Great Lakes research is at risk as the Trump administration pushes for deep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Earlier this month, a White House draft budget proposal revealed that administration officials want to end funding for cooperative institutes and research laboratories, as reported by NPR.
The proposal would terminate funding for a network of programs across the country—if it is approved by Congress.
The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) is based at the University of Michigan. It receives funding from NOAA to conduct research on invasive species, ecosystem restoration, extreme weather, and toxic cyanobacterial blooms.
The data researchers collect is then used by beach managers, drinking water intake managers, the shipping industry, the United States Coast Guard, and the public.
Greg Dick is the director of CIGLR. He said if more funding cuts are made, the institute would not be able to continue its work.
“These cuts in research funding are going to leave the people of the Great Lakes—the people that live there and work there and recreate there—more vulnerable to extreme weather. More vulnerable to oil spills. More vulnerable to harmful algal blooms," he said.
In the wake of the “do not drink” order issued in the 2014 Toledo crisis, the institute is now at the forefront of cyanobacterial bloom monitoring, with a goal of preventing similar threats.
“Discontinuing that monitoring and essential research right now is not like taking your foot off the gas pedal,” said Casey Godwin, a part of CIGLR, and an associate research scientist at the University of Michigan. “I really think it’s more like shutting your eyes while accelerating into a turn.”
Godwin said if cyanobacterial blooms go unchecked, there’s a greater risk that they will harm the lakes, threaten tourism revenue, and put human health at risk.
Greg Dick said it's hard to say whether the funding cuts will go through—but he said CIGLR is already facing funding freezes that could greatly reduce the capacity of its research programs.
Yet, Dick remains optimistic that the issues of Great Lakes research will ultimately receive broad, bipartisan support as they have proven to in the past.
“We all want to be able to swim in the Great Lakes, and to fish in the Great Lakes, and to be able to drink the water of the Great Lakes,” he said. “So that’s what gives me hope—is that the people of the Great Lakes region recognize the value of the Great Lakes, and want them to be protected.”
