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(AP) - A plan developed more than three years
ago to heal the battered Great Lakes would get its first big
infusion of federal cash under President Barack Obama's proposed
budget.

      The spending blueprint released Thursday includes a $475 million
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative led by the Environmental
Protection Agency. It would target problems such as invasive
species, runoff pollution, degraded wildlife habitat and
contaminated bottomlands.


      "EPA will coordinate with federal partners, states, tribes,
localities and other entities to protect, maintain and restore the
chemical, biological and physical integrity of the lakes," the
agency said in a statement.


      The budget also requests $3.9 billion nationwide for sewer and
drinking water system upgrades. If distributed according to
existing formulas, about $1.4 billion would go to the Great Lakes
region, where overflows from degraded sewers are a primary
ecological hazard.


      It adds up to the biggest financial commitment any president has
made to the lakes, said Jeff Skelding, director of the Healing Our
Waters-Great Lakes Coalition.


      "President Obama is truly a Great Lakes president," Skelding
said. "It is clear he understands that unless America invests in
the Great Lakes, these problems will get worse and the price we pay
will be higher."


      During his campaign last year, Obama pledged $5 billion toward
implementing a restoration wish list released in December 2005 by
the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration, a partnership of government
agencies and advocacy groups. The Bush administration had requested
the plan, which would cost more than $20 billion, but provided
little funding.


      Obama's budget proposal represents the first serious effort to
begin paying for it, said Andy Buchsbaum, director of the National
Wildlife Federation's regional office in Ann Arbor.


      "In the past we've had to do it in bits and pieces," Buchsbaum
said. "We've had authorization bills, pledges, concept papers. But
this is the first time we've really seen the money."


      During a Great Lakes Commission meeting this week in Washington,
new EPA head Lisa Jackson told officials and activists from the
region the administration intended to keep Obama's financial
commitment.


      "We've got the plan, we're ready to go," said Tim Eder,
director of the interstate commission that promotes sustainable
development of Great Lakes resources. "We just needed a
partnership with the federal government. This is a terrific down
payment, and it's the jump-start we've been waiting for."


      Still to come is the battle for congressional approval, which is
certain to be fierce as the Great Lakes package competes with other
priorities at a time of soaring deficits and economic calamity.

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John Flesher, Associated Press

Author

A plan developed more than three years
ago to heal the battered Great Lakes would get its first big
infusion of federal cash under President Barack Obama's proposed
budget.

Obama proposes $475M for Great Lakes restoration

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