Midwest Politics
Congressional support for the effort to clean up the Great Lakes appears to be ending, only four months after federal, state and local leaders announced a new $20 billion strategy for restoration of the world's largest fresh surface water ecosystem.
Witnesses at a Senate hearing last week warned that the Great Lakes are rapidly deteriorating, but the committee's Republican chairman said the plan is incomplete, overly ambitious and too expensive.
The Great Lakes remain in a degraded state, historical threats are combining with new ones and the lakes are at a tipping point. The federal government currently spends some $500 million annually on 140 programs aimed at restoration of the Great Lakes, which are a vital trade corridor. Invasive species and pollution continue to plague the region.
The five lakes also contain 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water and provide drinking water for 40 million people in the United States and Canada.
March 22, 2006 6:43 AM | Category: Cleanup