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Great Lakes Today was created to highlight issues affecting the lakes. The main partners are WBFO (Buffalo), ideastream (Cleveland) and WXXI (Rochester).Browse more coverage here. Major funding for Great Lakes Today is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American People. Additional funding comes from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

Great Lakes Issues Highlight Conference This Week

Published October 17, 2017 at 11:15 AM EDT

By Angelica Morrison

The Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Restoration Conference is under way this week, bringing attention to critical Great Lakes issues.

The conference will draw some 300 environmental advocates, government officials and concerned citizens. The idea is to increase awareness about issues that affect Great Lakes states, as well as Ontario and Quebec provinces.

Topics at the three-day event i n downtown Buffalo include the economic impact of the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and drinking water infrastructure.

Todd Ambs, director of the Healing Our Water Coalition, says money plays a big part in tackling the issue of water infrastructure.

“In the Great Lakes region we have some of the oldest plumbing in the country." he says. "So, we’re really encouraging Congress to step up, as they have done in the past, and to provide more funding for critical water infrastructure improvement.”

Other topics covered during the conference, include empowering citizen scientists and dealing with microplastics.

Great Lakes Today will be covering the conference with daily reports. You can get even quicker updates on Twitter and Facebook -- @greatlakestoday.

For a complete agenda visit www.healthylakes.org .