NEMWI Publishes Cuyahoga AOC Spotlight

The Northeast-Midwest Institute today published its Area of Concern Spotlight: The Cuyahoga River on its website. The AOC Spotlight is written by Christine Baek, a Spring 2024 Environmental Policy Intern at the Northeast-Midwest Institute and an undergraduate studying environmental science at Brown University.

To get a better understanding of the collaborative effort behind the Cuyahoga River’s restoration, Baek interviewed community members from federal and state agencies, metropark systems, and watershed stewardship groups in the Cuyahoga AOC. Baek's report on the Cuyahoga River covers ongoing restoration efforts to delist the AOC by 2030 as well as the river’s impact on environmental legislation, including the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the passage of the Clean Water Act.

Read the story here.

Senator Fetterman Highlights Brownfields at

EPW Hearing

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week held a hearing on the proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with EPA Administrator Michael Regan as a witness. Great Lakes Task Force member John Fetterman (D-PA) focused his questions on the EPA’s Brownfields program, which facilitates the reuse of land that has been contaminated by a pollutant or hazardous substance. These abandoned and blighted sites are eyesores for communities, but EPA funding can transform them into “economic engines,” Regan said. $1.5 billion was provided for the program through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“I’m in Western Pennsylvania, and I literally live and I’m surrounded by Brownfields...,” Fetterman began. “I literally live next door to one, the Carrie Furnace site as well, and it’s magnificent, and now it’s going to be a national historic site of steel – it's the last standing example of that kind of a blast furnace. And those are the kind of investments that help the communities that created so much of an investment and an output for the history of our nation.”

U.S. Steel purchased the Carrie Furnaces in 1901, and at their peak, they produced 1,000-1,250 tons of steel a day. But production stopped by the 1970’s, and the site fell into disrepair. Sulfates and PCBs were found in the soil, and asbestos needed to be removed from the building. But funding from the Brownfield program, among other sources – Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) announced on Friday that the Carrie Furnace site would receive $2.3 million in state funding – has revived the site. The Carrie Furnaces are now a national historic landmark, and they host tours and weddings.

“Without those kinds of investments, those fallow sites would not have had anything done for 30, 40, 50 years, and it has really created an amazing impact,” Fetterman said. This economic investment can be a game-changer for communities, especially in the rust belt. "We see this as a huge opportunity not to leave any communities behind,” Regan concluded.

Watch the exchange between Administrator Regan and Senator Fetterman here.

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