The good news is that a badly needed, bipartisan $23 billion bill to save and restore the Great Lakes has been introduced in Congress.

If adopted, it would reduce the threat of invasive species in the lakes, clean up contaminated sediments, improve sewage systems, and restore fish and wildlife.

The bad news is that prying even a fraction of that out of the federal budget will be tough, what with this year's deficit now estimated at close to $400 billion. The Bush administration is unsympathetic. The states surrounding the lakes mostly voted against him, and in his current budget, President George W. Bush proposed cutting spending on the Great Lakes by 9 percent.

Yet lots of sensible Michigan politicians are joining in the effort to save the lakes, led by Sens. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing; and U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids. Members from other states around the Great Lakes have joined in as well.

"For the people of Michigan," Levin said, "the Great Lakes are more than one-fifth of the world's fresh water and a unique ecosystem -- they are part of our identity."

To tolerate the further deterioration of the lakes -- which all experts say is accelerating -- would be criminal. The bill would do lots of important things. In response to the fact that a new invasive species invades the Great Lakes every six months (such as zebra mussels), it would enact comprehensive invasive legislation and require technology to kill invasives in the ballast water of oceangoing ships. It specifically targets the Asian carp, now held back -- barely -- by the tenuous electronic barrier where Chicago River leaves Lake Michigan.

The bill also would set up a $20 billion low-interest fund to help communities fix up their sewer systems to not dump raw sewage into the lakes.

It's a mistake to regard Great Lakes restoration as merely another environmentalist pipe dream. It's foremost an economic development issue. Michigan's tourism, fishing, hunting and recreation industries generate an estimated $5 billion in business annually. Imagine what improving the lakes' health would mean to existing businesses right here at home.

But the second order economic effects are far more significant.

If the Great Lakes could be definitively restored to health, it would then become possible to reposition this entire region, not as the Rust Belt but as the "Third Coast" of America.

It could be a Third Coast loaded with unrealized investment opportunities, chock full of skilled and diligent workers -- the last underdeveloped region in the country. It could be a Third Coast teeming with pristine natural resources and awesome quality of life.

It could be a Third Coast essentially undiscovered by the fashion-driven venture capitalist preoccupation with the West Coast's Silicon Valley, Seattle and the area around Boston.

The phrase "Third Coast" came into prominence in the mid-1970s, around the time the Sleeping Bear and Pictured Rocks national lakeshores were being created. People looked in admiration at the tremendous success the New England region had with a marketing campaign built around rock-strewn hills, bright red maple leaves in the fall and hard- working natives with a Yankee twang in their voices. And they wondered, "Could we do some of that?" For a time, there was a lot of buzz. But like most buzzes, it petered out.

Now a coalition of business and environmental groups -- notably the Confederation of Great Lakes and the National Wildlife Federation -- has latched on to the idea. The group is applying for foundation grants to sponsor a serious economic development study that would set out in detail just what a restored Great Lakes could do for the economy of the entire region.

And environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy (of which I am state chairman, by the way) are mulling the idea of a bond issue that would provide Michigan-based support for restoration efforts. So maybe, just maybe, the good news might for once outweigh the bad -- something of considerable importance, given the economic crisis we're going through.

Phil Power is a longtime observer of politics, economics and education issues in Michigan. He would be pleased to hear from readers atppower@hcnnet.com.