The Great Lakes hold nearly 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater, making them a resource of national and international importance. They power regional economies, support shipping routes vital to global trade, and provide drinking water to 40 million people across the U.S. and Canada. Safeguarding the Great Lakes is not only essential for the communities that rely on them daily, but also for the stability of North America’s environment, economy, and international partnerships.
Fresh is a weekly newsletter from Circle of Blue that unpacks the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region today. Sign up for Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing, straight to your inbox, every Wednesday.
— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Fresh Editor
Weekly Watersheds
- Researchers have quantified the effects of Clean Water Act rollbacks in Illinois, finding that 72 percent of the state’s wetlands are now federally unprotected.
- A bill introduced to the Pennsylvania House would add stricter oversight to the state’s new Agriculture Innovation Grant Program, which incentivizes conservation and clean energy usage on agricultural land.
- Nearly 150 residents in East Palestine, Ohio say environmental data was misrepresented and medical expertise was intentionally withheld from those who agreed to join a $600 million class action settlement last fall.
- In a federal bench trial, the EPA has requested that a coke production facility located at the confluence of the Rouge and Detroit rivers pay $140 million for repeated emissions violations.
Fresh from the Great Lakes News Collaborative
- House Republicans target “open fields” doctrine in proposed legislation — Michigan Public
- PFAS cleanups delayed by years at Michigan military sites — Bridge Michigan
- Boom or burden? Climate migration’s impact on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula — Great Lakes Now
- Sleepless nights, toxic smoke: life beside Canada’s first LNG export plant — The Narwhal
Bridge Michigan, Circle of Blue, Great Lakes Now at Detroit Public Television, Michigan Public and The Narwhal work together to report on the most pressing threats to the Great Lakes region’s water. This independent journalism is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Find all the work here.
The Lead
Following the February 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio that spilled vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials into the community, a flurry of lawsuits were filed by residents against the rail company seeking financial compensation for the lasting damage to the region’s lands, waters, air, health, and property.
In September 2024, a federal judge approved a $600 million class action settlement offered to everyone who resided within a 20-mile radius of the incident. The settlement included up to $25,000 for health expenses depending on one’s proximity to the spill. Some 55,000 claims were filed, CBS reported, though a vocal minority opted out of the settlement, arguing that its sum was not sufficient to cover community members’ medical expenses, which could last for multiple generations.
Now, nearly 150 East Palestine-area residents and plaintiffs claim they were misled into accepting the deal, saying Norfolk Southern and class council “concealed critical soil and water testing results, made false representations to class members about health risks, and misled this Court during the fairness hearing about the basis for their expert reports and about the representations made to class members.”
Last week, the plaintiffs filed a Relief from Judgement motion with an Ohio District Court that, if approved, would let them out of the deal.
In the aftermath of the derailment, the movants claim that reports from medical experts warning of potential long-term health impacts were never made public. Instead, they say, these concerns were downplayed during a town hall meeting.
“I would personally not expect one person to develop a cancer as a result of this exposure that is due to those chemical exposures,” said Dr. Arch Carson, who was introduced as an independent expert but, the movants claim, is in reality “a friend of one of the attorneys on the class action Plaintiffs Executive Committee.”
The motion also takes issue with EPA data collected in the spring of 2023, which appeared to show that toxic contaminants were already present in the community’s soils, despite independent testing that showed a significant spike in soil pollutants following the spill.
The knowledge that at least one person had already gotten sick as a result of the spill, the movants say, was also concealed from them.
“Defendants and class counsel negotiated a settlement agreement that effectively concealed from class members the conclusions of the plaintiffs’ experts, which to this day have never been disclosed to the class members,” the motion reads.
In the News
Agriculture Innovation Grant Program: Pennsylvania House Republicans this week introduced a new bill that would amend the commonwealth’s Agriculture Innovation Grant Program, which was introduced into the state budget last summer by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).
The program, the first of its kind in the country, sought to “help Pennsylvania agricultural businesses adopt innovative technologies and practices to enhance conservation and implement clean energy solutions,” according to a February press release announcing the inaugural grant awardees. A total of $10 million was given to 88 farmers for projects including wastewater treatment plant modernization, cover crop deployment, invasive species control, local food system development, hardwood processing, and the implementation of AI technologies.
These state awards arrived to a backdrop of federal funding cuts, with many USDA and EPA grants incentivizing local food system development and agricultural conservation practices either canceled or frozen.
HB 1895, sponsored by Rep. Marci Mustello (R-11), would create an Agriculture Innovation Board to oversee the grants, which were distributed this year by Pennsylvania’s Department of Agriculture.
“With the announcement came many questions as to the amounts and types of projects that were selected, and many members of the House of Representatives are still awaiting a satisfactory answer,” the bill’s memo reads. “Please consider supporting a commonsense measure to protect taxpayer dollars and make sure that the correct projects are selected to receive the grants.”
Looking Ahead
Zug Island: In a federal bench trial that concluded this week, the U.S. EPA requested that EES Coke Battery — a DTE Energy-owned facility and one of Michigan’s largest emitters of sulfur dioxide — pay $140 million for repeated Clean Air Act violations at its Zug Island location and begin operating with full desulfurizing technology within three years. Attorneys representing the facility say this sum amounts to a shutdown order, and offered instead to pay a $5 million penalty and install equipment that would reduce the facility’s emissions by roughly one-third. Both parties have until October 9 to submit their findings of fact for the case.
The EES Coke Battery facility operates at the confluence of the Rouge and Detroit rivers along the Canadian border. An epidemiologist who testified in court “said the social cost of pollution from EES Coke Battery from 2019-2022 totals $1 billion,” Planet Detroit reports.
By the Numbers
72
Percent of Illinois’ remaining wetlands that are no longer protected by the federal Clean Water Act following the 2023 Sackett v. EPA decision, according to a new study published last week by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers in the Journal of Environmental Management.
The state, which once encompassed 8 million acres of wetlands, now holds just 981,000 acres. Nearly three-fourths of these swamps, bogs, marshes, and vernal pools lack permanent surface connections to streams and other waterbodies or otherwise flood infrequently, landing them outside the more rigid protective standards established by the landmark Sackett decision. These lands no longer qualify as Waters of the United States (WOTUS).
Scientists have repeatedly criticized the rollbacks, emphasizing the ecological and economic importance of ephemeral and isolated waterways for their sub-surface connectivity and ability to mitigate the impacts of floodwaters and stormwater runoff.
“Unprotected wetlands in Illinois are estimated to provide $419 million in residential flood control benefits,” according to a university news release. Across the country, 50 percent of threatened and endangered plants and animals live in wetland ecosystems.
You can find more stories from the Great Lakes region here.
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