Michael Hawthorne – Page 22

Looking west on 93rd Street and Cooper Road in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., on Sept. 17, 2018. Most of the city is outside the subcontinental divide that separates the Great Lakes basin from areas draining toward the Mississippi River.

Before Foxconn got access to millions of gallons of Lake Michigan water, Wisconsin quietly gave small village even more

May 23, 2019 at 1:17 a.m.

Governors from all eight Great Lakes states had to sign off before Waukesha, Wis., could siphon water out of Lake Michigan. When Foxconn Technology Group wanted to dip a straw...

Jenny Abrahamian shines on a light on the newer plumbing connected to older, lead plumbing at her home Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in Chicago After high lead levels were discovered in her tap water, Abrahamian decided to install a whole house water filter system.

With Emanuel on the way out, aldermen to push for hearings on lead in Chicago drinking water

May 23, 2019 at 1:17 a.m.

Chicago needs to join scores of other American cities and begin planning for the removal of toxic lead water pipes, according to a group of aldermen pushing for public hearings...

Steel mills in northwest Indiana, seen from Chicago's 57th Street Beach in 2016. Chicago and a group representing surfers is urging a federal judge to crack down on U.S. Steel, accusing the Trump administration of failing to punish it harshly enough for spills of toxic chromium.

City officials, Lake Michigan surfers urge court to enforce tougher legal settlement for U.S. Steel chromium spills

May 23, 2019 at 1:16 a.m.

Chicago and a group representing Great Lakes surfers urged a federal judge Thursday to crack down on U.S. Steel, accusing the Trump administration of failing to punish the company harshly...

Instead of removing toxic waste seeping into Illinois’ only scenic river, power company wants to wall it off with rocks

December 12, 2018 at 4:31 p.m.

Tangles of rusty wire and jumbles of softball-sized rocks litter a stretch of the only national scenic river in Illinois, remnants from the last time a power company tried to...

Poisoning the water: 2 new books assess Flint’s crisis

May 9, 2019 at 6:52 p.m.

Years before scores of children and adults were poisoned by lead-contaminated water in Flint, Mich., the city became shorthand for once-thriving American manufacturing centers hollowed out by corporate greed, suburban...

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks at the Thompson Center in Chicago on July 16, 2018. Sterigenics International, a company owned by a private equity firm co-founded by Rauner, uses a gas that is far more dangerous than previously thought, according to the EPA.

High cancer risk in southeast DuPage County linked to company co-owned by Rauner’s former firm

May 23, 2019 at 1:13 a.m.

Two low-slung industrial buildings, tucked behind a Target store in west suburban Willowbrook, are about as nondescript as they come. For years, they have been home to Sterigenics International, a...

Dynegy's Baldwin Energy Complex, a coal-fired plant in Baldwin, Ill., appears in December 2012. Illinois and many other states are shifting to cleaner sources of energy.

Trump throws coal plants a lifeline, but Illinois among states showing no signs of turning back

December 12, 2018 at 7:31 p.m.

President Donald Trump’s plan to gut climate pollution standards for power plants is a lifeline to the dwindling American coal industry, but Illinois and many other states already are shifting...

Akeeshea Daniels was one of the last remaining residents at the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago. She and her family have sinced moved out.

7 years later, new study shows East Chicago kids exposed to more lead because of flawed government report

August 20, 2018 at 5:00 a.m.

After federal officials assessed potential health hazards in East Chicago seven years ago, they declared young children could play safely in neighborhoods built on or near former industrial sites contaminated...

Trump Tower is one of the city's largest users of river water for its cooling systems, siphoning nearly 20 million gallons a day.

Chicago’s Trump Tower sued for violating clean water laws; Trump Organization calls it politics

August 22, 2019 at 4:56 a.m.

Trump International Hotel & Tower is endangering fish and other aquatic life in the Chicago River, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleges in a new lawsuit targeting the president’s skyscraper...

Bianca Baker, center, a hair salon owner in Oak Park, talks with Virginia Tech researcher Chivonne Battle, right, after handing her a box filled with water from her building on Aug. 9, 2018.

Flint researchers find alarming levels of lead in Cicero, Berwyn tap water, suggesting thousands of older homes at risk

December 12, 2018 at 6:41 p.m.

As far as state and federal regulators are concerned, there is no reason to worry about brain-damaging lead in tap water throughout Chicago and the city’s older suburbs. But samples...

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