A spending bill crafted by congressional leaders would allocate $300 million to a Great Lakes cleanup that had been threatened with a deep cut during last year's budget battle.
Federal officials are inviting the 22 largest shoreline cities on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes to apply for grants under an Obama administration program designed to make progress on the region's festering ecological problems.
Federal programs designed to make headway on some of the Great Lakes' most longstanding ecological problems, from harbors caked with toxic sludge to the threat of an Asian carp attack, would lose about 80 percent of their spending under a spending plan approved Tuesday by a Republican-controlled U.S. House panel.
Cities and counties in Wisconsin are looking for ways to pay for water tests that could lead to beach closures after the federal government proposed eliminating money for the tests.
The University of Michigan is establishing a research program designed to make sure the federal government bases decisions in its billion-dollar battle to clean up the Great Lakes on solid science, officials said Tuesday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says more than $2.6 million in grants are being awarded to help improve water quality at Great Lakes beaches in Michigan and Wisconsin.