Before closing out 2024, we want to take some time to celebrate some of the clean water wins this past year. The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is grateful for our partners across the eight-state Great Lakes region and these successes wouldn’t have been possible without their continual efforts; thank you, all!

REGIONAL

After years of advocacy, the Brandon Road Project Partnership Agreement was signed by all parties: the states of Illinois and Michigan and the Army Corps of Engineers. This project will include installation of technologies that will prevent invasive carp from entering Lake Michigan through the Chicago Area Waterway System.
The EPA proposed new Lead and Copper Rule improvements, mandating a 10-year time frame (with some limited exceptions) for the replacement of lead service lines.
Great Lakes advocates were a major part of seeing the introduction of a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in the U.S. Congress.

ILLINOIS

Illinois enacted the Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act to reduce single-use plastic bottles in hotels, decreasing plastic waste.

INDIANA

Nonprofit organization, Save the Dunes embarked on an advanced community recycling project. In just under 9 months, they collected 1,000 lbs of plastic, with the help from community members across all three counties in the Lake Michigan Watershed.

MICHIGAN

Nonprofit organization, the Conservation Resource Alliance is celebrating the completion of the Free Spanning the Maple River initiative—a 20-plus-year effort that successfully restored all 55 miles of the Maple River in Northwest Michigan.
Nonprofit organization, Alliance for the Great Lakes will assist the Michigan Department of Agriculture to track and monitor water quality in five of Michigan's priority sub-watersheds of the Western Lake Erie Basin to allow for better targeting of conservation efforts to reduce nutrient pollution.
Michigan’s wetlands received vital restoration funding thanks to Governor Whitmer's state budget. The Fiscal Year 2025 state budget includes $10 million for The Water Infrastructure Initiative – Green Infrastructure Project. As the first state program of its kind, the initiative will provide funding to encourage local municipalities to restore and conserve wetlands and undertake other proactive strategies before flooding events occur. The budget also includes $3 million for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to acquire and conserve wetlands throughout the state. This important work will benefit birds, other wildlife and communities.

*Wetlands at Michigan's Wigwam Bay State Wildlife Area. Photo credit: Erin Ford/Audubon Great Lakes*

A collaborative effort to eliminate the Environmental Rules Review Committee (ERRC) was successful earlier this year. The previous statute gave appointed individuals the ability to subvert the executive rule-making authority embodied in EGLE and inappropriately undermined the consensus of staff scientists and subject matter experts. By signing the legislation to remove authority of the ERRC, Governor Whitmer is ensuring the environmental rulemaking and review process will become more streamlined and effective in protecting our air, land, and water.
Michigan's 2024-2025 budget, signed in July 2024, includes $509.4 million for water infrastructure to fund lead service line replacement and water infrastructure, and climate change mitigation. $48.3 million is in the budget to provide loans and grants to local communities to support projects associated with lead service line replacement. It also made available $10 million for water utilities and municipalities to provide assistance on water bill payments across the state.

MINNESOTA

In the St. Louis River Area of Concern, the U.S. EPA approved the removal of four of the Beneficial Use Impairments.
The Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP) partnered with several organizations, including Duluth NAACP, to host community receptions in Duluth before MPCA community meetings. These receptions garnered much community involvement and led to the largest attendance of a cumulative impacts MPCA meeting.
The MEP partnered with Family Freedom Center, a Black identified organization, to organize a youth fishing event, providing youth with their own rods and poles to engage with the Saint Louis River. The event was aimed to provide a space for youth that have limited access to these activities to engage with the River.
The City of Duluth has made great progress utilizing both the federal and state funding for lead service line replacement. With 7,000 lines identified, the city has replaced 370 lines and is estimated to complete 600 replacement projects by the end of 2024.

NEW YORK

After two decades of advocacy, New York has proposed regulations to update their freshwater wetlands regulations, which is anticipated to result in the protection of an additional million acres of wetlands throughout the state.
The New York State budget included an additional $500 million for the Clean Water Infrastructure Act, leading the nation with over $5 billion invested since the program’s inception in 2017.
After voters passed the $4.2 billion New York Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act, the state has begun to fund efforts to protect water quality, build coastal resiliency, upgrade water infrastructure, and fight climate change.

OHIO

In Ohio, the Junction Coalition and Ohio Environmental Council co-hosted a community event in June to recognize the 10th Anniversary of the Toledo Water Crisis. The event highlighted the work on harmful algal blooms and gathered stories from community members about how they experienced the water crisis 10 years ago.
Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) and the Alliance of the Great Lakes have been successful in working with the Ohio Department of Agriculture on including conservation language throughout their rules and regulations. OEC and partners also published a whitepaper in response to the Ohio Domestic Action Plan, that provided information on to meet the goal of a 40% nutrient reduction in Lake Erie.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court allowed PennFuture and partners to become intervening parties in a lawsuit defending PA’s ability to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The court decision paves the way for groups to contest harmful environmental decisions by invoking the constitutional rights of their members.
In Pennsylvania, advocates were able to secure a budget with a recurring $50 million annual investment to the Clean Streams Fund. This is Pennsylvania’s first fund dedicated to tackling agricultural runoff, stormwater runoff, and acid mine drainage.

WISCONSIN

Milwaukee Water Commons will be the host organization for a US EPA funded Environmental Justice Advisor position for the Milwaukee Area of Concern. This position will play a role in ensuring that environmental justice is centered in all aspects of implementation in restoring the Milwaukee River Estuary Area of Concern.
The U.S. EPA has worked with Milwaukee partners on developing a job training initiative the first of its kind focusing on connecting marginalized communities to employment working in the Great Lakes Area of Concern Program.
Milwaukee partners were awarded $12 Million from the Inflation Reduction Act to both plant and maintain trees on public property, to eliminate hazard trees on public school property, to reduce the prevalence of impervious surfaces, and to fund a robust community engagement plan in partnership.
Wisconsin is starting a Lead Service Line Replacement Community Outreach Grant Program. This program will support partnerships between drinking water municipalities and community-based organizations to implement community outreach efforts in support of an ongoing or upcoming lead service line replacement project.
Wisconsin unanimously passed bipartisan legislation to invest in pre-disaster resiliency efforts by creating a new program to provide assessment and implementation grants to local communities for flood preparation and mitigation.

2024 Clean Water Wins