GRAND RAPIDS, MI (AP)-- Great Lakes advocates will meet this week to discuss progress and continuing challenges in caring for the five inland seas.
The 10th annual Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition Restoration Conference will be held Tuesday through Thursday in Grand Rapids. About 300 representatives of environmental groups, business, academia and government agencies are expected to attend.
The coalition has helped lobby Congress for an initiative that has pumped more than $1.6 billion into Great Lakes cleanup projects during the Obama administration.
Among issues to be discussed at the three-day conference include reducing litter such as tiny plastic microbeads, combating exotic species invasions, bacterial algae blooms in Lake Erie and challenges posed by oil and gas development.