One of our country's biggest natural resources is receiving federal funding to help clean it up.

President Obama recently approved nearly half a billion dollars for the Great Lakes Initiative. For the past decade more than 1,000 stakeholders have been working on a plan to clean up lakes and preserve them for the future.

"We have almost 1/2 a billion dollars to begin to protect the Great Lakes against toxic waste, known carcinogens, and invasive species like the Asian carp," said Representative Dave Obey.

The legislator says while the money is a start, but the government still needs to push for stronger national standards on things like ballast water, which is carried in boats for stability and later drained.

Water being transferred from one lake to another is one of the leading causes of the spread of invasive species.