How to protect Lake St. Clair

Like an unseen mid-summer sunrise, some of life’s greatest gifts can go unopened.

This is especially true of the natural world which surrounds us and sustains us, and whose beauty and benefits we should never take for granted.

So I am grateful to have had the opportunity this year to participate in the 9th Annual Lake St. Clair Appreciation Day last week, hosted by the Macomb County Chamber of Commerce.

The Macomb Chamber sponsors this event to highlight the vital role Lake St. Clair — often called the heart of the Great Lakes — plays in our economic, recreational and spiritual lives. And to promote and encourage efforts to preserve that vitality for future generations.

The lake itself takes no heed of our words. But its survival, and that of its larger Great Lakes cousins rely on us to back them up with action.

Consider the resource:

■Lake St. Clair’s 430 square miles contain dozens of fish species, and world class sport fisheries for walleye, perch, smallmouth bass and muskellunge.

■Along St. Clair Shores in Macomb County alone are more than 60 private, commercial and municipal marinas, along with miles of public beachfront.

■The economic impact of Lake St. Clair on our region is incalculable, but it is, at a minimum, a major contributor to Michigan’s $3.9 billion annual, recreational boating industry.

There is little question that an overwhelming majority of those of us who live in southeast Michigan appreciate Lake St. Clair. On a personal level, I grew up relying on our family’s Harrison Township marina to put food on the table and pay the mortgage.

Unfortunately, we have not always been the best stewards of our magnificent Lakes, and we have, for too long, tolerated the degradation of Lake St. Clair water quality from combined sewage and storm water overflows caused by aging and inadequate infrastructure.

We have an obligation to be vigilant about threats to our water resources, as we were earlier this year when a Texas-based petroleum transporter sought authorization to use a pair of nearly century-old pipelines spanning the St. Clair River to ship crude oil. In the wake of significant public outcry, the request was withdrawn in April.

We also need to do a better job of monitoring water quality in real time, as we did for a brief period early this century with a federally-funded system with stations stretching from Lake Huron to Lake Erie. Sadly, when federal funding for the system ended, monitoring was suspended.

We need to foster and encourage efforts to protect the lakes, like the private-public partnership which created the “Clean Marina Initiative,” assisting marina operators in the development of environmentally friendly operating procedures, and certifying those which meet its standards.

Finally, I believe our appreciation for Lake St. Clair, and the inland seas to which it is connected is real, deep and unalterable. However, our appreciation must be more than just sentiment. We must take action that protects and preserves our lake so that our children and our children’s children may also appreciate it the way we do.

U.S. Rep. Candice Miller represents Michigan’s 10th Congressional District.