NEMWI's "Great Lakes Hill Happenings"--a summary of Great Lakes Task Force activities and other federal policy events relevant to the Great Lakes--is back after a short pause. This edition reports on and provides links to:

• letters sent to the Office of Management and Budget by Great Lakes offices on FY2014 funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative;
• a letter to appropriation heads on dredging funding for the Great Lakes following a summer of drought and lower levels;
• a briefing, December 4, for which Senate and House Great Lakes Task Force co-chairs were honorary co-sponsors, on the low water levels throughout the Great Lakes;
• legislative updates on the deal to avert the fiscal cliff, the U.S. Coast Guard re-authorization, and the supplemental appropriations for disaster relief for Superstorm Sandy; and
• a Save the Date for the Great Lakes Environmental and Waterborne Commerce Summit (Wednesday, February 6) and the Great Lakes Congressional Breakfast (Thursday, March 7).

On December 20, 2012, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released preliminary information on extreme weather and climate events in the U.S. for 2012 that are known to have reached the $1 billion threshold in losses. These events include seven severe weather/tornado events, two tropical storm/hurricane events, and the yearlong drought and associated wildfires.  Seven of these eleven events, including Superstorm Sandy and the year-long drought, impacted states within the Northeast-Midwest region, causing 332 mortalities.  More information on these disasters, as well as past billion-dollar events, can be found here.

NEMWI created a map of the Delaware River Basin Watershed showing the new Congressional Districts and elected Representatives for the 113th Congress. Congressional Districts changed throughout the watershed, but the New York portion of the watershed experienced the biggest changes; New York's 20th, 21st, and 24th Congressional Districts are no longer in the watershed. NY remains a big player in Delaware River Basin management, however, with three Districts still in the basin. NEMWI's Delaware River Basin Program helps build sound bipartisan legislative strategies for ecosystem restoration for the four-state watershed (Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania). 

For more information, contact Erik Hagen, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute. 

On November 27, NEMWI's Elin Betanzo presented the NEMWI project "Toward Sustainable Water Information" to the National Water Quality Monitoring Council at their quarterly meeting in Crystal City, VA.  The National Water Quality Monitoring Council provides a national forum for coordination of comparable and scientifically defensible methods and strategies to improve water quality monitoring, assessment and reporting, and promotes partnerships to foster collaboration, advance the science, and improve management within all elements of the water quality monitoring community. Information about the meeting can be found here. 

For more information, contact Elin Betanzo, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

U.S. EPA's Office of Sustainable Communities released a new report titled "Residential Construction Trends in America's Metropolitan Regions: 2012 Edition,"  which determined where and how much infill development was taking place in 209 U.S. metropolitan regions between 2000 and 2009. Northeastern metropolitan regions had the most infill construction, with 32 percent of all new housing units built in previously developed areas.  The report includes a listing of resources available to local, regional, and state leaders who want to coordinate land use, housing, and transportation policies to more effectively support infill housing development.  Find out more about this report and the two that preceded it, here.  

For more information, contact Beth Zgoda, Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.