Not long ago, a congressional earmark for zebra mussel control would prompt mocking recipe suggestions from spending critics outside the Midwest.

After years of talk, the Great Lakes should now get their due.

Congressional advocates from both parties have sought the billions necessary to repair decades of damage and neglect. It's a regional job, too big for any one state to finance -- Michigan has 3,200 miles of freshwater shoreline -- and should fall to the federal government.

Events are converging to make that happen.

Unlike a debate over aid to the Big Three that zinged Michigan, the discussion involves eight states that have a stake in a sustained effort to restore and protect the Great Lakes.

President Barack Obama -- from the Great Lakes state of Illinois, of course -- co-sponsored such legislation in the Senate and has promised "aggressive action to implement a comprehensive restoration plan."

And there's a long list of regional environmental work that can start right now, a key rationale for the $825 billion (and counting) economic stimulus plan drafted by House Democrats.

With the money and political will apparently in place, Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, once again has introduced legislation that defines the Great Lakes as a treasured national resource. Similar legislation is co-sponsored by Carl Levin, D-Detroit, in the Senate.

The biggest piece would commit $20 billion over the next five years for waste and stormwater infrastructure. Michigan's share would approach $900 million, lakes advocates say, creating an estimated 40,000 jobs.

Strengthening the Great Lakes Legacy Act, moreover, would commit $150 million annually to all eight states over the next decade for cleanup of contaminated sediment in rivers that feed the lakes.

Additional federal dollars would go to restore coastal and interior wetlands that filter pollutants. Research to combat invasive species would be funded, and Ehlers' bill calls for ballast-water management rules.

For all the national pounding Michigan has been taking, along with chronic job loss and now a double-digit unemployment rate, one fact remains:

The Great Lakes are as important to Michigan's economy as they are to Michigan's identity.

According to a 2006 Brookings Institution study, an investment of $25 billion in the Great Lakes region would generate more than $80 billion in economic benefits.

By itself, restoration won't nearly make up for the staggering loss of 356,000 manufacturing jobs this decade. But the environment remains a major element required to turn Michigan into the state it should be. Smart. Forward-thinking. An attractive place to live. A destination state.

"In the past, we relied on the lakes for industrial activity. In the future, Michigan's economy will increasingly depend on the Great Lakes for the quality of life they provide," says a restoration plan produced this month by Lt. Gov. John Cherry's panel.

"What other state can claim the breathtaking beauty of both a sunrise dawn over Lake Huron and a picturesque evening sunset in the western sky above Lake Michigan?"

On the beaches of Chicago, a few blocks from the South Side neighborhood where President Obama lived for 20 years, the sunrises are pretty spectacular, too.

E-mail Peter Luke: pluke@boothmichigan.com