Michael Hawthorne – Page 15

A flooded Lawrence Avenue in Schiller Park on Friday, May 15, 2020.

Heavy rain overwhelms $3 billion Deep Tunnel again, forcing sewage into Lake Michigan

May 19, 2020 at 3:38 p.m.

Two days of rain overwhelmed Chicago's underground labyrinth of sewers Friday, forcing a noxious mix of sewage and stormwater into local waterways and Lake Michigan. At 2:30 a.m., the Metropolitan...

Freight train activity is shown May 6, 2020, at the busy rail intermodal BNSF yard in Cicero.

Many cities around the globe saw cleaner air after being shut down for COVID-19. But not Chicago.

May 14, 2020 at 7:08 a.m.

Weeks of clear skies over Los Angeles, New Delhi, Wuhan and other smoggy, soot-choked cities are signs of how the coronavirus lockdown improved air quality around the planet. Animated satellite...

Medline Industries in Waukegan on Sept. 28, 2018.

After meeting with Trump, Medline wants FDA approval to sterilize N95 masks with ethylene oxide. Two other federal agencies are against it, citing cancer risks for health care workers.

April 29, 2020 at 6:58 a.m.

Summoned to the White House last month with other medical suppliers responding to the severe shortage of protective gear for health care workers, Medline Industries CEO Charlie Mills announced the...

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus April 21, 2020, at the White House.

EPA staff condemns Trump back-to-work plan: ‘He wants to decimate us by sending us back into danger’

April 22, 2020 at 1:11 p.m.

While much of the nation remains under stay-at-home orders to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump wants federal employees back in the office. In Chicago, at least, the union...

The Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk in Portage, Indiana, was closed after a spill of hexavalent chromium by the U.S. Steel Midwest Plant in April 2017.

Under Trump, the EPA has cut back on enforcement of clean water laws in the Great Lakes region

April 21, 2020 at 1:25 p.m.

Two months after President Donald Trump took office, U.S. Steel dumped a plume of cancer-causing metal into a Lake Michigan tributary 20 miles away from a Chicago drinking water intake....

A beach in Porter, Indiana, is closed after an August 2019 chemical spill in a tributary.

Under pressure from lawyers and Illinois politicians, Indiana accuses Lake Michigan steel mill of manipulating water pollution samples after fish-killing spill

April 15, 2020 at 12:44 p.m.

After an ArcelorMittal steel mill dumped fish-killing cyanide and ammonia into a Lake Michigan tributary last summer, Indiana state inspectors showed up at least four times to gauge how the...

Trump EPA still hasn’t told thousands of Americans about cancer risks from ethylene oxide

April 3, 2020 at 10:26 p.m.

Nearly two years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified hot spots of ethylene oxide across the nation, the Trump administration still hasn't told thousands of Americans they face elevated...

Scrap cars are hoisted and processed on Feb. 5, 2020, at General Iron Industries recycling plant in Chicago.

Neighbors worried about pollution from troubled North Side scrap shredder during pandemic

March 31, 2020 at 1:28 p.m.

Much of Chicago is shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a North Side company with a long history of pollution problems is still shredding flattened cars, twisted rebar and...

Driftless Defenders Outreach Team Leader Betsy D'Angelo stands on her property, which is on part of the Driftless Area.

Backers say proposed power line would be a vital link to renewable energy. Foes say it would scar pristine Wisconsin landscape and cost too much.

February 28, 2020 at 4:31 p.m.

An electrical substation along the Mississippi River is all that remains of the Nelson Dewey Generating Station, one of the dozens of coal-fired power plants that closed across the Midwest...

A piece of old lead pipe that was being replaced with copper pipe in 2016.

Chicago to test new water meters in bid to resume program put on hold because of high lead levels

February 27, 2020 at 12:00 a.m.

Looking to resume a program that conserves water drawn from Lake Michigan, Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration is enlisting Chicagoans to help determine if a new type of meter can be...

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