Michael Hawthorne

Michael Hawthorne is a Pulitzer-finalist investigative reporter who focuses on the environment and public health for the Chicago Tribune. A downstate Illinois native, Hawthorne joined the Tribune in 2004 after covering the environment and state government in Ohio, Illinois and Florida.

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Chicago hears from Cincinnati and Newark officials on how to speed up replacement of toxic lead pipes

December 7, 2023 at 1:37 a.m.

With Mayor Brandon Johnson's administration projecting it will take 40 years and up to $12 billion to replace toxic lead water pipes throughout the city, aldermen are pressing for changes...

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Biden EPA proposes requirements for utilities to remove toxic lead water pipes within a decade; Chicago likely to get more time

November 30, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.

President Joe Biden's administration is moving to require utilities to replace every toxic lead pipe connecting homes to water mains during the next decade, though Chicago and several other cities...

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Soot pollution from coal-fired power plants is more deadly than soot from other sources, study shows

November 23, 2023 at 7:03 p.m.

Burning coal to generate electricity is on the way out in the United States, but the nation's long dependence on the fossil fuel took a devastating toll. A new study...

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Chicago to get $336 million loan from EPA to replace 30,000 lead water pipes

November 4, 2023 at 12:52 a.m.

As recently as 2018 Chicago officials denied the nation's third largest city has a widespread problem with brain-damaging lead in drinking water, even though testing kits distributed by the city...

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New regulations would barely dent the massive amounts of toxic pollution NW Indiana steel mills have been spewing for years

October 19, 2023 at 3:20 p.m.

Kimmie Gordon grew up in a Gary neighborhood sandwiched between two of the biggest steel mills in the world. Her stepfather worked at another northwest Indiana mill along the southern...

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Trump Tower, one of the largest users of Chicago River water, sued again by state after failing to meet EPA rules to protect fish

September 29, 2023 at 12:06 a.m.

Donald Trump's skyscraper along the Chicago River is still sucking in massive amounts of water without a valid permit, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul's office alleged Thursday in a lawsuit...

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Mayor Brandon Johnson announces plans to address pollution burdens in Chicago’s environmental justice neighborhoods

March 12, 2024 at 11:55 a.m.

A year after federal investigators outlined how Chicago funnels industrial polluters into Black and Latino neighborhoods, Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed Monday to overhaul zoning, planning and land-use ordinances that perpetuate...

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EPA proposes adding Acme Steel plant site on Southeast Side to Superfund program

September 7, 2023 at 6:34 p.m.

All that is left of the former Acme Steel plant on Chicago's Southeast Side are a pair of soot-covered smokestacks and a few other graffiti-riddled ruins that draw curious passersby...

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Costly Deep Tunnel flooding project can’t handle Chicago area’s severe storms fueled by climate change

July 16, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

Hours before heavy rains swamped Chicago and Cook County suburbs on July 2, the region's $3.8 billion flood-control project appeared ready as can be to bottle up storm runoff. The...

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Millions of Illinois residents get their drinking water from municipal and private wells contaminated with toxic forever chemicals

June 25, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

Testing during the past three years revealed nearly a million Illinoisans get their drinking water from municipal wells contaminated with toxic forever chemicals at levels exceeding state health guidelines. Another...

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