This week Washington DC is celebrating the Great Lakes with lawmakers and advocates highlighting the importance of funding for water projects across the Great Lakes region.
On Tuesday, the US Water Alliance released a report analyzing infrastructure needs in the Great Lakes states.
Radhika Fox is with the US Water Alliance. She said the state and federal government need to invest more in utilities.
“Utilities whether they are small or large, urban or rural, really face infrastructure investment challenges. In the region the EPA estimates that there are 175 billion dollars that are needed to invest in water infrastructure in the 8 states that comprise the Great Lakes.”
Fox said the 175 billion dollars is needed to maintain Great Lakes water infrastructure through 2030.
Lawmakers and advocates are also calling for the renewal of funding to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which funds environmental projects around the Great Lakes.
The 300 million dollar appropriation for the initiative is facing a 90 percent cut in President Trump’s latest budget proposal.
US Congressman Dan Kildee is a supporter of the GLRI.
“We’re really doing what we can to show that it’s valuable to make sure the Lakes are clean and healthy. That there’s an economic value, a social value, an environmental value, and we’re just making that case as hard as we can.”
Kildee said he is hopeful that the appropriation, which was on the chopping block last year as well, will be granted.
He said he hopes the President gets the message and doesn’t try to cut the appropriation again next year.