Durbin Says More Funds Needed To Protect Lake Michigan
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is accusing House Republicans of waving a white flag in the face of a potential Asian carp invasion, reports WBBM's John Cody.
Durbin Says More Funds Needed To Protect Lake Michigan
Senator Durbin said he was banking on $285 million for Great Lakes clean-up and along came sequester spending cuts "to devastate the Great Lakes restoration initiative, to cut 80 percent of the funds, to leave some $60 million for all of the Great Lakes, money that will be spent to restore fisheries, to try to deal with pollution and sewage problems."
Senator Durbin said even if the House Interior Committee negotiated back up to half, $140 million, it still wouldn't be enough to adequately protect Lake Michigan as he urged environmentally aware constituents to let representatives know not to short the Great Lakes on clean-up funds.
Henry Henderson heads NRDC in the Midwest which he says needs the Great Lakes dollars to keep sewage out of Lake Michigan.
"There would be a rebuilding of failed sewer systems, where some of them are 150 years old and are breaking and leaking," said Henderson.
