Great Lakes region must stand together

Troubling rumors continue to swirl that the Trump administration will shutter the Environmental Protection Agency’s large regional office serving the Great Lakes region ...

The good news is that Robert Kaplan, the acting regional director in Region 5’s Chicago headquarters, sent an email to employees saying the closure rumors published in the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers were “not true” and “pure speculation.” The Region 5 office covers Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

What isn’t a rumor, however, is that President Donald Trump wants to slash EPA funding by nearly a third — and those cuts will come from somewhere.

The president already has proposed zeroing out the $300 million annual Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding, slicing $50 million from this year’s restoration budget, and closing the venerable Sea Grant research program that helps guard against threats to Great Lakes drinking water and fisheries. He’s also imposed an indefinite delay on defensive measures to keep voracious Asian carp out of the Great Lakes water system, upending a multimillion-dollar fishery industry.

It also would punish a region of Trump voters. The five Great Lakes states — including Ohio — that delivered their electoral votes to Trump effectively won him the presidency. Is this their reward?

Candidate Trump promised to slash the EPA to “tidbits.” He didn’t mention the consequences. For the Great Lakes region, they could be severe.

... The entire Ohio delegation and all Great Lakes lawmakers from every Great Lakes state must stand together against these shortsighted and ill-considered cuts.

Read the full editorial from the Cleveland Plain Dealer at bit.ly/2oFeG86