As part of a plan to clean up the severely polluted Onondaga Lake, a public education program that could cost $500,000 for six months squeaked through the county Environmental Protection Committee June 10.

Onondaga Lake suffers from sewage discharge, stormwater runoff and mercury pollution.The Post-Standard reported the proposed amount likely will be reduced before the Onondaga County Legislature's Ways and Means Committee considers it. Jean Smilely, county Physical Services Administrator, told the newspaper she doesn't oppose reducing the expenditure, but not all the way to zero.

The program's tentative budget includes: $150,000 for brochures, rain gauges and other materials, and for development; $125,000 apiece for advertising and collectively to provide mini-grants for schools and charitable groups to do their own green projects, develop a Web site and e-newsletter and give tours of demonstration projects; $100,000 for contract agencies to do tree-planting workshops, green jobs seminars, rain garden construction and workshops, and other how-to programs.

The purpose is to obtain court approval to reduce storm water runoff by encouraging natural systems to absorb it, thereby reducing the need for sewage treatment plants. Onondaga County, the the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Atlantic States Legal Foundation are seeking the court's permission.