The Huron-Clinton Metroparks Board of Commissioners voted to authorize its attorneys to enter into the sale of the Flat Rock Dam to the City of Flat Rock for $5, Metroparks officials told The Metro. The offer also includes Metroparks providing $3 Million to the city for an improved fish ladder.
This decision follows months of community engagement and feedback, signaling a victory for organizers who opposed Huron-Clinton Metroparks’ proposal to partially remove the dam.
“It’s a positive sign and appears to have the potential to be something that will be reasonable and fair for everyone. The devil will be in the details,” John Webb, a member of the the Flat Rock Dam Coalition, told The Metro.
The Huron-Clinton Metroparks Board of Commissioners also agreed to delay action on ‘partial removal’ plan, “Alternative 2” in the feasibility study, until its November meeting.
Three proposals
A two-year feasibility study conducted by Huron-Clinton Metroparks produced three options for the future of the dam.
Full removal of the dam
Leave the dam as-is, but improve the fish ladder
Partial removal of the dam, with construction of rock arches
Metroparks CEO Amy McMillan recommended partial removal, saying it would maintain similar water levels of the impoundment and preserve recreation activities like kayaking and fishing.
But community activists and elected officials were not satisfied with the proposal.
Community opposition
Elected officials joined a chorus of community voices opposed to full or partial dam removal. Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown) wrote a letter to the Metroparks board members urging a no vote on dam removal.
Flat Rock’s mayor, Steve Beller, also both spoke at an August 14 board meeting after its city council unanimously passed a resolution to urge Metroparks not to remove the dam.
Brad Booth, president of the Flat Rock Dam Coalition joined the Metro on Wednesday to discuss his group’s concerns over the Metroparks’ proposal to partially remove the dam and replace it with ‘rock arches.’
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The future of a nearly 100-year-old dam in Flat Rock, MI will be determined tomorrow. The board of commissioners for Huron-Clinton Metroparks, who owns the dam, will vote on its long-term plans for the structure at 1 p.m. at Willow Metropark. The meeting is open to the public.
Three proposals
A two-year feasibility study conducted by Huron-Clinton Metroparks produced three options for the future of the dam.
Leave the dam as-is, but improve the fish ladder
Partial removal of the dam, with construction of rock arches
Full removal of the dam
The organization’s CEO Amy McMillan recommended partial removal, saying it would maintain similar water levels of the impoundment and preserve recreation activities like kayaking and fishing.
Community members and elected officials oppose all options that remove the dam, urging Metroparks to leave the dam as-is.
Brad Booth, president of the Flat Rock Dam Coalition, says ‘similar’ is not firm enough. His group wants a commitment from Huron-Clinton Metroparks to alleviate fears of a significant decrease in water level.
Booth told The Metro that in addition to recreational activities, his group is also concerned about property values and changes to flora and fauna.
Aging infrastructure
The aging dam is in fair condition but is classified as a “high hazard potential” by Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). That designation is an assessment of risk, meaning dam failure may cause serious environmental and infrastructure damage, or even loss of life.
A 2020 high-profile dam failure in Mid-Michigan led to severe flooding in Midland, MI, and Sanford Lake was emptied out, wiping out property values and recreation for lakefront homes there.
Elected officials weigh in
Elected officials have joined the chorus of community voices opposed to full or partial dam removal. Rep. Jamie Thompson (R-Brownstown) wrote a letter to the Metroparks board members urging a no vote on dam removal.
Flat Rock’s mayor, Steve Beller, also both spoke at an August 14 board meeting after its city council unanimously passed a resolution to urge Metroparks not to remove the dam.
Proponents of dam removals point to improved river health and biodiversity. They also mitigate the risk of catastrophic dam failures.
In the case of Flat Rock Dam, the Metroparks feasibility study for this project notes improved fish passage for sturgeon, walleye, and salmon to travel up the Huron River to spawn.
Brad Booth, president of the Flat Rock Dam Coalition, joined The Metro to discuss why his organization opposes partial or full removal of the Flat Rock dam.
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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Nothing makes Brad Lancaster happier than a monsoon downpour.
The tall 58-year-old jumped like a kid in the puddles on the sidewalk one recent August afternoon after a half inch (1.3 centimeters) of rain suddenly fell in Tucson, Arizona, during an especially dry summer.
“Sweet!” Lancaster exclaimed, beaming when he saw how the water pooled in a basin he had dug earlier in dirt planted with native vegetation along the public walkway.
“It’s really important that you are ready to plant the rain when it comes, even if it is a small amount,” he said, referring to a simple type of rainwater harvesting that involves digging a hole to allow rainwater to sink underground and be held like a sponge. “The key is to collect every drop of it.”
In the U.S. Southwest and beyond, home gardeners and landscapers are increasingly using collected rainwater to nourish their rose bushes and cactus gardens amid worsening drought and rising temperatures fueled by global warming.
Lancaster and other rainwater harvesting specialists say home gardeners anywhere can benefit from collecting raindrops and runoff from buildings and other surfaces to irrigate plants, even in wetter regions where the practice is less common.
Rainwater collecting is widespread in many of Earth’s driest regions. In Australia, it’s often used for drinking water, bathing and flushing toilets. And in Africa — where Lancaster said he learned more about the practice — it helps communities survive.
Saving the rain is also useful in southern Arizona, which is under pressure from a long-running drought. It’s drier than ever, with Tucson receiving less than half of the about 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain it usually sees by the first week of September.
A new collection tank stands alongside a poster of a rainwater harvesting system outside The Rain Store in Tucson, Ariz., on June 27, 2025. (Anita Snow via AP)
Some of the heaviest rainfalls in Arizona and other parts of the U.S. Southwest occur in the summer, during the annual North American monsoon season.
As much as two-thirds of residential water in the desert city is used outdoors, said Adriana Zuniga, an associate research professor in environmental policy programs at the University of Arizona.
“The idea is to use less water from the tap to irrigate,” she said.
Rainwater harvesting is by no means a modern revolution.
Zuniga, who has researched water use of the Maya people who lived in what is now Central America and southeastern Mexico, noted that the ancient civilization captured rainwater to survive dry, hot summers.
“It should be fundamental to how we live in the Southwest and ultimately everywhere else in the coming years in the face of climate change,” said Tucson landscaper Eli Nielsen, who co-owns a store that sells rainwater harvesting products including rain chains that guide water from atop buildings.
A pitcher of rainwater appears for visitors touring the nonprofit Watershed Management Group in Tucson, Ariz., on July. 19, 2025. (Anita Snow via AP)
Looking to create a rain collection system of your own? Here’s how to start:
Educate yourself
Find out if your state has restrictions on rainwater harvesting or requires a permit due to environmental or health and safety considerations. A tool created by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in collaboration with the Federal Energy Management Program can help.
See if your city or county water department has a program that encourages rainwater harvesting or has other resources. Your local community college or cooperative extension office may have educational programs offering guidance.
A water collection tank appears alongside an enclosure for chickens at the nonprofit Watershed Management Group site in Tucson, Ariz., on July. 19, 2025. (Anita Snow via AP)
In the case of Tucson, the city water department offers rebates of up to $2,000 for residential rain collection systems. It works with the local nonprofit Watershed Management Group to provide free 2½-hour classes residents must take to design a collection system that qualifies for a rebate.
One class anyone can attend virtually is the Essential Rain Water Course, offered for free on YouTube. It is co-hosted by water harvesting authority Peter Coombes, an honorary professor at the Australian National University and managing director of the independent think tank Urban Water Cycle Solutions, and Michelle Avis, co-founder of the Canadian organization Verge Permaculture.
Many proponents of collecting precipitation say the most authoritative book on the subject is Lancaster’s “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond,” along with a second volume published later. Lancaster also offers free resources to the public on his website.
Make a plan
Decide how ambitious you want to be.
Rain chains that direct water from atop buildings into storage containers, hang from the wall of The Rain Store in Tucson, Ariz., on June 27, 2025. (Anita Snow via AP)
Few people are going to be as dedicated to collecting the rain as Lancaster, said Hsin-I Chang, an assistant research professor in hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona. She gives Lancaster credit for the practice’s popularity in Tucson.
Active harvesting systems use storage tanks, pipes and sometimes pumps. But simpler passive systems are low-tech and work by shaping the landscape with basins and other contouring alongside trees and other foliage. That allows rainwater to gather and then sink underground to recharge aquifers and nourish thirsty plants nearby.
“It’s very easy to get started with contouring,” Chang said, noting that active systems can be more expensive to set up and maintain.
Looking for more help?
A rainwater sign is displayed on an outdoor sink at the home of harvesting expert Brad Lancaster in Tucson, Ariz., on Aug. 1, 2025. (Anita Snow via AP)
If you need assistance, consider hiring a landscaper with experience in harvesting systems. You can also seek out master gardeners at local nurseries or home improvement stores.
And you can look to Lancaster for inspiration, tapping into the joy he expresses every time the rain falls.
In June, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that they wanted to rescind the Roadless Rule, arguing that it created needless obstacles to land management. However, many conservationists say reversing this decision puts millions of forest acreage at risk.
The Roadless Rule, established in 2001, protects about 60 million acres of National Forest land all across the U.S., including Michigan. These areas have no roads, logging, or mining. Outdoors lovers, conservationists, and others value these lands for their natural wilderness.
When the rule was first proposed, it received over 1.5 million public comments in support, showing strong public backing.
Effects in Michigan
If the Roadless Rule is repealed, 16,000 acres in Michigan could be harmed. Most of Michigan’s roadless areas are in the Upper Peninsula including the Hiawatha National Forest, as well as parts of the Lower Peninsula, in the Manistee National Forest and Ottawa National Forest.
Anna Medema is the Sierra Club’s Associate Director of Legislative and Administrative Advocacy for forests and public land. She says keeping the Roadless Rule in effect is vitally important. “Once you build a road into a forest area it could take decades or centuries if you were to decommission these roads and try to let it regrow wildly,” Medema says. “Those wild characteristics are really rare.”
Trump administration officials say that removing the protections could help reduce wildfires by facilitating forest management. However, research shows that wildfires tend to happen more often in areas with roads because of human activity, negating potential benefits of road access.
In Michigan, wildfires are generally less common and less serious. Additionally, building roads and logging could actually raise the risk of fires.
The public can comment on the Roadless Rule here until September 19.
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For decades, fossil fuel companies championed the idea that climate change is solved through everyday personal habits — change your lightbulbs, recycle more, drive less — while they continued ramping up oil and gas production. BP even popularized the now‑ubiquitous carbon footprint calculator, nudging us into changing our behaviors rather than targeting the sources of the crisis.
A recent study found that people often misjudge which personal choices matter most. Many think recycling is the biggest fix, but it is actually cutting down on long flights, eating less meat, and even deciding whether to own a dog (pets have surprisingly large carbon footprints).
When people were shown the facts, they adjusted their intentions.
But there is a catch: when climate action was framed only as a personal checklist, participants were less likely to support big collective steps, like voting for climate policy or joining a march.
This tension speaks to the myth of personal responsibility in climate change.
Naomi Oreskes has written widely about how industries, from tobacco to oil, push this myth to delay real action. She is a professor of the history of science at Harvard University and co-author of the books “Merchants of Doubt” and “The Big Myth.”
She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how we can shift the focus back to meaningful climate solutions.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration was handed a win by a federal appeals court on Tuesday in its effort to freeze billions of dollars and terminate contracts for nonprofits to run a “green bank” aimed at financing climate-friendly projects.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency had blasted the Biden-era program as a waste of taxpayer money, tried to claw back funding that had already been distributed and accused the nonprofits of mismanagement.
A lower court said the EPA couldn’t support Administrator Lee Zeldin’s accusations and that the agency was wrong to try and end contracts with the nonprofits without substantiating allegations against them. On Tuesday, a divided federal appeals court ruled 2-1 in the agency’s favor, saying the EPA should not have been blocked from terminating the grants and that the arguments by the climate groups have no place in federal district court.
Instead, the case should be heard in a federal claims court that hears contract disputes, the appeals court ruled in a decision written by U.S. Appeals Court Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in his first term. The decision was a major loss for the groups who said they can only seek monetary damages in district court. The groups in this case were seeking an order allowing them immediate access to their funds, which total about $16 billion.
“In sum, district courts have no jurisdiction to hear claims that the federal government terminated a grant agreement arbitrarily or with impunity. Claims of arbitrary grant termination are essentially contractual,” Rao wrote in a decision supported by Judge Gregory Katsas, also a Trump appointee.
The appeals court ruling said the nonprofits’ arguments belong in federal claims court because they dealt chiefly with the underlying contracts the groups held with the federal government, not matters of law or the Constitution.
Climate United Fund and other groups sued the EPA, Zeldin and Citibank, which held the grant money on behalf of the agency, saying they had illegally denied the groups access to funds awarded last year. They wanted access to those funds again, saying the freeze had paralyzed their work and jeopardized their basic operations.
In order to provide the parties with an opportunity to appeal, the decision won’t go into effect immediately.
Climate United CEO Beth Bafford said in a statement, “This is not the end of our road.”
“While we are disappointed by the panel’s decision, we stand firm on the merits of our case: EPA unlawfully froze and terminated funds that were legally obligated and disbursed,” Bafford said.
Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said in her dissent that the groups provided evidence that the EPA disagreed with the program’s goals and tried to end it, while throwing around allegations against the groups that it couldn’t substantiate.
The EPA has damaged the green bank program “without presenting to any court any credible evidence or coherent reason that could justify its interference with plaintiffs’ money and its sabotage of Congress’s law,” Pillard wrote.
Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed reporting.
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, speaks during a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Visitors sometimes leave stuff behind at Great Lakes beaches. Broken pieces from plastic toys or bits of styrene from coolers can get lost in the sand.
One of the most common pieces of plastic trash found are cigarette butts.
Lake Michigan is connected to Duck Lake by a small channel. When the big lake gets high, plastic trash is pushed into the smaller lake by wind and waves. Then when the water recedes, a lot of the plastic gets caught in the vegetation on either side of that connecting channel. A lot of plastic.
I visited the Duck Lake State Park beach again two years ago and did another microplastics story, which included information about recovering plastic as a recyclable resources for a line of outdoor wear.
This year, I went back to Duck Lake for a third time.
It had been raining earlier in the morning. When I arrived, it was a little cloudy, but there was a nice breeze coming off Lake Michigan.
My plan was to spend an hour picking up trash along the road adjacent to the beach and on the beach itself. I wanted to see if there was a pattern of a lot of cigarette butts on the beach.
I had a small bag for cigarette butts. I also took a larger garbage bag, because I figured I’d pick up the other trash I found.
I was going to compare this beach with another one in the afternoon, so I decided to limit the time to one hour.
In that time, I picked up 158 cigarette butts.
I had thought I might find 60. Obviously, my estimate was way off.
An employee at the park told me some people park their cars next to the beach to enjoy the view of Lake Michigan, and then toss their cigarette butts on the ground while they’re there. There’s a bit of irony there, right?
The fibers in those cigarette filters can quickly break down into microplastics and that’s not good.
Volunteers hold cleanup days at Duck Lake State Park beach, but it’s difficult to keep up with the trash that’s inadvertently or intentionally left behind.
“Wildlife can be ingesting it. It can end up in our drinking water source for 40 million people. It’s also just, you know, adding to the litter on the beach itself, of course, having impact on the enjoyment of the beach, things like that,” said Olivia Reda. She organizes beach cleanups for the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
“Eighty-six percent of the pieces that we find in a given season are composed of either partially or fully of plastic. So, cigarette butts, again being part of that problem, you know, breaking down into small pieces, less than 5 millimeters, end up in the Great Lakes, or they can end up in the Great Lakes,” Reda said.
She also found microplastics in Great Lakes beer, although the amount didn’t necessarily correspond with the microplastics in the tap water supply. That might be because the grains used in the beer often come in sacks made of woven polypropylene.
She said even if plastic itself is inert, additives or chemicals absorbed from the environment could be harmful to human health.
“We found in marine environments, at least, these plastic particles are very good at absorbing chemicals from the water,” Kosuth said, adding “So things like PCB, DDT, brominated flame retardants, things like these can actually form a coating on the outside of the plastic particles, which means that we would be ingesting higher amounts of that.”
Is that really that much of an issue in the Great Lakes? A study out of the Rochester Institute of Technology estimates 22 million pounds of plastic debris enters the Great Lakes from the U.S. and Canada each year.
A cigarette butt that would be headed for Lake Michigan during the next heavy rain if not picked up.
My day on the road was not finished. I still had more trash to pick up. My next stop was Ludington State Park about an hour away. It’s a much bigger beach and has a lot more visitors.
One of the things that could help is more bins for litter and recycling. That’s what Andrea Densham has found. She’s Senior Policy Advisor for the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
She says scolding people who smoke for throwing their cigarette butts on the beach doesn’t help much. She says a different approach is better. For example, signs at the park encouraging people to join together to keep the beach clean are helpful.
“Maybe the best answer is both signage, reminding folks that birds and children enjoy the beaches and that having cigarette butts is really damaging.”
That is, damaging to both the experience at the beach and to the environment.
She said having more trash cans at or near beaches would help.
“There aren’t actually enough in many places, both recycling and litter bins, right by the beaches. And that causes some unnecessary eye-trash, I think.”
Densham said receptacles for cigarettes and cigars are also needed.
Overall she said all plastic trash is a major problem and society needs to eliminate single-use plastic products as much as possible.
After wandering around Ludington State Park’s expansive beach for a while, I only found four cigarette butts. The road to the park runs along the beach for about three miles. There are places to park your car along the way. I found about a half-dozen cigarette butts at each of those places.
Cigarette butts at one of the areas where cars pull off next to the Lake Michigan beach at Ludington State Park.
I talked to a guy who’d been walking the beach and he said he only saw a couple of cigarette butts along the way. So, not a lot of that kind of trash compared to what I found at Duck Lake State Park earlier in the day.
So, I tracked down the Park Manager, Jim Gallie, and asked him about that.
“At least once per month, we have volunteers that come out to the park and they have segments of the beach that they walk and the pick up litter. They pick up cigarette butts, any debris that they find. Anything that they find that is larger than something they can handle, they report that to us. So, we work closely with the Friends of Ludington State Park on that. And that’s, I think at least one reason why are beaches are in pretty good shape,” he said.
Not all the state, county, township, and city beaches have that extra help on a regular basis.
On September 20th is International Coastal Cleanup. The Alliance for the Great Lakes expect thousands of its Adopt-a-Beach volunteers to clear the beaches of trash at sites across the Great Lakes. I imagine that will include tens of thousands of cigarette butts. If you want to help, take latex or nitrile gloves with you. Picking up cigarette butts is kind of nasty and smelly. Trust me on that one.
A couple strolls the beach near the main swimming area at Ludington State Park.
Detroit is a manufacturing city and with this comes hazardous waste – toxic, reactive, flammable, and corrosive material that’s dangerous to people.
So what happens to all this hazardous waste? Federal and State Laws require facilities to obtain a license to store, dispose or treat it.
That includes EQ Detroit Inc., which operates a hazardous waste site in Midtown near the I-94 and I-75 interchange. The company’s license is up for renewal, and not all residents are in support.
But public sentiment is not the law, said Tracy Kecskemeti at the public informational meeting on Aug. 13. She’s the acting materials management division director for the Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy. EGLE is the state regulator that oversees these hazardous waste sites.
Producer Jack Filbrandt spoke to Detroit DocumentersColleen Cirrocco and Lynelle Herndon to learn more about what community members had to say. The next meeting on this issue is Sept. 4 at Tech Town.
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August is the best time of the year to take a dip in Lake Michigan, when its waters hover in the balmy upper 60s. Experts say so, and Chicago’s crowded beaches offer proof. But an invisible hazard can quickly turn a sunny day out into a sick night in.
In 2024, over 300 beaches across the Great Lakes closed to visitors or issued swim bans or advisories due to the presence of bacteria in the water — mostly E. coli, from nearby surface runoff or sewer system overflows, especially during heavy rain — according to state and federal data.
Bacteria levels triggered 83 advisories or closures in Illinois last summer, making it the second worst in the Midwest, with 71 in Lake County’s 13 lakefront beaches and 12 across nine beaches in Cook County. As of Thursday, Lake County beaches have had 49 advisories this summer, according to data from the state’s Department of Public Health. There has been at least one beach advisory in Cook County so far, according to Evanston officials.
“What we want, really want, to see is not that people say, ‘Well, that’s just the way it is.’ It shouldn’t have to be this way,” said Nancy Stoner, senior attorney at the Environmental Law and Policy Center, who focuses on clean water issues. “It’s pollution that can be controlled and should be controlled, because people deserve to be able to know that they can swim safely in the Great Lakes.”
In Wisconsin, 90 beaches closed or had advisories between May and September 2024 — representing the most lakefront locations affected — followed by Illinois, Ohio with 67, Michigan with 62, Indiana with 20 and Minnesota with 17, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Beach Advisory and Closing Online Notification system, which ELPC analyzed.
Even these numbers are just a starting point. In addition to different frequencies in testing among municipalities, there can also be a lag time by states in filing this information to the U.S. EPA. For instance, the federal agency’s system lists no advisories or closures for Illinois in 2024, data that currently can only be found on the state website. According to a spokesperson, the IDPH attempted a submission, which was rejected because of formatting compatibility issues. The state agency said it continues to work to rectify the situation with the U.S. EPA.
“Beachgoers should be able to rely upon the information provided by U.S. EPA to find out whether the beach they want to go to is safe for swimming,” Stoner said. “They can’t do that right now, and the fact that wrong information is being provided by U.S. EPA makes the situation even worse. U.S. EPA needs to fix this problem right away so that beachgoers don’t unknowingly swim in contaminated water and risk getting sick.”
Known as the BEACON system, it is supported by federal grant funding that allows officials to monitor water quality and bacteria levels. Symptoms in humans exposed to this and similar pathogens can include nausea, diarrhea, ear infections and rashes. According to scientists, each year, there are 57 million cases of people getting sick in the United States from swimming in contaminated waters.
When a certain safety threshold set by the U.S. EPA is exceeded, local officials can decide to issue a swim ban or advisory. Three locations, all north of Chicago, exceeded the EPA’s threshold on at least 25% of days tested last year: North Point Marina Beach, Waukegan North Beach and Winnetka Lloyd Park Beach, according to data from BEACON analyzed in a July report by advocacy nonprofit Environment America.
Chicago tests the water in all its public lakefront beaches every day of the summer, unlike communities in Lake County, which only test four days a week. The report also found that, on the city’s 26 miles of public lakefront during the 2024 season, at least four beaches had potentially unsafe levels between 14% and 21% of the days that the water was tested, including 31st Street Beach, Calumet South Beach, 63rd Street Beach and Montrose Beach.
Most of the funding for testing and monitoring comes from the BEACH Act, or the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act, which has protected public health in recreational waters across the country since its unanimous passing 25 years ago. Since then, the U.S. EPA has awarded over $226 million in grants for these programs.
“(It) is a small program for a federal program, but a lot in funding” impact, Stoner said.
People cool off in Lake Michigan near 57th Street in Chicago as the temperature hovers in the upper 90s on June 23, 2025. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)
However, in its 2026 proposed budget, the administration of President Donald Trump suggested slashing the EPA’s budget and clean water programs. In July, the House Appropriations Committee approved a 25% cut in the agency’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which helps states manage wastewater infrastructure to ensure the cleanliness of waterways.
The proposed cuts come at a time when humid weather and heavier storms, intensified by human-made climate change, are overwhelming outdated sewer systems and releasing human waste into waterways. Stormwater can carry runoff pollution and manure from industrial livestock operations into beaches. E. coli also grows faster in warmer water, so increasing lake temperatures pose a growing risk to swimmers.
Advocates say that — for the sake of public health and recreation — the federal government must continue to ensure funding for these programs and support the staff and institutions that uphold environmental protections.
“The BEACH Act is a piece of it. That’s about monitoring and public notification. That’s important,” Stoner said, “but really, funding the underlying work that needs to be done is essential. So, funding the EPA, funding the staff at the EPA, funding these labs throughout the Great Lakes, funding NOAA … There’s a whole system.”
While it doesn’t often do so, Chicago is one of 158 communities authorized to discharge sewage into the Great Lakes.
Besides Chicago, cities like Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio, have also updated their sewer systems and reduced the raw sewage they send flowing into the Great Lakes, thanks in no small part to federal infrastructure funding. These systems, advocates say, might offer a blueprint for the safety of beachgoers across the basin.
“There are solutions. We just have to invest for them to happen,” Stoner said. “So, it’s not a technological problem. It’s a … failure to decide that we want to solve this problem with solutions that exist.”
Emily Kowalski, outreach and engagement manager at the research and education center of Environment America in Illinois, said investments should go beyond upgrading sewage systems and focus on green infrastructure or natural, permeable surfaces like green roofs, parks and wetlands, which can help absorb rainwater and reduce flooding.
“A lot of these problems are things that we know how to fix and mitigate, but they do take money,” she said.
A report released by the U.S. EPA last year found the country needs at least $630 billion to address wastewater, stormwater and clean water infrastructure needs over the next 20 years.
“We need Congress to fully fund the Clean Water State Revolving Fund so that we can enjoy Chicago’s beaches, but also so (that) when we are on vacation on other shorelines or coastlines, we can enjoy beaches that are safe for swimming,” Kowalski said.
Sewage and animal waste
Every morning between Memorial Day and Labor Day, a handful of University of Illinois Chicago students head out to the city’s public beaches. As the sun rises and the day starts, they wade into the lake at each location and collect water in two plastic bottles.
The samples are then tested in a laboratory to detect the presence of genetic material from Enterococci — bacteria that, like E. coli, live in the intestines of warm-blooded animals such as humans.While Enterococci are not considered harmful to humans, scientists test for their presence in water as an indicator that other disease-causing microbes like E. Coli might be present from possible fecal contamination. In a few hours, the results allow the Chicago Park District to issue the necessary water quality advisories for any of its beaches.
UIC student Andre Mejía collects water samples for testing at Rainbow Beach on Aug. 8, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) Í
If the concentration of Enterococci in water samples from a beach registers an estimated illness rate of 36 per 1,000 swimmers, following U.S. EPA criteria, the Park District will issue a swim advisory. But the agency rarely issues full-on swim bans based on water quality; for that to happen, test results need to correspond with an event when sewage flows into the lake, said Cathy Breitenbach, natural resources director at the Chicago Park District.
“Our river flows backwards. Sewer overflows are pretty rare these days, and even when they do occur, they don’t go into the lake,” Breitenbach said.
That is, unless intense precipitation levels overwhelm sewers already overflowing within the city, and officials open the locks between the river and the lake and reverse that flow.
“Then we’d issue a systemwide ban until we test below the threshold,” she said.
The last time this occurred and a ban was issued in Chicago was in July 2023. The locks near Navy Pier were opened to relieve the pressure on the sewer system during heavy rainfall, allowing more than 1.1 billion gallons of murky, bacteria-laden waste to flow into Lake Michigan.
While sewage contamination from heavy storms attracts the most attention, waste from animals, such as seagulls and even dogs, can be washed by rain into the lake and is often the biggest source of bacterial concentrations across Chicago beaches.
“We have so many beautiful buildings, but when water falls on our city, that water runs off of our roads into our waterways, picking up pollutants along the way,” Kowalski said.
Runoff can contaminate Lake County beaches, too, when waste from waterfowl makes its way into the lake.
“Some of it is very localized,” said Alana Bartolai, ecological services program coordinator at the Lake County Health Department. North Point Marina Beach, she said, is well-known in the community because “the seagulls and the gulls love it.”
It’s a recurring observation among department staff when they conduct monitoring at the county’s lakefront beaches. Waukegan Beach has the same issue.
“When we take samples … we routinely are recording 300-plus gulls on the beach,” at those two locations, Bartolai said.
North Point Marina and Waukegan beaches accounted for almost half of all bacteria-related advisories and closures issued in Lake County last summer and so far this summer.
Bartolai said most of the advisories and swim bans in 2024 were weather-related. “Even though we were in drought conditions, we did still have heavy rain events,” she said.
Because swimmers at a lakefront beach are engaging in an activity in a natural body of water, “there’s no such thing as no risk,” Breitenbach said.
Earlier this month, at a beach in Portugal, over 100 people had to be treated for nausea and vomiting after swimming.
“When you see reports like this, you’re really thankful that Chicago is so ahead and has been doing (testing) for over a decade now,” said Abhilasha Shrestha, a University of Illinois Chicago research assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences who leads the laboratory testing for the city’s public beaches.
The rapid test the Chicago Park District is now using cuts the wait time down to only three to four hours, providing the most up-to-date information to ensure the safety of beachgoers. Before the city’s partnership with UIC began with a pilot program in 2015, testing relied solely on culturing E. coli, a laboratory process that incubates live cells in an artificial, controlled environment — with results available in 18 to 24 hours.
“It didn’t really make sense, because you were telling people what the water was like yesterday and doing the closure or advisory the day after,” Shrestha said.
But some municipalities say they can’t afford the more expensive rapid test.
“Not every community has the funding or has the setup where their beaches get tested every single day,” said Kowalski of Environment America in Illinois.
The Lake County Health Department uses the more time-consuming culture method to test water samples for E. coli — largely due to resources and funding constraints to adopting the faster methodology, officials said.
“The cost of it is almost like 10 times the cost of running an E. coli sample in our lab,” Bartolai said. “But we are looking at it, because there is that need to have that quicker turnaround.”
She said many Lake County suburbs take precautions such as raking the sand at their beaches to clear droppings from geese and seagulls “so that when it rains, it’s not getting washed in.”
In Chicago, Park District staff clean the public beaches daily, starting before dawn. Operations include tractors pulling raking machines, supporting crews of laborers who pick up litter and empty trash cans by hand and beach sweepers who clear paths for pedestrians and bike trail users. Kowalski said beachgoers can also help by picking up after dogs and ensuring babies wear swim diapers.
“(We) ask people to help, to do their part, to keep the water quality good and the beaches clean,” Breitenbach said. “Put your garbage away, don’t feed the birds, listen to the lifeguards.”
More information
Beachgoers across the Great Lakes can find water quality monitoring results on state government websites such as the Illinois Department of Public Health’s BeachGuard page or from volunteer-led efforts in nonprofits such as SwimGuide.
Beach advisories in Chicago are updated on the Park District’s website and with an on-site color-coded flag system that indicates whether conditions are safe for people to swim. These can change throughout the day due to bacteria levels in the water, as well as weather like lightning or high winds, and surf conditions like high waves.
In Chicago public beaches, three colored flags indicate three different things: red for a swim ban, yellow for a swim advisory, which means that swimming is allowed with caution, and green for permitted swimming. On any given day, the flag color between noon and 1:30 p.m. likely indicates the most recent information from water quality test results.
UIC student Andre Mejía collects water samples on Aug. 8, 2025, at Rainbow Beach as part of a collaboration between UIC and the Chicago Park District to have water tested. The results allow the Park District to relay the most up-to-date water quality conditions on its website and through a color-coded flag system. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
The Michigan Apple Committee estimates growers will harvest about 30 million bushels of fruit in 2025. That’s about 1.2 billion pounds.
Good weather helps
The committee’s executive director, Diane Smith, says the weather has been perfect for growing apples.
“We’ve had a little hail here and there, but generally that stays localized and doesn’t affect the overall crop,” she says.
Michigan grows a wide variety of apples. Image from michiganapplles.com
Michigan has more than 850 family-owned apple farms and over 17 million trees covering 38,000 acres.
Smith says new farming methods have yielded several bumper crops.
“We’ve gone to more high-density planting,” she says. “So instead of having 250 trees to an acre, you can have up to 2,000 trees per acre.”
The future could look different
While the weather has been ideal, Smith says climate change could eventually affect the industry.
“As temperatures continue to rise, we’re seeing less rain at different times during the summer,” she says. “In 10 or 15 years, there could be a shift in some of the varieties that we grow.”
Michigan is one of the top three apple producing states, behind Washington. It competes with New York for second place.
Smith says the industry also competes with other fruits, and that could take a bite out of sales.
“People aren’t eating as many apples as maybe they used to,” she says. “You go into the grocery store, and you can get different products year-round that maybe before you couldn’t get.”
Labor is another challenge
Smith says most Michigan apple farms rely on migrant workers to pick the fruit in the fall. She says that’s costly, but necessary.
“We just don’t have enough domestic workers that want to do the harvest,” she says. “Not many people just want a job for six weeks.”
Smith says she is not aware of any immigration raids at Michigan apple farms this summer. She also says tariffs have had little impact, though some producers face higher prices for imported chemicals to spray their crops. But she says most growers utilize organic methods.
“They don’t want to spray unless they absolutely have to,” she says.
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Palmer Park provides a peaceful escape from the noisy, hot summer streets of Detroit.
Spanning roughly 70 acres of forest, the park is home to over one hundred native plant species including treasured, towering oaks — some of which are centuries old. It serves as a sanctuary for wildlife such as pollinator bees, butterflies, birds, deer, and coyotes.
There are many reasons that Palmer Park is one of the most popular urban parks in Detroit, but taking a closer look at the conditions of the tree canopy has one forestry educator concerned for the future.
Jackson Gorland identifying sassafras in Palmer Park
He recently conducted a forest forensics lesson at Palmer Park on a hot, humid Tuesday where he said that fewer tree species are thriving in the park without human intervention, risking reduced biodiversity.
“Having a diversity of species in there…not just relying on a couple of species that are shade tolerant,” Gorland says. “Absolutely have beech in there, absolutely have sugar maple in… it’s [about] creating a mosaic of different conditions that promotes biodiversity.”
Gorland stresses that hands-on actions are needed to ensure the survival of Palmer Park’s oaks, which require full sunlight. According to
Gorland, shade-tolerant species are crowding them out. There are also more mature oaks than young saplings, a sign that future survival is in jeopardy.
The park recently did a prescribed burn to help young oaks, but further consistent interventions are needed, says Gorland.
The Michigan Forestry Club plans to host additional forest forensics classes across parks in Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor.
WDET’s Natalie Albrecht contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: Edited on 9/2/25 to correct a misattribution in photo caption. Gorland is identifying sassafras, not saffron. We apologize for the error.
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The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) may take legal action after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the termination of “Solar for All”, a $7 billion national program designed to bring solar energy to low-income areas. This comes after the state awarded funding to more than a dozen pilot projects.
On August 7th, the EPA called for an end to the national Solar for All program, walking back a promised $156 million investment in Michigan’s renewable energy future.
Projects in the city of Detroit, as well as Wayne, Oakland, Chippewa, Berrien, Hillsdale, Kent and Kalamazoo counties are affected, some already under construction.
EGLE Director Phil Roos said in a statement that the program aimed to lower energy costs, create local jobs, and help vulnerable residents maintain power in extreme weather events.
At this time, EGLE says it is consulting with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to determine what actions they can take.
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The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy launched an online resource to help state residents understand, prepare for and deal with wildfire smoke.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires has blanketed Michigan this summer, prompting state air quality meteorologists to issue a warning on 31 days for at least part of Michigan. In 2023, there were fewer warnings issued but the concentrations of smoke were higher.
The state’s new webpage, Michigan.gov/EGLEWildfireSmoke, includes links to the MiAir tool that shows air quality readings at state air monitors, a signup page for the state’s air quality notification system and answers to common wildfire questions.
Exposure to wildfire smoke is dangerous for people’s health. The smoke is made of very small particles, some of which can get into people’s lungs and bloodstreams.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said particulate matter exposure can cause coughing, difficulty breathing, irregular heartbeats, asthma attacks and more. University of Michigan researchers also linked wildfire smoke exposure to dementia.
Children, adults over 60 and people with lung or heart disease are most at risk of exposure. Pregnancy and working outdoors also increases risk.
While people can’t control wildfire smoke that drifts into their communities, they can take steps to protect themselves from exposure, EGLE said.
For instance, people can try to stay indoors when wildfire smoke is present, or can wear an N-95 mask while outdoors to avoid inhaling the pollutant. They can avoid exercising outdoors when air quality is bad.
To keep indoor air safe, they can use window air conditioning units on the “recirculate” setting or run forced air systems on “fan” or “cooling” settings, EGLE said.
People also can limit outdoor activities like campfires or running gas-powered vehicles or limit the indoor use of gas-powered appliances to limit exposure to particle pollution, EGLE said.
Climate scientists say Canadian wildfires will continue as humans continue to use fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases and warm the atmosphere. Climate change causes hotter, dryer conditions that make wildfires more likely.
Good wildfire management can help, but it’s expensive and difficult in the remote regions of northern Canada.
EGLE has three meteorologists who develop air quality forecasts for particulate matter pollution and ozone pollution, EGLE said in a press release about its new website. They use weather models to make their predictions and share their forecasts with the National Weather Service and news media.
They categorize air quality as good, unhealthy for sensitive groups, unhealthy, very unhealthy or hazardous. They issue advisories when forecasts say air quality will be unhealthy for sensitive groups. They issue warnings when they predict it will be worse.
An aerial photo released on June 2, 2025, shows smoke rising from a wildfire near the northern British Columbia town of Fort Nelson, Canada. (Lin Wei/Xinhua via ZUMA Press/TNS)
EGLE environmental quality analyst Eddie Kostelnik says microplastics are ubiquitous.
“We’ve found them in humans and organisms throughout our ecosystem,” he says.
Figure from the Final Report of the International Joint Commission Great Lakes Science Advisory Board Work Group on Microplastics.
What are they?
Microplastics come in many types, including scented beads and synthetic clothing fibers. They can also form when larger items such plastic bottles break up over time.
Kostelnik says the summit will explore the risks microplastics pose to human health and the environment.
“I think there are still some holes in terms of human health effects,” he says. “But we have started to see some organism health effects trickle in.”
Experts will also examine how microplastics interact with other contaminants and where they go.
Researchers make progress, but want to learn more
Kostelnik says research has produced better ways to detect and identify microplastics. He adds it is possible to reduce the amount of microplastics in the lakes.
“There are certainly ways that we can reduce plastic use and replace plastic products with reusable alternatives,” he says.
Kostelnik says anyone who’s interested in the issue can attend the virtual summit, whether they’re experts or not.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
The Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township got one step closer to reopening after federal regulators allowed the plant’s owners to load fuel into the facility. Some reporting suggests that Holtec International plans to reopen the reactor by October.
That move is part of a larger trend.
In recent years, there’s been a lot more political energy behind opening nuclear reactors. During his time as president, Joe Biden unveiled a plan to ramp up America’s nuclear energy capacity. When he got into office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order with the goal of quadrupling nuclear power in 25 years.
Many climate change defenders are divided on these decisions. That’s because nuclear energy could provide a ton of clean energy for Americans, but it also has the capacity to kill people and contaminate the earth. That’s why environmentalists have generally stood against the nuclear energy comeback.
In order to assess nuclear energy in terms of risk and reward, journalist, editor, producer, and co-founder of Foxtopus Inc Laura Krantz joined the show.
She produced the 2022 podcast, “Wild Thing: Going Nuclear,” where she explored the possibilities and drawbacks of nuclear energy. Krantz spoke with Robyn Vincent about why she thinks nuclear energy is important — and what concerns her about nuclear reactors.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio (AP) — A significant share of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions comes from heating, cooling and powering homes — about 15%, according to one estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency. So if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, the home is an effective place to start.
There are so many factors involved in a household’s energy consumption, including whether you have gas or electric heat and how you use your kitchen appliances, washer and dryer. It’s often overwhelming to figure out where to begin.
That’s why experts recommend a home energy assessment conducted by a professional. The room-by-room examinations help homeowners determine energy use, discover inefficiencies and create a plan to reduce both. In addition to helping the environment, improving efficiency saves money over the long term.
The assessments typically last several hours and cost anywhere from $100 to more than $1,000. Until the end of the year, the Inflation Reduction Act, a major U.S. climate law passed in 2022, helps cover the cost. Congress recently rescinded many of those benefits, which will be phased out.
I’m a climate reporter, so I’ve written about responsible energy use more than a few times. But in May, after years of apartment-dwelling, I moved into the first home I’ve ever owned.
So, I signed up for a home energy assessment.
My home, outside of Cleveland, is more than 100 years old. When I blast the air conditioning, it’s still hot and humid upstairs. I can hear birds chirping outside no matter how hard I shut the windows. And there’s a giant pipe in my basement held together by duct tape and prayers.
My assessment delivered pretty bad news. But with it came with lots of room for improvement. Here’s how the day unfolded:
The HVAC tests
Tim Portman, owner of the HVAC company Portman Mechanical in northeast Ohio, started with an hourlong interview about my goals of having a more comfortable and climate-friendly house. Then he headed into the basement to test my furnace, air conditioner and water heater.
The water heater pressure was normal, so Portman said there was no major risk of a water burst. However, the pressure in both the furnace and air conditioner was too high.
Which reveals my first problem: They are too big for the duct work. That’s inefficient, and it wears on the equipment. Making matters worse, Portman noticed a bunch of unnecessary turns in the ducts.
He equated it to having great water pressure in a kinked garden hose.
“If you don’t get the kink out of that garden hose, you’re never going to have a good experience,” he said.
The highlight of my basement woes was a giant pipe that feeds heating and cooling to the rest of the house. It just … wasn’t connected. It was jammed together like two straws without a junction. It bugged him enough that he paused to fix it.
And who am I to stop him?
The blower door
After the basement, Portman assembled a contraption called a blower door. He jammed a bunch of airtight plastic in my front doorway, shoved a big fan through the middle and turned it on so that it was blowing air out of my house.
“It literally sets up a vacuum in the house. So anywhere where there are leaks, you can see where those leaks are,” he said.
Seconds later, my home got hot and musty as the fan pulled outdoor air through all the leaky seams. Portman guessed the primary culprit immediately. I followed him upstairs into what felt like a sauna near the opening to the attic.
“You literally have hot, humid air — and your attic’s warmer than outside — just pouring into the second floor,” Portman said.
The blower door measures how many cubic feet of air flow through per minute. In a well-sealed house, the number should be less than or equal to the square footage. In my 1,500 square-foot (139-square-meter) house, the blower door number was 4,500. Three times as leaky as it should be.
Portman called it a worst-case scenario.
“It’s like driving your car around with the AC on and the windows rolled down,” he said.
The thermal camera
Next, Portman grabbed a thermal camera. The goal, since it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) outside, was to see if leaks would show up as hot spots on the camera.
There were a lot. On the screen, yellow revealed a hot spot. The coolest spaces were dark blue. The leaky door frame around the attic lit up bright yellow.
“Do you think that’s a problem?” Portman joked.
“Oops,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Oops is the right answer.”
There were a few unsurprising finds, including a leaky bathroom fan and gaps around the hundred-year-old windows. Downstairs we also found major gaps in the living room’s exposed beams.
Thermal images proved Portman’s theory that my walls were not insulated. That’s because my house still has some knob and tube wiring, a system of ceramic supports and porcelain-wrapped wires that’s a relic of the early 20th century. Because of how it heats up, only certain insulation can be used with it. It can also be very expensive to remove.
In the basement, the camera revealed major gaps next to pipes and some other just … random holes. They were maybe where wiring used to be, or just hollow spots in the old wooden framing. But the air seepage was strong enough to make the cobwebs flutter frantically, as if reflecting my dread discovering them.
The verdict
After his review, Portman’s first recommendation was to call an electrician about the old wiring.
“Getting knob and tube out of your house opens the door to have insulation in your walls,” he said.
Once that’s addressed, Portman said I need to upgrade my electrical panel to support an eventual switch to a heat pump and an electric water heater, though those appliances don’t fit my budget this year.
One electrician I spoke to by phone guessed it would cost $30,000 to remove the old wiring. But another said as long as he inspects the wiring and doesn’t find any dangerous modifications, I could leave it and replace the panel for roughly $3,000.
I went with the second guy.
Through the end of 2025, federal tax credits will help subsidize weatherization upgrades, including insulation, windows, doors and electrical panels.
In the meantime, my husband and I have a different homework assignment: use a caulk gun and spray foam to plug the holes that we found on the thermal camera.
Between July heat waves and January cold snaps, sealing a house in the Cleveland area isn’t just good for the planet. It’s a good investment.
“You could potentially cut your bills in half. Potentially even more,” he said.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE – Homes sit in Cranberry Township, Pa., on March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fast-growing brush fire has forced thousands of people to evacuate in a mountainous area north of Los Angeles.
The Canyon Fire ignited Thursday afternoon and grew to more than 7.6 square miles by 11 p.m., according to the Ventura County Fire Department. At least 400 personnel were battling the blaze along with several planes and helicopters. It remained uncontained late Thursday and was spreading east into Los Angeles County, officials said.
A California Department of Corrections fire crew looks on as the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
A resident rides a golf cart as he exits his property while the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
A firefighter battles the Canyon Fire on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Residents evacuate as the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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A California Department of Corrections fire crew looks on as the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The fire is burning just south of Lake Piru, a reservoir located in the Los Padres National Forest. It’s close by Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area burned by the Hughes Fire in January. That fire burned about 15 square miles in six hours and put 50,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings.
Sunny, hot and dry conditions were expected in the area where the Canyon Fire was burning on Friday, with the daytime high near 100 degrees Fahrenheit and minimum humidity in the mid-teens, according to the National Weather Service. Winds were expected to be light in the morning and grow from the south to southwest in the afternoon.
In LA County, around 2,700 residents evacuated with 700 structures under an evacuation order, officials said late Thursday. Another 14,000 residents and 5,000 structures were covered by an evacuation warning. Areas within the Val Verde zone had been reduced from an order to a warning.
The evacuation zones in nearby Ventura County were relatively unpopulated, Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd said Thursday. Fifty-six people were evacuated from the Lake Piru recreation area.
Dowd called the blaze a “very dynamic situation” caused by hot, dry weather, steep and rugged terrain and dry fuel.
LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the district, urged residents to evacuate.
“Extreme heat and low humidity in our north county have created dangerous conditions where flames can spread with alarming speed,” Barger said in a statement. “If first responders tell you to leave, go—without hesitation.”
The new blaze comes as a massive wildfire in Central California became the state’s largest blaze of the year, threatening hundreds of homes and burning out of control in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Gifford Fire had spread to 155 square miles by Thursday night with 15% containment. It grew out of at least four smaller fires that erupted Aug. 1 along State Route 166, forcing closures in both directions east of Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000 people. It has injured at least four people. The causes of the fires are under investigation.
Wildfire risk will be elevated through the weekend across much of inland California as a heat wave gripping the area intensifies. August and September are typically the most dangerous months for wildfires in the state.
A firefighter battles the Canyon Fire on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, the United States has withdrawn from international negotiations and commitments, particularly around climate. But the U.S. is very much involved in treaty talks for a global accord to end plastic pollution.
Nations kicked off a meeting Tuesday in Geneva to try to complete a landmark treaty over 10 days to end the spiraling plastic pollution crisis. The biggest issue is whether the treaty should impose caps on producing new plastic, or focus instead on things like better design, recycling and reuse. About 3,700 people are taking part in the talks, representing 184 countries and more than 600 organizations.
President Donald Trump speaks at an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
FILE – Volunteers collect trash and plastic waste during a park cleanup on Nov. 15, 2023, at Anacostia Park in Washington. (AP Photo/Tom Brenner, File)
A scavenger collects recyclable items including plastic from a dump site in Lahore, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
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President Donald Trump speaks at an event to mark National Purple Heart Day in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Hours after he was sworn in to a second term, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the landmark Paris agreement to combat global warming. The United States didn’t participate in a vote in April at the International Maritime Organization that created a fee for greenhouse gases emitted by ships, or send anyone to the U.N. Ocean Conference in June.
Some wondered whether the United States would even go to Geneva.
The State Department told The Associated Press that engaging in the negotiations is critical to protect U.S. interests and businesses, and an agreement could advance U.S. security by protecting natural resources from plastic pollution, promote prosperity and enhance safety.
The industry contributes more than $500 billion to the economy annually and employs about 1 million people in the U.S., according to the Plastics Industry Association.
“This is an historic opportunity to set a global approach for reducing plastic pollution through cost-effective and common-sense solutions and fostering innovation from the private sector, not unilaterally stopping the use of plastic,” the department said in an email.
What does the US want in the treaty?
The State Department supports provisions to improve waste collection and management, improve product design and drive recycling, reuse and other efforts to cut the plastic dumped into the environment.
The OECD said if the treaty focuses only on improving waste management and does nothing on production and demand, an estimated 13.5 million tons of plastic waste would still leak into the environment each year.
What does the US not want in the treaty?
The United States and other powerful oil and gas nations oppose cutting plastic production.
The U.S. does not support global production caps since plastics play a critical role throughout every sector of every economy, nor does it support bans on certain plastic products or chemical additives to them because there is not a universal approach to reducing plastic pollution, the State Department said.
That’s similar to the views of the plastics industry, which says that a production cap could have unintended consequences, such as raising the cost of plastics, and that chemicals are best regulated elsewhere.
What has the US done in Geneva so far?
On the first day of the negotiations, the United States proposed striking language in the objective of the agreement about addressing the full life cycle of plastics. That idea was part of the original mandate for a treaty. Getting rid of it could effectively end any effort to control plastic supply or production.
Under former President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. supported the treaty addressing supply and production.
What are people saying about the US position?
Industry leaders praised it and environmentalists panned it.
Chris Jahn, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council, said the Trump administration is trying to get an agreement that protects each nation’s rights while advancing effective and practical solutions to end plastic waste in the environment. He said his group supports that approach.
Graham Forbes, head of the Greenpeace delegation in Geneva, said the United States wants a weak agreement and is undermining the idea that the world needs strong international regulations to address a global problem.
Does the US think the world can agree on a treaty that will end plastic pollution?
The United States aims to finalize text for a global agreement on plastic pollution that all countries, including major producers of plastics and plastic products, and consumers, will support, the State Department said in its statement.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Plastic items are seen on Place des Nations in front of the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Aug. 4, 2025 before the second segment of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5.2). (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
As the temperature has climbed this summer, so have energy bills—and frustrations. These higher costs are driven by more than extreme summer temperatures. Factors like outdated power grids and a recent $217 million rate hike approved for DTE Energy by state regulators earlier this year are also at play.
Nicholas Schroeck, dean of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and an expert in environmental law and justice, joined The Metro’s Robyn Vincent to discuss energy affordability and sustainability and what residents can do about it.
Editor’s Note: DTE Energy and Consumers Energy are financial supporters of WDET.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
Support local journalism.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
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A couple strolls the beach near the main swimming area at Ludington State Park.
