Ohio DUers: call your state rep, oppose GOP's Lake Erie Shoreline Giveaway [View All]

[Kolesar]

Representative Tim Grendell is advocating that the state deed coastal waters of Lake Erie from the state to the adjacent landowners. Grendell is backed by a "property rights" lobby (who has oddly kept a low profile with respect to names and phone numbers).

Currently, the state owns the land from the high water mark on out to the state border. Grendell wishes to give the state land to the adjacent property owners all the way out to the historic low water mark--this mark was set during the "Dust Bowl" era and is six feet below normal! . This means that they will be able to build jetties and breakwalls far out in the lake. This will cause problems such as disrupting the littoral currents and causing enhanced erosion on adjacent properties and silting over of stream and harbor entrances. This will cause disruption of fish spawning and hatching areas.

Look at HB218 here: You can see all the strike-throughs in the Ohio laws where the state's interest in controlling erosion is deleted. Shameful! http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=125_HB_218

It would be great if we could get many calls in to representatives (and senators) all over the state. This is an obscure issue, so just one or two calls to one representative is going to make a big impact.

You can find your legislator's contact information at: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/

This bill is still in the Energy and Environment Committee, nonetheless, you can still just call your representative and just say you oppose HB218. Alternately, you could rewrite my second paragraph and email them. I am going to try to find more material on this, so please keep checking this thread if I kick it.

Thank you.