Obama is going to clean our lakes!

Is there anything this guy can't do? A $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has just passed through Congress and is just a Barack Obama signature away from becoming reality. The funding is seen as a down payment on a campaign promise by Obama to create a $5 billion trust fund for the lakes. The restoration plan is designed to last for five years, totaling more than $2 billion. Obama's trust fund would be paid for by rolling back tax breaks for oil companies, his campaign said. It would support projects such as sewage system repairs, cleanup of sediments contaminated by toxic chemicals, and restoration of wetlands and wildlife habitat.

This is big news for us Canadian surfers, since all of our lake's borders are shared with our American friends. So any cleanup efforts going on south of the border are likely to have a big impact on water quality up here. Now if only we could clean up the Humber River, I wouldn't have to worry about what I swallowed on that last duck-dive down at Bluffers!

The start of a Great Lakes restoration is due in large part to efforts by a group called Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, made up of more than 110 environmental, conservation, outdoor recreation organizations, zoos, aquariums and museums.