July 25, 2006

Audubon New York
Citizens Campaign for the Environment

Environmental Advocates of New York

Environmental Groups Praise Historic Oswego River Clean Up
Oswego Progress Highlights Need to Restore All Great Lakes

(Albany, NY) – Environmental groups praised the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), and others for the historic removal of the Lower Oswego River from the list of Areas of Concern (AOC) in the Great Lakes.  This is the first such site in the U.S. to be de-listed, and represents a major victory for Great Lakes Restoration efforts by acknowledging that the second largest Lake Ontario tributary is healthier. 

Currently, 40 Areas of Concern in the United States and Canada remain contaminated, five of which are in New York. The groups urged all the parties to follow the example set by efforts to clean up the Oswego River and restore the remaining toxic hot spots. The five areas in New York include the Buffalo River, Eighteen Mile Creek, Rochester Embayment, Niagara River, and St. Lawrence River at Massena, NY.    

The problems associated with the AOC throughout the Great Lakes Basin were recently detailed in the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Report released in December 2005, which also detailed the funding needed to restore these sites.  The proposed Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act (H.R. 5100/ S.2545) would authorize the funding necessary to advance the remediation of these sites, and clean up these blighted areas so that future generations will benefit from cleaner and safer Great Lakes.  The Groups urged Congress to pass this important measure to protect and restore 20 percent of the world’s freshwater.