Cutting Great Lakes restoration funds by 97% hard to defend against its success

President Trump’s budget calls for the cuts.

It’s hard to miss the success of an initiative to clean the Great Lakes.

That is, at least, the reasoning many environmental groups are using to push against a proposal from President Donald Trump to nearly completely defund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Trump’s spending plan calls for a 97 percent cut in Great Lakes restoration funds.

With the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Darrell Gerber says the money spent on the lakes has helped clean up some of the most polluted areas.

“These have been getting cleaned up,” Gerber said. “There have been a number of them already de-listed because of the funding, including the St. Louis River is also halfway to being de-listed.”

The reasoning for cutting the program is hard to come by.

“It’s been a program that has had really strong bipartisan support,” Gerber said. “It certainly was proposed by the Obama administration but its strongest supporters have been Republicans in Congress.”