Champlain Is Designated a Great Lake

WASHINGTON —  Without fanfare or even a routine announcement, President Clinton signed a bill Friday giving Lake Champlain official designation as one of the Great Lakes, at least as far as federal research money goes.

The measure allows Lake Champlain to be considered one of the Great Lakes for the purposes of competing for $50 million in research funds under the National Sea Grant Program. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) got a line inserted into the legislation to expand the eligibility.

“This is not going to send map makers scurrying to their drafting tables,” Leahy said. “Practically speaking, when it comes to counting the Great Lakes, New Englanders will continue to count to six, and Midwesterners only to five. But who knows about school kids in the next century?”

The move angered some Great Lakes lawmakers.

“If Lake Champlain ends up as a Great Lake, I propose we rename it ‘Lake Plain Sham,’ ” Rep. Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), co-chairman of the Congressional Great Lakes Task Force, said recently.

He said he did not like the precedent of expanding eligibility for the National Sea Grant Program.

“Next thing you know, Iowa’s going to want a sea-grant program because it’s got a big old reservoir,” he said.

Champlain, though sizable, is puny when compared to the real greats. It covers 490 square miles. The smallest of the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario, is 7,430 square miles.

Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), the other co-chairman of the Great Lakes Task Force, had this to say:

“I know the Great Lakes. I’ve traveled the Great Lakes. And Lake Champlain is not one of the Great Lakes.”