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Now, with gasoline prices recently cresting at $3, they worry that efforts to open more areas to oil and gas exploration could undermine the state and federal protections for which they fought.

Both the U.S. Senate and House have passed bills that would allow exploration in an area of the Gulf of Mexico previously off-limits, said Abby Rubley of Environment Michigan in Ann Arbor.

"There is a federal moratorium that is very similar to the federal moratorium on the Great Lakes for drilling," said Rubley. "Our concern is if we open that area, we set a dangerous precedent for drilling in the Great Lakes."

The group has started a petition drive targeted at Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, both Democrats from Michigan who voted for the Senate bill.

"Our idea is to continue to hammer Levin and Stabenow to vote against it when it comes out of the conference committee," said Rubley.

The issue of directional drilling under the Great Lakes arose in 1997, when a company named Newstar Energy USA proposed a well near Manistee. Directional drilling is used to reach deposits that underlie sensitive areas. Exploration companies first drill a vertical shaft on land, then drill horizontally under the bottom of the lake. It's like a bendy straw - except upside down. While drillers touted their safety record, groups such as the Lake Michigan Federation - now The Alliance for the Great Lakes - had concerns about an industrial activity in what traditionally have been tourism areas. "One of the biggest concerns was contamination on the near shore areas from the drilling," said Cheryl Mendoza of the Chicago-based alliance's Michigan office in Grand Haven. "Historically, throughout Michigan, there have been problems with spills and not cleaning them up."

While spills would most likely occur on land, petroleum products "eventually would get into the water and, with our world class beaches along Lake Michigan, it would not be worth that risk," said Mendoza.

In 2002, the state Legislature passed a bill banning any new wells under state waters of the Great Lakes except in case of a state energy emergency. The bill passed into law without the signature of then-Gov. John Engler.

Engler is now president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a group that strongly pushes to open more off-shore areas - including the coast of California - to energy exploration. The association recently issued a press release praising the Senate vote for the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act.

State Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, was one of the sponsors of the 2002 bill.

"We just did not feel in any way, shape or form that we could take a risk," she said.

In 2005, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, inserted language in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 placing a permanent ban on drilling in and under the Great Lakes.

Despite these protections, environmental groups worry that the lakes could still be vulnerable.

"From a Michigan perspective, that's our fear, that when we start lifting these moratoriums that have been in place for a number of years, who's to say they won't lift that moratorium in the Great Lakes," said Rubley.

"I think anytime you start to repeal environmental laws, there's a serious concern of when does that stop," said Mendoza.

"We have our laws for a reason, they were created for a reason and if we start repealing those willy-nilly, what good are our laws?"

Cassis, however, is confi dent the protections will hold.

"I am not anxious at all," she said. "I think the federal government must and should honor the Great Lakes Compact (an agreement of the eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces) and what Michigan has done. I realize this is an irreplaceable resource for life."