Great Lakes -- If Cleaned -- Are Worth $50 Billion

So many environmental issues follow this formula: Pay more now, but reap the benefits and save money over time.

The story is the same, on a grand scale, for the world's largest freshwater reservoirs. If Congress invests $26 billion, a new study suggests, it will pay off with $50 billion in long term benefits, as reported in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Of course, finding $26 billion for projects so unsexy as fixing up old sewage plants and dredging up contaminated sediments is no easy task, election year or no.

The study also illustrates a second common theme in modern environmental protection: Do right by the environment, and -- often -- the economy responds in kind.

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