A Plea To Restore Great Lakes

"The Great Lakes are ecologically ill, environmentalists told a Senate committee Thursday, pleading with lawmakers to help fund a $20 billion, long-term effort to restore and protect the nation's five Great Lakes. But the advocates won no support... While conceding that the federal budget is stretched, the environmentalists said the requested money was a necessary investment in an ecosystem that constitutes 20 percent of the globe's fresh water."