The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and groups in the eight-state Great Lakes region are calling on the U.S. Congress to invest more than $1.5 billion to clean up toxic hot-spots as part of a national infrastructure package and to boost Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding. The Coalition made its requests in two letters to Congress that were signed by more than 90 Coalition partners.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, along with six partners, sent a letter to Congress advocating for federal investment in the infrastructure of the Great Lakes basin.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition recently sent a letter to Congress advocating for full funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative at $375 million for the 2022 fiscal year. The letter was signed by 93 Coalition members.

In a win for clean water, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is pleased to see that the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has passed the Water Quality and Protection and Job Creation Act out of committee, with a bipartisan vote of 42 to 25.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition welcomes the newly proposed Biden Administration budget that, taken in tandem with the American Jobs Plan, presents a historic opportunity to secure sizeable federal investments to accelerate progress to restore the Great Lakes, protect the health of communities, and reverse environmental justices that have harmed vulnerable communities.

On behalf of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition and our more than 170 member organizations, I write to offer our support for the proposed substitute amendment to H.R. 1915, the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2021.

New investment is sorely needed. The Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin face more than $188 billion in water infrastructure repairs and upgrades over 20 years to meet clean water objectives and to protect the health of local communities, according to the U.S. EPA.

The U.S. Senate passed legislation to boost the nation’s investment in water infrastructure to get at the vexing and ongoing problems of toxic lead in people’s drinking water, sewage contamination, and unaffordable water bills that are impacting millions of people in the Great Lakes region and across the country