Michigan
Michigan experts warn of worsened air quality after Trump climate move
Washington — Experts warn air quality will worsen because of the Trump administration’s repeal of the legal basis for federal climate rules, despite a top federal regulator saying the move “does not change regulations on traditional air pollutants and air toxics.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin made that statement Thursday in the Oval Office as he and President Donald Trump touted the major deregulatory action. They both suggested the change would boost the U.S. auto industry.
“This EPA is committed to providing clean air for all Americans,” Zeldin said. “Powering the great American comeback is based on the singular focus of providing clean air, land and water for all Americans, while harnessing the greatness of the American economy.”
It is true that repealing the Obama-era EPA’s 2009 “endangerment finding” will leave intact federal rules meant to limit harmful emissions of criteria air pollutants identified more than 50 years ago in the Clean Air Act. Those pollutants include noxious gases like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide that cause asthma, lung issues and neurological damage.
The mass introduction of catalytic converters on new motor vehicles in the 1970s helped drastically curtail emissions of those gases over the next two decades, and the devices will surely remain on gas-powered cars and trucks to ensure they continue meeting federal standards. (Electric vehicles, notably, do not have converters because they have no tailpipe emissions.)
Experts disagreed, however, with Zeldin’s suggestion that there would not be “clean air” implications from the move to wipe out a generation of climate-focused regulations.
“Carbon dioxide pollution and other greenhouse gases are correlated with the production of other air pollutants like particulate matter and nitrogen oxides,” said Erik Nordman, director of the Institute for Public Utilities at Michigan State University.
“Measures that reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases often reduce those other pollutants. That’s a co-benefit of these greenhouse gas regulations. So by removing or lowering standards for greenhouse gases, we would expect those other pollutants that are tightly correlated with greenhouse gases to increase,” he said in a phone interview.
Catalytic converters are one example of the link between what Zeldin called “traditional” pollutants and greenhouse gases.
The devices work by causing chemical reactions that transform highly toxic criteria pollutants into less harmful — or in some cases harmless — gases and substances. One byproduct is harmless water vapor. Another primary one is carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that causes climate change in the long term but is not instantly poisonous to humans at low ambient levels.
But even as converters have become more effective over time, academic research shows, they still do not block all of the most air-quality-harming pollutants. And because vehicles that use more fuel have higher emissions, the risk for worsened air quality is greater.
Nordman said the Trump administration’s endangerment finding repeal “kind of locks in a lower standard, so that will result in cars that are less fuel efficient than they might have been otherwise. That will result in greater pollution than we would have seen otherwise.”
The environmental policy expert added that those impacts will play out most over the longer term because “energy and transportation infrastructure that we’re building today will be more polluting than it otherwise could be, and we’re going to lock in that pollution for decades.”
He said other Trump administration actions — like the order to keep a coal plant open in Michigan — will have more immediate impacts on air quality.
Jeff Holmstead, who was an EPA official under former President George W. Bush, said Thursday he expected little near-term impact in air quality from the federal policy change, noting that automakers “have very long planning cycles.”
But Tom Luben, a senior research scientist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and former air pollution researcher at the EPA for almost 20 years, was blunt in condemning the Trump administration’s repeal of the endangerment finding.
The action, Luben wrote ahead of the announcement, “would threaten the health of millions of Americans.”
“An increase in ground-level ozone concentrations has been linked to respiratory health problems ranging from decreased lung function and asthma exacerbations to increased emergency department visits and hospital admissions,” he added, similarly raising air quality concerns.
Luben continued: “Certain parts of the population are especially vulnerable to these effects, including children, older adults, pregnant people, and individuals with pre-existing health conditions.”
Beyond air quality, the research scientist also lamented climate-related impacts of the policy change.
“In addition to increased air pollution, the proliferation of extremely hot days, floods, storms, droughts, and fires linked to a changing climate will impact the health of the American people.”
In announcing the repeal move, however, Trump dismissed climate-change concerns: “… this has nothing to do with public health. This was all a scam.”
gschwab@detroitnews.com
@GrantSchwab
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As temperatures rise in Michigan each summer, so to do the chances of harmful algal blooms (HABs) developing in our lakes, causing a risk to both ecosystems and public health.
HABs are formed wherever there is rapid growth of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, which are naturally found in lakes, rivers and ponds. Some cyanobacteria found in blooms contain toxins that can be harmful to people and animals, and often present as blue-green, yellow or brown streaks, foam, or thick paint-like scums on the water surface, according to the Michigan Departments of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)
To help keep track of these harmful algal blooms across the state, EGLE has teamed up with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to update its online reporting form to include harmful algal blooms. Now the public can easily report suspected HABs to the state by filling out the form at Michigan.gov/HABs. Individuals can also make a report by calling EGLE’s Environmental Assistance Center at 800-662-9278.
“This new online form is an easy and efficient way for Michiganders to help monitor and safeguard our water resources,” said Jerrod Sanders, director of Water Resources Division at EGLE, in a news release. “This tool improves efficiency and helps us respond to potential risks more effectively.”
It will also allow EGLE and MDHHS staff to better understand how HABs develop, and creates the potential to send out public notifications about what areas to avoid as a way of keeping people and pets safe when they’re detected.
Breathing in or swallowing water with HAB toxins can cause asthma-like symptoms, difficulty breathing, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, runny eyes and nose, weakness, headaches or dizziness. Skin contact can also cause rashes, blisters or hives.
“If you had contact with or swallowed water with a suspected HAB and feel sick, call your health care provider or seek medical attention as soon as possible,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive.
Locations of HAB reports verified by EGLE and results of cyanotoxin testing will be displayed on the Michigan Harmful Algal Bloom Reports Map for the public to review.
For more information on health effects, causes and reports on the occurrence of HABs in Michigan lakes, visit Michigan.gov/HABs.
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KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Beach season is here, and Lake Michigan is the most popular of the Great Lakes for swimming. However, it can also be the most dangerous.
According to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, 81 people drowned in the Great Lakes in 2025. 36 of those drownings, or almost half, happened in Lake Michigan.
“Even an Olympic swimmer is not going to swim against the rip current,” Pat Whelan, Plainwell district supervisor for the Michigan DNR Parks and Recreation Division, said.
What makes a rip current so dangerous is the natural instinct to try and swim back to shore. However, it is not the way to escape.
“It’s a term called ‘flip, float, and follow,’ where you flip on your back so you can breathe,” Whelan said. “Follow that, float on the top of that current and follow it out into the lake until you can feel it release you. Then you’re going to swim parallel to the shore, and then the waves themselves will help push you back into the shore.”
It’s been more than 20 years since Andy Fox, 17, drowned in a rip current at Grand Haven State Park, but the pain is still fresh for his mother, Vicki Cech, who rarely goes to the beach.
“When I have company in, sometimes I’ll walk out on the pier, but as a rule I just don’t go there anymore,” Cech said. “Not that beach, because that one does have a lot of sad memories for me.”
Pictured is Andy Fox, 17, in this undated photo. Fox drowned in a rip current at Grand Haven State Park in 2006. (Cech/WWMT)
Compared to other Lake Michigan beaches, Grand Haven State Park has added safety features as conditions are known to change rapidly.
Grand Haven uses the color warning system, but at other beaches, they have flags.
At Grand Haven State Park, however, there is an electronic lighting system on an orange tower. When the life ring on that tower is pulled, Ottawa County dispatch is alerted right away.
Blue towers on the beach are equipped with cameras, providing a video feed of what is happening where the life ring was pulled.
Electric lights instead of flags are used to alert people of swimming conditions at Grand Haven State Park.
“They can push the bottom and actually talk back and forth with central dispatch,” Whelan said.
Alongside these additions, Cech would like to see lifeguards on Grand Haven’s beaches.
“I know there’s all kinds of different things we have down there. Life rings closer to the water and everything like that,” Cech said. “But I’d say the only thing which I see South Haven has finally gotten lifeguards, the ultimate would be lifeguards.”
Michigan got rid of lifeguards at state parks in the 1990’s. The DNR said it was a combination of cost and liability concerns.
South Haven, however, welcomed lifeguards back to the city’s beaches for the first time in 25 years on Monday.
Those lifeguards do not yet have chairs and towers yet, but they will be posted between each flag section, with green, yellow and red colors marking that day’s swimming conditions.
More information about the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project can be found online.
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