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, Fresh Editor
Weekly Watershed
- The town of Aurora, Illinois, has issued a moratorium on data center development, as momentum builds for other nearby communities to follow suit.
- A controversial fish farm project in the Maumee River basin, in Ohio, will move forward after the state EPA quietly issued a groundwater extraction and discharge permit.
- Wisconsin legislators, backed by Indigenous leaders, have drafted a bill package devoted to advancing “rights of nature” in the state and protecting fresh water from mining pollution.
- A new bill introduced in the Michigan House seeks to update funding rules and oversight of the state’s underground storage tank cleanup program.
Fresh from the Great Lakes News Collaborative
- Ford government wants more power over Ontario’s drinking water — The Narwhal
- EPA workers in Michigan region furloughed as federal government shutdown continues — Michigan Public
- Time running out for Great Lakes whitefish. Can ponds become their Noah’s Ark? — Great Lakes Now
- As data center boom hits Michigan, utilities hedge against a bust — Bridge Michigan
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
Data Center Moratorium: Aurora, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, has enacted a 180-day moratorium on new data center developments, the town announced in a press release late last month. The pause is meant to give city officials time to evaluate data center environmental and economic impacts, and revise zoning laws that currently classify these campuses as warehouses — a designation critics say is impractical and bypasses public input. No public hearings are required for buildings designated as warehouses.
“These facilities have unique neighborhood and environmental impacts — including noise, emissions, high energy and water use, stormwater management challenges, utility demand, infrastructure strain, and long-term fiscal considerations,” according to the City Council’s statement.
According to Data Center Map, there are more than a dozen data centers in the greater Aurora area, which draws most of its water from the Fox River, 16 deep wells, and five shallow wells. Aurora staff have responded to multiple neighbor complaints about these campuses, “demonstrating that our current policies do not adequately address these issues,” the council’s statement reads. Illinois has more than 200 data centers in operation.
Aurora’s decision may ripple across the metro area.
Environmental groups in neighboring Naperville have urged the town to adopt a similar moratorium. Kevin Burns, the mayor of Geneva and chair of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus energy committee, has also been on record expressing concerns over data center energy and water needs. The town’s lack of existing energy infrastructure, the Daily Herald reports, means it cannot recruit and host a large data center at this time.
In the News
AquaBounty Farms: The Ohio EPA has quietly approved a permit for a controversial fish farm to operate in Williams County, just west of Toledo, WTOL 11 reports. The five-year permit will allow AquaBounty Farms to build two mile-long pipelines near the town of Pioneer, in the Maumee River basin. One pipeline will draw groundwater from a local aquifer, while the other will discharge wastewater into the St. Joseph River.
News of the permit, which was officially granted on September 12 and went into effect on October 1, was never shared by AquaBounty, the Village of Pioneer, or the Ohio EPA. Its issuance revives the project, which had been on pause for over a year.
Rights of Nature: In early September, Wisconsin Republican legislators introduced a bill that would prohibit towns, cities, and villages from enacting any “rights of nature” ordinance — a designation that enshrines an individual lake, forest, or other ecosystem’s right to protection and conservation. The rights-of-nature movement has gained steady traction around the world since Ecuador’s 2008 decision to write these protections into its national constitution. In 2023, Milwaukee County became the only government in Wisconsin to sign a rights of nature resolution.
In response to this proposed bill, Wisconsin Democrats have drafted a three-bill package of their own.
LRB-4400 would formally recognize the inherent rights of nature in Wisconsin, and codify the state’s commitment to environmental stewardship.
LRB-4420 would grant specific rights to Devil’s Lake State Park, which includes a lake known to the Ho-Chunk people as Tee Wakącąk. Among the bill’s myriad statues are the park’s “right to natural water flow” and “right to natural groundwater recharge and surface water recharge.”
Finally, LRB-4418, a “prove-it-first” bill, would establish a moratorium on the Wisconsin DNR from issuing permits that allow sulfide ore mining until the department “determines that a mine has operated in a similar sulfide ore body in the United States or Canada for at least 10 years without polluting groundwater or surface water.”
Looking Ahead
Underground Storage Tanks: A bill introduced in the Michigan Committee on Natural Resources and Tourism seeks to modify the state’s procedures for cleaning up leaking underground storage tanks. HB 5115 would amend the state Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to set new deductibles — $2,000 for small operators, and $10,000 for larger ones — for cleanup claims and redefine eligibility and reporting rules for tank owners. The bill would also cap spending on administrative duties related to spills, in an effort to ensure funds are primarily used for actual cleanup.
You can find more stories from the Great Lakes region here.
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