Valley View vs. Greenville
Cars and Parts Springfield Swap Meet
Carroll Commencement
Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > June > 25
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Editorial: Great Lakes need Ohio to honor pact
It’s almost never good to have politicians mediating scientific debates. But, of course, it happens all the time — on matters from abortion to air pollution.
After heated debate this week, the Ohio House of Representatives passed legislation designed to implement the Great Lakes Compact. That agreement requires the eight Great Lakes states to adopt rules protecting the water and the lake ecosystems by 2014.
Next week the Ohio Senate is expected to pass similar legislation.
The vote in the House was 60-37, with one Democrat joining all the Republicans in support. Science — which is at the heart the controversy — shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
Former Republican Gov. Bob Taft, who helped negotiate the compact and is now at the University of Dayton, appeared before the legislature for the first time since he left office in 2007. He said the legislation is flawed because it would not require a review of the cumulative impacts of water being withdrawn from Lake Erie, or of withdrawals that could impact the chemical or biological integrity of the lakes.
The pact Ohio signed — with seven other states, Ontario and Quebec — requires that.
The National Wildlife Federation, another critic of the legislation, said that other states have imposed stricter regulations on water withdrawals than Ohio is considering. In addition, businesses could design their own water-conservation measures, though, under the compact, state government is supposed to be involved.
Specifically, the bill would require businesses to get a permit only if they tap more than 5 million gallons of water a day from Lake Erie, 2 million from rivers or groundwater supplies, or 300,000 a day from rivers deemed “high quality.” Right now, permits are not required.
Ohio draws 3.5 billion gallons a year from Lake Erie, mostly for power plants, industry and drinking water. Managing how that occurs is important because Lake Erie is the shallowest and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes. If too much water is withdrawn too fast or at the wrong time, water quality and aquatic life can be damaged quickly.
Sponsors of the legislation say they want to make the lake area attractive to businesses. With cheap, clean, fresh water increasingly hard to come by, Ohio is touting its water resources.
The history behind the compact is telling. Negotiations began after, in the late 1990s, a Canadian company tried to ship Lake Superior water to Asia. The firm wanted to take a public resource and treat it as its own — with government approval.
The public outcry was as much about how easily the permit was awarded as it was about the principle at stake. Among compelling points Gov. Taft made is that there is time to make sure the rules are right. Ohio has two-plus years to write its regulations. Adopting them quickly — and dismissing people who are steeped in the science of the matter — makes no sense.
This issue isn’t a trivial one: The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh surface water — 95 percent of such water in the United States.
Moreover, if Ohio’s rules aren’t consistent with the compact — which the legislature passed and Congress ultimately approved — that fact will invite a lawsuit.
Other states aren’t going to let Ohio break its commitment while they’re making the sacrifices necessary to ensure that the lakes are productive for future generations.
Water doesn’t recognize governmental boundaries. The way to keep it clean and to make sure it’s there for everyone is to honor science.
TweetGo to our facebook page and Like us to comment.
Guest column: Nutrition program not beset by raging fraud
This commentary was written by Tina Osso, of Hamilton, executive director of Shared Harvest Food Bank.
At a time when more than 1.8 million Ohioans are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, we cannot let our attention be transfixed by stories such as the one that appeared June 21 (“Is Ohio replacing food stamp cards being sold or traded for drugs?”).
Let’s focus on the fact that this program is meant to supplement an individual’s and family’s basic need for food when they have nowhere else to turn.
It is easy to use unknown “authorities” who believe that fraud and abuse are rampant in SNAP (formerly the food stamp program), and use quantifiers like “some” or “many.”
What is more difficult is to get real numbers. According to the GAO: The national payment error rate reported for SNAP has declined by 56 percent from 1999 to 2009, from 9.86 percent to a record low of 4.36 percent.
The government’s Food and Nutrition Service estimates indicate that the national rate of food stamp trafficking declined from about 3.8 cents per dollar of benefits redeemed in 1993 to about one cent per dollar during the years 2002 to 2005.
But let’s not let facts get in the way of appealing to our baser instincts.
After all, the three stories used to illustrate the reporter’s exaggerated point are all criminals, leading the reader to believe that all program participants must be of the same ilk.
What about the stories of real people who have lost nearly everything in the Great Recession and swallowed their pride to ask for help, only to be vilified in the press and by politicians who have no clue what it is like to be poor?
For millions of Ohioans, SNAP puts food on the table when jobs are scarce, wages are stagnant and unemployment benefits have been exhausted.
SNAP is now helping one out of every six Ohioans, making wholesome foods available for millions of our neighbors who might otherwise go without.
Instead of knocking a federal program that has shown success in reducing fraud and abuse, why not focus on the billions of dollars wasted in other areas of government?
Gosh, defense contractors come to mind.
TweetGo to our facebook page and Like us to comment.
