LORAINE, Ohio - President Joe Biden on Thursday traveled to Ohio to highlight how the bipartisan infrastructure law will dedicate $1 billion toward a long-delayed cleanup and restoration program for "areas of concern" along the Great Lakes.
Biden, who visited the northeastern Ohio city of Loraine on Lake Erie, announced how funding from the $1 trillion package will benefit the lakes — which hold about one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water.
Both the $1 billion boost and annual funding through an ongoing recovery program will help finish work on 22 sites designated 25 years ago as among the region's most degraded. "We’re investing like never, ever in history," the president said.
The lakes provide drinking water for 40 million people and underpin the economy in eight Northeastern and Midwestern states and two Canadian provinces.