By Kat Stafford, Mike Householder and Corey Williams, Associated Press Writers
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Flint mother Ariana Hawk struggled to find words. Bittersweet came to mind, as did frustrated.
“I literally could have cried,” said Hawk, sitting in her car after learning Tuesday that former Michigan Gov.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ap-flint-families-welcome-water-crisis-charges-seek-healing/
By Ed White and David Eggert, Associated Press Writers
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was charged Wednesday with willful neglect of duty after an investigation of ruinous decisions that left Flint with lead-contaminated water and a regional outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
The charges, revealed in an online court record, are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ex-michigan-gov-snyder-charged-in-flint-water-crisis/
Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, The Associated Press has learned.
Questions and answers about the crisis that made Flint a symbol of the nation’s decaying drinking water infrastructure:
WHAT HAPPENED, AND HOW?
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ap-flint-water-crisis-fallout-continues/
DETROIT (AP) — Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other ex-officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in 2014-15, The Associated Press has learned.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/ap-michigan-plan-charge-ex-gov-snyder-flint-water-probe/
By Amy Diaz, Flint Beat, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Flint, MI– A Flint activist and a Flint attorney are each taking action regarding the $641.25 million water lawsuit settlement the City joined two weeks ago.
Flint City Council voted to approve the city joining the settlement with $20 million of insurance funds, to the dismay of many citizens who were disappointed in the terms and amount of the settlement.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2021/01/demands-change-requests-information-flint-water-settlement/
The Trump administration overhauled the country’s widely criticized, 29-year-old framework to eliminate toxic lead from drinking water on Tuesday last week, but critics charge that the new rule gives utilities far more time than before to finally replace old, lead-contaminated pipes.
The new rules come six years after the Flint, Michigan, water crisis highlighted ongoing, dangerous exposure of children and others in the city to the neurotoxin in drinking water, and the failures of officials on all levels to adequately protect local families at the time.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-critics-epa-lead-tainted-water/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
The aquifer that supplies Chicago suburb Joliet’s drinking water is expected to dry up by 2030.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/water-withdrawal-contaminated-farmers-water-quality/
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The Flint City Council on Tuesday signed off on its portion of a $641 million settlement with residents of the poor, majority-Black city who were exposed to lead-tainted water.
The city’s insurer would kick in $20 million as part of a sweeping deal to settle lawsuits against Flint, the state of Michigan and other parties.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-flint-joins-641m-deal/
DETROIT (AP) — A judge said Monday that she’ll wait until January before deciding whether to give preliminary approval to a $641 million settlement in a lawsuit by Flint residents who were exposed to water contaminated with lead and bacteria.
Residents in the city of 100,000 still will get a chance to give their opinion if preliminary approval is granted, U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-judge-residents-641m-flint-water-deal/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan lawmakers on Wednesday planned to begin swiftly passing a plan to borrow $600 million to fund the state’s proposed settlement with the residents of Flint, who sued after their municipal water supply was contaminated with elevated levels of lead for 18 months.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-michigan-borrow-600m-flint-water-settlement/
By Amy Diaz, Flint Beat, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Flint, MI– Lorraine Taylor remembers when she first started having to fit bottled water into her already tight $20 weekly grocery budget.
She remembered thinking about how blessed she was to have a car so she could drive to the grocery store.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/what-should-justice-look-like-for-flint-after-the-water-crisis-residents-weigh-in/
Flint has taken important steps toward resolving the lead contamination crisis that made the impoverished Michigan city a symbol of the drinking water problems that plague many U.S. communities, officials said Monday.
A total of $120 million in federal and state funding has helped Flint replace more than 9,700 lead service lines, which carry water from main pipes into homes, said Kurt Thiede, administrator of the U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/ap-officials-flint-makes-progress-toward-ending-water-crisis/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
Just 150 miles from Lake Michigan, utility planners are worried about finding enough water to supply a growing Indianapolis because of climate change.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/12/drinking-water-climate-change-lead-first-nations-waukesha-pipeline/
By Amy Diaz, Flint Beat, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Flint, MI– Attorneys involved in the Flint Water Litigation provided an overview of the $641.25 million water settlement Nov. 23 on the City of Flint Facebook page.
This information session followed the proposal of a $20 million contribution to the settlement by the city’s insurer.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/641-million-flint-water-settlement-residents-attorneys/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
Research has long shown that pollution often disproportionately affects low income — especially Black and brown — communities.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/drinking-water-wisconsin-contaminants-lead-pipes/
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of residents of Flint, Michigan, who were harmed by lead-tainted water now totals about $641 million, officials revealed Tuesday.
The lawsuit was the result of workers following state environmental officials’ advice not to use anti-corrosive additives.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/ap-flint-water-lawsuit-settlement/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/11/pfas-news-fish-wisconsin-canada/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Illinois:
In March, the Illinois Commerce Commission announced an emergency moratorium on utility shut-offs to protect customers during the COVID-19 health crisis, but most major Illinois providers resumed service disconnections by late summer.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/drinking-water-illinois-covid-19-coronavirus-ontario/
By Robin Erb, Bridge Michigan, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
The Great Lakes News Collaborative includes Bridge Michigan; Circle of Blue; Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television; and Michigan Radio, Michigan’s NPR News Leader; who work together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/covid-testing-lead-poisoning-michigan/
By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Before her 73-year-old mom contracted Legionnaires’ disease at a nursing home earlier this year, Monique Barlow knew little about the deadly pneumonia and the waterborne pathogen that causes it.
“Until then, I didn’t give it much thought,” says Barlow.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/legionella-dangerous-pathogens-drinking-water/
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday ordered Flint to check for lead or galvanized steel water lines in neighborhoods built since the 1990s, despite the city’s belief that the homes have copper pipes.
Flint is in the homestretch of digging down to water lines at more than 20,000 properties and replacing them if necessary, the result of a deal that settled a lawsuit by residents and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-judge-flint-water-lines-newer-neighborhoods/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
The Environmental Protection Agency is set to install six groundwater monitoring wells to investigate the contaminated water plume beneath much of Kokomo.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/drinking-water-wisconsin-wells-septic-first-nations-lead-pipes/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration is seeking to fast-track mining projects and could offer grants and loans to help companies pay for equipment, administration officials said Thursday, as they offered details on a plan that critics said could spoil rivers and lakes in Minnesota, Idaho and elsewhere with mining pollution.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-trump-mining-minnesota/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a $500 million plan Thursday to upgrade drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in Michigan that includes actions such as replacing lead service lines and removing chemical pollutants.
The initiative, dubbed MI Clean Water, calls for creating a pot of money from which local governments could apply for grants or loans to improve their water treatment systems.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/10/ap-whitmer-michigan-500-million-water-infrastructure-plan/
It’s convenient to think of fixing a problem and it’s done. But that doesn’t apply to the long-neglected legacy polluted sites in the Great Lakes region.
In simple terms we think of a cleanup as removal of something that, left unattended, will become a nuisance or a problem.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/toxic-great-lakes-sites-capping-dredging/
By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
This story is the first in a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from the Park Foundation and Water Foundation.
Once a week, Florencia Ramos makes a special trip to the R–N Market in Lindsay, California.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/drinking-unsafe-water-contaminants-solutions/
Detroit water rights advocate Monica Lewis-Patrick has a few questions for presidential candidates incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
“What’s your water policy? What will you do to protect our drinking water,” Lewis-Patrick asked in a July Healing Our Waters Coalition press release that asked the candidates to support a Great Lakes water platform.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/2020-candidates-water-quality-great-lakes-states/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday finalized its weakening of an Obama-era rule aimed at reducing polluted wastewater from coal-burning power plants that has contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers
The change will allow utilities to use cheaper technologies and take longer to comply with pollution reduction guidelines that are less stringent than what the agency originally adopted in 2015.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/ap-trump-administration-coal-plant-pollution-rollback/
By Judith Lavoie, The Narwhal
This story originally appeared in The Narwhal and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
New global industry standards for dealing with mine waste are not enforceable, fail to set measurable standards and will not protect communities, workers or the environment from disasters such as the 2014 Mount Polley spill or the deadly 2019 Brumadinho dam failure in Brazil, says an international group of scientists, community organizations and non-profits.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/09/new-global-standards-mine-waste-dam-failures-critics/
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan regulators have rejected a suburban Detroit county’s plan to convert state waters into an open-air sewage treatment lagoon.
The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said Friday it had denied Macomb County’s application to place the structure at the end of the Chapaton Retention Treatment Basin.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/ap-michigan-macomb-county-sewage-treatment-lagoon-plan/
By Kari Lydersen, Energy News Network, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Illinoisans voiced their fears about coal ash silently contaminating their drinking water, or coal ash impoundments failing and deluging rivers with toxic sludge, during public hearings this week.
It was the latest step in a years-long debate in Illinois, which has the nation’s second-highest number of contaminated coal ash sites, according to a 2011 study.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/illinois-coal-ash-rules-state-proposal/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Minnesota:
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is reminding farmers and landowners that beginning Sept.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/drinking-water-contamination-mining-grants-tribal-communities/
By Matt Martinez, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Services, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
The city is significantly behind in its goal to replace 1,100 lead pipes by the end of the year, exacerbated in part by the ongoing pandemic, Milwaukee officials say.
As of Aug.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/milwaukee-significantly-behind-lead-pipes-by-end-of-year/
Great Lakes Moment is a monthly column written by Great Lakes Now Contributor John Hartig. Publishing the author’s views and assertions does not represent endorsement by Great Lakes Now or Detroit Public Television.
Guy O. Williams knew very little about the Great Lakes growing up in Lanham, Maryland, about 10 miles northeast of Washington, D.C.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/08/great-lakes-moment-guy-williams-environmental-justice/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full ory:
Indiana:
The White River Alliance, the premier organization for regional water resource protection in Indiana, is going virtual for the third annual Indiana Water Summit, a forum developed to examine the complex interests and issues that face Indiana’s water supply.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/drinking-water-lead-pittsburgh-ny-stream-protection/
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Clean water activists hope that water suppliers will remove an industrial pollutant under new water standards adopted Thursday in New York.
The state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council adopted standards that set a maximum level for how much of the hard-to-remove chemical 1,4-Dioxane can be in drinking water: 1 part per billion.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ny-activists-rules-pollutants-drinking-water/
DETROIT (AP) — Flint residents whose health and homes were harmed by lead-contaminated water scored a legal milestone Wednesday when the Michigan Supreme Court said they could proceed with a lawsuit against public officials for the disastrous decisions that caused the scandal.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-court-flint-class-action-lead-water/
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer criticized Enbridge Inc. on Wednesday for what she described as the company’s refusal to make an airtight pledge to pay for damages caused by a potential oil spill from its pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/ap-whitmer-enbridge-dodging-responsibility-line-5-oil-spill/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Click on the headline to read the full story:
Indiana:
When its water supply was running low in May, Andrews tapped into an unused well but was forced to shut it down again after the town found high levels of cancer-causing chemical vinyl chloride left over from a factory now owned by Raytheon Technologies.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/drinking-water-ohio-shutoffs-lead-exposure-private-wells/
By Beth Edwards, Indiana Environmental Reporter
Once known as the City of Mineral Water for the healing power of its spring-fed spas, Martinsville, Indiana, now faces the specter of health threats caused by the contamination of its water supply.
For the past 20 years, slow-moving groundwater plumes contaminated with potentially dangerous chemicals have seeped into the city’s municipal well field and drinking water plant.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/contaminated-indiana-water-health-threats/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
In this edition: Minnesota DNR decides water quality study is not needed for irrigation well, Saranac Lake drinking water has elevated sodium levels, New York will receive $22 million from EPA for water infrastructure projects, Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency holds public meeting to answer questions about 20-year clean water plan, Penn State webinar provides water management assistance for those on private water supplies, Pennsylvania grand jury finds state environmental and health departments did not properly oversee fracking industry, Ontario government seeks public comment on groundwater withdrawal proposal, Thunder Bay City Council approves loan program for private replacement of lead service lines, national plumbing standard revised to require greater protections from lead leaching, EPA decides not to set drinking water standards for chemical found in rocket fuel, and Environmental Working Group study finds nitrate contamination in thousands of communities is getting worse.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/07/drinking-water-fracking-pennsylvania-lead-epa-water-infrastructure/
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are on a roller coaster ascending the first and highest hill on the ride. You hear the click, click, click as the car slowly climbs to the top and you start getting excited, even nervous, the closer you get to the peak.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/michigan-history-environmental-contamination/
The Trump administration has made a habit of rolling back federal environmental protections over the past few years.
According to The New York Times, 100 environmental rules have been reversed since President Donald Trump took office. Among those rules are thirteen changes or proposed changes that directly impact the Great Lakes, other regional waterways and drinking water.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/regulatory-rollbacks-federal-water-protections-great-lakes-region/
From lead pipes to PFAS, drinking water contamination is a major issue plaguing cities and towns all around the Great Lakes. Cleaning up contaminants and providing safe water to everyone is an ongoing public health struggle in the region.
Keep up with drinking water-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/drinking-water-news-roundup-contamination-runoff-grants-lead/
This is the first in a three-part series that will explore the history of Lake Superior and the Boundary waters, the communities affected by two proposed copper mines, the arguments in favor and against the mines, and what the mines might mean for the future of the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/copper-mining-history-lake-superior-minnesota/
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The federal government is seeking the public’s input on its plan to clean up groundwater contamination at a Superfund site in Indianapolis that’s tainted with chemicals used by a dry cleaning company.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it would accept public comments from June 1 to June 30 on the agency’s proposed cleanup of the Keystone Corridor Ground Water Contamination site.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/06/ap-epa-public-comment-indianapolis-superfund-site/
A lot of focus has been placed on Dow Chemical Company—which is headquartered in Midland, Michigan—after two dams breached and flooded many areas around Midland County including near a Superfund site.
Dow stated in a press release Thursday that there were “no reported product releases” and though the floodwaters entered an on-site brine pond used for groundwater remediation, “material from the brine pond does not create any risk to residents or the environment.”
But while there might not be new contamination issues to deal with, much of the progress on the cleanup of Dow’s last chemical contamination might be lost.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/chemicals-contaminants-untreated-sewage-midland-dam-breaks/
By John Flesher, AP Environmental Writer
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — It took seven years to settle on a plan for cleansing two rivers and floodplains polluted with dioxins from a Dow Chemical Co. plant in central Michigan. The work itself has lasted nearly twice as long, with plenty still to do.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/ap-michigan-flood-pollution-dioxins-superfund-site/
By Walker Orenstein and Gabe Schneider, MinnPost, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
In late April, former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign held a virtual event with Minnesota supporters to promote the Democrat’s plans to address climate change and a clean environment.
But while U.S.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/joe-biden-minnesota-mining-line-3-pipeline/
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of widespread man-made chemicals that don’t break down in the environment or the human body and have been flagged as a major contaminant in sources of water across the country.
Keep up with PFAS-related developments in the Great Lakes area.
Great Lakes Now
https://www.greatlakesnow.org/2020/05/pfas-new-york-incinerator-oscoda-senate-bills-settlements/
