
The Great Lakes News Collaborative
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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The Great Lakes News Collaborative
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. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Subscribe to Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing
A biweekly breakdown of Great Lakes region news
This Week’s Watersheds:
- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s transition team includes an environmental justice subcommittee, whose recommendations focus on racial equity and curbing pollution.
- Cheboygan, Michigan, announced plans to replace half-century old wastewater technology with a new multimillion-dollar treatment plant.
- Plans for development and lakefront accessibility in downtown Cleveland will begin with a town hall meeting led by the mayor.
- A new agricultural export facility opened in Port Milwaukee, Wisconsin, connecting growers to overseas markets via the Mississippi River, Great Lakes, and St. Lawrence Seaway.
- The City Council in St. Paul, Minnesota, voted to implement water restrictions as the state reckons with drought.
For this and more of the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region, read Fresh.
Refresh
A Great Lakes News Collaborative series investigating the region’s water pollution challenges.
This series explores the Clean Water Act’s shortcomings in the Great Lakes, and how the region can more completely address water pollution in the next 50 years.
The collaborative’s four newsrooms — Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now, and Michigan Radio — work collaboratively to report on the most pressing water issues in the Great Lakes region. The collaboration is funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Great Lakes News Collaborative Wins US Water Prize
Circle of Blue, Bridge Michigan, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, and Michigan Radio recognized for journalistic achievement
Circle of Blue, as part of the Great Lakes News Collaborative, won the US Water Alliance’s annual US Water Prize. The prize honors groups, municipalities and media outlets that innovate or examine issues related to the natural resource.
The award is for “Outstanding One Water Communication” for the “Water’s True Cost” series examining the origins of Michigan’s water infrastructure crisis.
The Great Lakes News Collaborative consists of Circle of Blue, Bridge Michigan, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, and Michigan Radio, and is funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The Collaborative works together to bring audiences news and information about the impact of climate change, pollution, and aging infrastructure on the Great Lakes and drinking water. The independent journalism is funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
Previous winners in the category include the Arizona Republic, The New York Times, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and New Orleans Times-Picayune.
The US Water Alliance said the Great Lakes News Collaborative provided “a slate of excellent and comprehensive coverage of water issues in the Great Lakes.” And “these journalists are effectively driving the public conversation around water, the environment, and affordability.”
The award comes as water challenges – across the nation and around the world – are growing and are increasingly exacerbated by climate change. Water is often one of the first places climate impacts are felt by the public, particularly for low-income and communities of color. The U.S. Water Alliance estimates that 2,000,000 individuals across all 50 states experience a lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation.
“We face converging crises at the intersection of water, food, energy and climate change that are causing billions of dollars of disruptions, testing human and ecological resilience, and requiring us to be much more nimble and responsive,” said J. Carl Ganter, managing director and co-founder of Circle of Blue. “Circle of Blue and our partners are delivering the trusted reporting that communities and their leaders need to understand complex issues and inform decisions and that will affect all of us for decades.”
The collaborative has written extensively about algae blooms, municipal water costs, septic systems, rural water services, bottled water extractions, the health of the Great Lakes, Enbridge Energy’s Line 5, lead pipes and more.
The 2022 US Water Prize winners were selected from a pool of more than 160 nominations and applications, and the awards ceremony took place Tuesday, September 13 in Milwaukee.
Throughout the Great Lakes region and across the U.S., water systems are aging. In some communities, this means water bills that residents can’t afford or water that’s unsafe to drink. It means that vulnerable systems are even more at risk in a changing climate. From shrinking cities and small towns to the comparatively thriving suburbs, the true cost of water has been deferred for decades.
As the nation prepares to pour hundreds of billions of federal dollars into rescuing water systems, the Great Lakes News Collaborative investigates the true cost of water in Michigan.
After Decades of Neglect, Bill Coming Due for Michigan’s Water Infrastructure
Great Lakes News Collaborative Events
Lunch Break Discussion
Bridge Michigan and Circle of Blue hosted a Lunch Break discussion with water experts about the challenges and opportunities facing Michigan’s water systems.
Issues & Ale
From Michigan Radio, Environment Report host Lester Graham and the reporters of the Great Lakes News Collaborative discuss the true cost of water in Michigan.
“Water’s True Cost” TV Program
Great Lakes Now sums up the project’s findings in their monthly, magazine-style television program.
Ready or Not
The Great Lakes region is frequently touted as one of the most climate-resilient places in the U.S., in no small part because of its enviable water resources. But climate change also threatens water quality, availability, and aging water infrastructure by exposing existing vulnerabilities and creating new ones. In this series, members of the Great Lakes News Collaborative explored what it may take to prepare the Great Lakes region for the future climatologists say we can expect.
Water Could Make The Great Lakes Region a Climate Refuge. Are We Prepared?
Additional Coverage from the Collaborative
Water Infrastructure, Access, Affordability, and Drinking Water
Water Law and Policy
Groundwater, Septic, and PFAS
The Great Lakes and Climate Change
Solutions to Issues Facing The Great Lakes
Remembering Michigan’s PBB Crisis
Contamination of the food-supply chain in Michigan in the 1970s was one of the worst mass poisonings in U.S. history. The events still resonate today.