775 million over the past two years for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a wide-ranging plan to improve the region's environmental health.

Among the priorities are cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, improving wildlife habitat and protecting watersheds from contaminated runoff.

In recent weeks, EPA has been announcing grants for projects around the region from the $300 million allocated for the 2011 fiscal year. The final $6 million from that pot of money will go to the unemployment initiative, said Susan Hedman, EPA's regional administrator in Chicago.

Supporters of the Great Lakes initiative have said repeatedly it would stimulate the region's economy and create jobs. The newly announced program is unique because it specifically targets jobless workers, said Phillippa Cannon, spokeswoman for the agency's Chicago office.

Hedman said the initiative is similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Depression-era program that put the unemployed to work.

EPA will choose projects by the end of September. To qualify, they must provide immediate, direct ecological benefits and be located in areas identified as federal priorities, such as national lakeshores or areas of concern. They also must include a detailed budget and produce measurable results.

—Copyright 2011 Associated Press

Photo info: Late August 2010 provided a rare satellite view of a cloudless summer day over the entire Great Lakes region. The image was gathered by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite at 1:30 p.m. Central Daylight Time (18:30 UTC) on August 28. Open water appears blue or nearly black. The pale blue and green swirls near the coasts was likely caused by algae or phytoplankton blooms, or by calcium carbonate (chalk) from the lake floor. Last summer's sweltering temperatures produced an unprecedented bloom of toxic blue-green algae in western Lake Erie, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Date 28 August 2010(2010-08-28)

Source http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45615

This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA.