The Great Lakes: Unprotected documents how novel rule-making, staff cuts, and dramatic shifts in funding priorities are systematically unraveling a 60-year-old program of safeguards for the region’s rivers, lakes, wetlands, habitat, and drinking water. The government’s neglect sharply increases the region’s vulnerability to water pollution, land degradation, economic disruption and harm to human health.
A Nuclear Shift Buoyed by Billions, and the Waters of the Great Lakes
COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich. – As a study in troubled operation, the Palisades Nuclear Plant once was ranked by the federal government as one of the four worst-performing nuclear power stations in the country. The 51-year-old facility closed in 2022, joining Big Rock Point near Charlevoix and 11 other nuclear plants decommissioned outside Michigan in what…
Ohio EPA Considers ‘Lowering of Water Quality’ Necessary for Data Center Growth
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is considering approving a new permit that would allow data centers across the state to discharge untreated wastewater and stormwater directly into rivers and streams, an allowance that is without precedent across the Great Lakes region. With this permit — which also applies to stormwater associated with on-site industrial activity,…
An Obscure Provision In FEMA’s Program To Prevent Disaster Is Making Serious Flooding Worse
LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN — Since its creation in 1979, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been charged with protecting communities from natural disasters. Central to that mission is curtailing serious flooding, the most prevalent and severe weather threat to people and property across all 50 states. That objective, though, is impeded by an old and…
National AI Boom Hits Home as Demand for Power Surges
PLYMOUTH COUNTY, WISCONSIN — On a warm fall afternoon, dairy farmer Chris Kestell pushes through prairie brambles taller than himself, tracing a path overgrown with thickets and swarming with bees as he hikes toward a hidden waterway. Though the route is unidentifiable to the untrained eye, Kestell, 47, has lived here, in the small town…
Momentous Court Decisions Near For Line 5 Oil Pipeline
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – For 72 years, in order to serve as a shortcut for crude oil from production fields in western Canada to refineries in eastern Ontario, Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 pipeline has transported 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids daily beneath the forests and wetlands of northern Wisconsin and Michigan. Opened…
Three Great Lakes States at Greatest Risk as EPA Rolls Back Wetland Protections
On Monday, the U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers proposed a set of new rules that would leave millions of acres of wetlands, small waterbodies, and ephemeral streams across the country unprotected — threatening the drinking water of millions of Americans and leaving crucial habitat and floodplains susceptible to filling. These proposed changes were…
The Next Deluge May Go Differently
In early August, days after thousand-year rain fell on southeastern Wisconsin, officials waded through the devastation’s wake — and liked what they saw.
New Era of Confrontation Between Energy and Water Opens in Great Lakes
With accumulating force and accelerating speed, a new era of electrical generation and power demand is taking shape across the eight states of the Great Lakes basin – and with it come potentially treacherous consequences for the region’s environment and its world-leading supply of clean, fresh water.
Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing
The Great Lakes hold 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water, making them a vital resource for drinking, agriculture, industry, and energy across North America. But they are also at the frontlines of climate change, facing rising temperatures, fluctuating lake levels, pollution, and stressed ecosystems. What happens here offers a preview of global water challenges — from ensuring safe drinking water to balancing economic growth with environmental protection. Paying attention to Great Lakes news is not just about regional concern; it’s about understanding how water security shapes our shared future.
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.
The Latest
Fresh, February 18, 2026: Illinois Proposal Targets Data Center Water Use, Pollution
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
- Illinois legislators have introduced a bill requiring data centers to disclose and track the pollutants they are likely discharging to water treatment plants.
- A new study suggests that PFAS concentrations in all five Great Lakes have declined measurably over the past 20 years.
- A bill that would weaken environmental reporting requirements across Indiana moves one step closer to becoming law.
- Roughly 37 percent of Pennsylvania’s stream and river miles are impaired, according to a new analysis from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Fresh from the Great Lakes News Collaborative
- Michigan officials criticize end to EPA’s “Endangerment Finding” — Michigan Public
- A mining company says new tech could help it manage risk to groundwater — The Narwhal
- Michigan agencies, outside groups question Consumers dam sale plan — Bridge Michigan
- How Wild Rice Goes From Water to Table — Great Lakes Now
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
Power Agency: Legislators in Illinois have introduced a bill aiming to better understand and monitor data center water pollution. Senate Bill 3830 would require data centers to identify and track all likely pollutants in wastewater that is discharged from these facilities into treatment plants. The bill would also task the state Environmental Protection Agency with analyzing and assessing this data.
Recent investigations have shown that chemicals such as PFAS and nitrates, which are harmful to human health, are often a part of these data center discharges. The concentrations are high enough to be concerning, but their environmental and human health impacts have not been adequately studied. In September, the U.S. EPA ordered a priority review of these chemicals.
The bill, which is included in a larger package related to artificial intelligence and data privacy, would also charge the state Department of Natural Resources with maintaining water consumption data from these facilities in a publicly accessible website.
“This package is about responsibility,” says state Sen. Rachel Ventura in a statement. “Responsible innovation, responsible data practices and responsible stewardship of our communities and resources. Illinois can lead by setting smart, balanced guardrails that protect people while allowing technology to serve the public good.”
In Context: Ohio EPA Considers ‘Lowering of Water Quality’ Necessary for Data Center Growth
In the News
PFAS Declines: A study published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research suggests that concentrations of PFAS in the Great Lakes have gradually declined over the past 20 years, a trend that coincides with the phasing-out of “forever chemicals” — which have been shown to increase the risk for certain types of cancer and kidney and liver disease — from household products.
The study was conducted by researchers at the EPA’s Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division Lab in Duluth, Minnesota, a facility that last summer faced serious risks of defunding and closure amid the Trump administration’s staff and spending cuts.
The lab’s scientists examined frozen samples of walleye and trout from all five Great Lakes dating back 50 years. These samples had previously been studied to glean how pollutants including pesticides and mercury had traveled throughout the watershed, but the fish tissue had not been analyzed for PFAS until now.
Though it is encouraging that PFAS concentrations have decreased, the researchers make it clear that there is no established “safe” baseline for humans. In September, environmental watchdogs were alarmed when the U.S. EPA filed a court motion to vacate drinking water limits for four PFAS chemicals — GenX, PFHxS, PFNA, and PFBS. In January, a circuit court denied this motion.
Fish consumption advisories across the region, spurred by high levels of PFAS in waterways, remain common. In December, the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network (GLPAN) published a new online map detailing consumption and do-not-eat warnings in Michigan.
“For many Michiganders, fishing is not just recreation — it’s a tradition, a way of life, a means to put food on the table,” Tony Spaniola, co-chair of GLPAN, said in a statement. “As thousands of anglers head out to fish Michigan’s lakes, rivers and streams this winter, this tool serves as a critical resource to ensure people know if the fish they are catching are safe to eat. People shouldn’t have to comb through complicated government websites to figure that out.”
Indiana Environmental Protections: A controversial bill that would overhaul the scope of Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) by making dozens of mandatory environmental reporting provisions optional continues to gain momentum in the Legislature.
Senate Bill 277 passed narrowly out of the House Committee on Environmental Affairs last week in a 6-5 vote. The bill would eliminate more than 250 reporting mandates considered “unnecessary” and “burdensome,” and would no longer require IDEM divisions of air quality, water quality, land quality, legal counsel, and program support.
Environmental advocates have said the bill represents the state’s commitment to being no more stringent than the federal government’s environmental regulations, many of which have been rolled back in the past year.
Looking Ahead
Pennsylvania Stream Impairment: Approximately 37 percent of Pennsylvania’s 85,000 river and stream miles are impaired — up from 34 percent in 2024 — according to a draft water quality report from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Agricultural runoff, drainage from mining operations, and urban runoff were determined to be the three primary contributors to water degradation.
In a two-hour-long meeting last week, Pennsylvania’s House Committee of Environmental and Natural Resource Protection discussed the report’s findings with environmental scientists, county officials, and department leaders. Experts urged the committee to devote a greater number of resources to designing strategic projects, and identified state agency siloing as an impediment to watershed restoration.
“Human health is a priority for our surface water assessments and monitoring,” said Jill Whitcomb, the deputy secretary of the DEP’s Office of Water Programs. Roughly 80 percent of Pennsylvania’s residents receive their water from surface waters, which is slightly above the national average.
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