Michigan LCV applauds bipartisan effort to update Great Lakes environmental sensitivity maps

LANSING – The Michigan League of Conservation Voters today issued the following statement after the president signed bipartisan federal legislation this week to update Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps for the Great Lakes.

“Protecting our precious Great Lakes means ensuring we have the most up-to-date information and maps to plan for any possible disaster such as an oil spill from Line 5,” said Bentley Johnson, senior partnerships manager for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. “We are grateful that after more than two decades, the Great Lakes will have a comprehensive Environmental Sensitivity Index map that will protect our waters and coastal resources into the future from emerging threats. We thank Senator Gary Peters for sponsoring this legislation as well as the Michigan congressional delegation, who moved this legislation across the finish line.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will use the maps to catalog environmental impacts to wildlife, habitats and infrastructure in the case of a natural or human-made disaster.