CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP REPORTS ASIAN CARP FOUND NEAR LAKE MICHIGAN ACCESS RIVER

FROM:  U.S. CONGRESSMAN DAVE CAMP'S WEBSITE 

Last week, Wisconsin Public Radio reported that the White House Council on Environmental Quality Asian carp director John Goss recently told a group in Milwaukee that a 53 inch, 82 pound Asian carp had been found in Flatfoot Lake, Illinois in August.  Flatfoot Lake is land-locked, but located less than a quarter mile from the Calumet River, which has direct access to Lake Michigan as well as Lake Calumet, where a live Asian carp was discovered in 2010.

Following the report Camp said, “News that a live Asian carp was found dangerously close to Lake Michigan, in Flatfoot Lake, is another reminder that we must find a permanent solution to protect the Great Lakes.  Incidents like this underscore the fact that hydrological separation is the only real way to keep Asian carp from destroying the Great Lakes.”

On the topic, The Lansing State Journal wrote, “Kudos to Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, and other Michigan officials for their ongoing efforts to prevent the potential crisis of an Asian carp invasion of the Great Lakes. They fight an uphill battle, and Michiganders should support their efforts in every way possible.”

In  2012, Camp championed legislation that is now law, The Stop Invasive Species Act, which requires the Army Corps of Engineers to complete a study on hydrologically separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins by January 2014.

U.S. GOVERNMENT STRIVES FOR HEALTHIER HOMES

FROM: U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Federal Agencies Working to Make Homes Healthier
Improving housing quality can dramatically affect the health of residents

WASHINGTON – Several federal agencies today unveiled Advancing Healthy Housing – A Strategy for Action. White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Nancy Sutley, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Shaun Donovan, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., and Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman discussed the new plan during an event at the National Building Museum this morning.

The initiative represents a bold new vision for addressing the nation’s health and economic burdens caused by preventable hazards associated with the home. The Strategy for Action encourages federal agencies to take preemptive actions that will help reduce the number of American homes with health and safety hazards.

People in the United States spend about 70% of their time in a home. Currently, millions of U.S. homes have moderate to severe physical housing problems, including dilapidated structure; roofing problems; heating, plumbing, and electrical deficiencies; water leaks and intrusion; pests; damaged paint; and high radon gas levels. These conditions are associated with a wide range of health issues, including unintentional injuries, respiratory illnesses like asthma and radon-induced lung cancer, lead poisoning, result in lost school days for children, as well as lost productivity in the labor force. The health and economic burdens from preventable hazards associated with the home are considerable, and cost billions of dollars.

The Strategy for Action unifies, for the first time, federal action to advance healthy housing, demonstrating the connection between housing conditions and residents’ health. It also promotes strategies and methods intended to reduce in-home health hazards in a cost-effective manner.

"It is clear that unhealthy and unsafe housing has an impact on the health of millions of people in the United States, which is why we must do everything we can to ensure that individuals and families have a healthy place to call home," said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. "Today’s announcement will help the federal government unify action to controlling and preventing major housing-related exposures and hazards."

"Thanks to unprecedented collaboration across the federal family and among our many partners, we now have a specific plan for action to address radon and other preventable hazards found in homes across the country. This is important progress, especially when you consider that people spend an estimated 70 percent of their time inside a home," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "At EPA we’re committed to ensuring Americans in all communities have healthy places to live, work and play, and the strategy we announced today is a critical step toward reaching that goal."

"Healthy homes and communities are essential to our quality of life, our productivity, and our economic vitality," said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. "Through this plan, Federal agencies have committed to working together to make sure all Americans can count on safe, healthy places to live, grow, and thrive."

Dr. Mary Jean Brown, Chief of CDC’s Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch added, "Healthy homes lead to healthier lives. People can take simple steps to protect themselves from health hazards in the home."

"Energy efficiency and healthy homes are inextricably linked," explained U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman. "We cannot, in good conscience, pursue one in the absence of the other. DOE is committed to ensuring that our efforts towards creating an efficient national housing stock also strive to maximize the health and safety of the families we serve."

The overall vision for the Strategy is to reduce the number of American homes with residential health and safety hazards, achieved through five goals:

1. Establish healthy homes recommendation

2. Encourage adoption of healthy homes recommendations

3.Create and support training and workforce development to address health hazards in housing

4. Educate the public about healthy homes

5. Support research that informs and advances healthy housing in a cost-effective manner

EPA TOUTS NEW MAPPING TOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND PLANNING

FROM:  EPA WEBSITE
EPA Releases Innovative Mapping Tool to Improve Environmental Reviews and Planning
NEPAssist part of CEQ initiative to increase efficiency and effectiveness of environmental reviews
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the public release of a web-based mapping tool developed for Federal agencies to facilitate more efficient and effective environmental reviews and project planning. The tool, NEPAssist, is part of an initiative developed by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to modernize and reinvigorate federal agency implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) through innovation, public participation and transparency. NEPAssist draws information from publicly available federal, state, and local datasets, allowing NEPA practitioners, stakeholders and the public to view information about environmental conditions within the area of a proposed project quickly and easily at early stages of project development.

“NEPA helps ensure that Federal agencies protect the health of our communities and the natural resources that support our economy,” said Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. “Making this tool available to the public will help make information more accessible, a key part of our effort to increase transparency for projects that impact American communities.”

“NEPAssist helps users identify the possible impacts of federal projects on local environments and communities,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “By making tools like NEPAssist available to the public, EPA is helping citizens to be involved in environmental decisions that affect their community.”

NEPA requires all federal agencies to incorporate environmental considerations in their planning and decision-making through a systematic interdisciplinary process. NEPAssist is designed to help promote collaboration and early involvement in the NEPA process by raising important environmental issues at the earliest stages of project development. The mapping tool can be used by Federal agencies to identify alternative project locations, to avoid and minimize impacts, as well as identify potential mitigation areas.