TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - The Obama administration says it’s making plans to continue a long-range Great Lakes cleanup program, although decisions about paying for it will be made on a year-by-year basis.

A spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality told The Associated Press on Thursday that federal agencies will begin work this summer on a new five-year blueprint for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The program is designed to make progress on some of the Great Lakes’ biggest ecological problems, such as invasive species and toxic hot spots.

Nancy Sutley is chairwoman of the White House council. She told a delegation from the region this week in Washington that the government will devise a strategy for carrying the program forward from 2015 to 2019. The current plan expires next year.

Posted 3/8/2013