Great Lakes must be protected

The Great Lakes are not only national treasures, they are vital economic tools for the communities that surround them.

Home to an incredible variety of fish and wildlife, supporting our industrial heartland and attracting millions of dollars in recreational tourism, they are an environmental and economic resource to be preserved for generations and they are particularly important to New York.

Approximately 80 percent of New York's fresh surface water, over 700 miles of shoreline, and 40 percent of New York's lands in over 25 counties are contained in the drainage basins of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and the St. Lawrence River.