GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - Several Wisconsinites will soon have a bigger say over a billion-dollar program to clean up the Great Lakes.

The federal government named 18 people to a Great Lakes Advisory Board who will report directly to the EPA Adminstrator.  

They include Steve Galarneau, head of the Wisconsin DNR’s Office of the Great Lakes – Bill Hafs of the Green Bay Metro Sewerage District – Lac Courte Oreilles tribal leader Michael Isham, who chairs the Great Lakes Indian Fish-and-Wildlife Commission – and Richard Stewart, co-director of the Great Lakes Maritime Research Institute at university campuses in Superior and Duluth.

The new panel will report to the head of the federal EPA on ideas for carrying out the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

It’s a long-range program aimed at removing invasive species, cleaning up sewage, reducing algae, and improving the habitat in the Great Lakes.

It’s currently speeding up projects on 29 toxic hot spots around the region.