Year-End Reports From Michigan's Environmental Agency Show Progress On Several Persisting Issues

Michigan Advance

January 7, 2026

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy has reported progress on multiple long-term areas of concern in a set of reports summarizing its accomplishments in 2025.

With the agency, more commonly referred to as EGLE, overseeing issues like environmental contamination, clean water, and working alongside several partners to protect the Great Lakes and the species that call them home, its year end report for 2025 and its State of the Great Lakes report point to accomplishments like the delisting of Muskegon Lake as a Great Lakes Area of Concern while detailing its continued efforts in fighting algal blooms in Lake Erie, among other issues.

While there are more than 27,000 environmentally contaminated sites across the state, EGLE reported increased cleanup efforts, with the department working on 940 sites in 2025 compared to 870 in 2024. EGLE also addressed a larger number of leaking underground storage tanks, closing 561 sites in the 2025 fiscal year compared to 409 the year prior.

Since 2020, EGLE has tripled the amount of storage tank leaks it addresses in a given year, agency director Phil Roos told Michigan Advance in an interview Tuesday.

The department has also plugged 292 of the 570 orphan wells in the state, sites used for oil, gas or brine disposal that were not closed properly and where the owner is either insolvent or cannot be identified.

The state also continued to identify sites contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, man-made chemicals used in fire fighting foam, nonstick cookware and a number of other products that have been tied to negative health impacts including increased risks for multiple types of cancer.

In 2026, the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team – established in 2017 by seven state agencies including the Department of Environmental Quality, EGLE’s predecessor – will award and administer grants to airports where firefighting foam has contaminated groundwater and surface water. The grants will be used for testing, studying best ways to address contamination, and cleaning out fire trucks to use newer firefighting foam.

EGLE has also taken steps to prevent the chemicals from being discharged into Michigan waterways with the department’s industrial pretreatment programs producing a 59% reduction of PFOS – a type of PFAS – on average and 99% reduction at some locations.

In addition to addressing PFAS, the department has also leveraged one-time funding from the Legislature to research microplastics in waters throughout the state. While the health impacts of these small pieces of plastic are still being researched, microplastics have been found throughout the human body and are suspected to harm reproductive, digestive and respiratory health.

The three EGLE departments overseeing microplastics research are focused on four main areas: establishing a better understanding of concentrations of microplastics in surface waters; improving understanding of microplastics in public drinking water supplies; identifying critical areas for future microplastics research; and developing a comprehensive statewide microplastics strategy beginning in 2026.

“I think it’s going to be really eye opening, and give us clarity at least about where to start, where the problem’s the biggest, what do we need to focus on,” Roos said. “It’s similar to the early days of PFAS, you know. There we had communities that were being directly impacted with significant health impacts and water contamination. Here, it’s been sort of a silent issue that we’re all concerned about.”

The state is also playing a part in addressing harmful algal blooms in the Western Lake Erie Basin, with EGLE working alongside the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to reduce the flow of nutrients that cause algal blooms from farmland into the basin over the next five years.

In addition to its work on pollution and environmental quality, EGLE is also working alongside partners from state and federal agencies and tribal governments on species management, including efforts to address threats to whitefish populations, protect the endangered piping plover and keep invasive sea lampreys in check.

The Michigan Wild Rice Initiative – which is composed of the 12 federally recognized Anishinaabe Nations that share geography with Michigan, and several state agencies including EGLE – also released a stewardship guide on manoomin, or wild rice. The guide tells the story of manoomin from an Anishinaabe perspective centered on building a relationship with the grain as a central part of restoration and revitalization efforts.

“I cannot stress the importance of that resource for our friends in the tribal communities in the state. Literally, it’s such a central point of their culture and also their livelihood,” Roos said.

Moving into this year, Roos said drinking water will continue to be a main priority for EGLE, especially the state’s efforts to replace lead water lines.

“I think we’re going to have access to a bit more money in terms of lead service line replacement money this year,” Roos said. “And the reason is that we met a requirement a lot of other states didn’t necessarily meet, which is we were the first state to achieve a statewide inventory of lead service lines.”

The department will also remain focused on making progress on contaminated sites, Roos said, with plans to improve how it staffs sites and how it categorizes the environmental risk at each site.

Another piece of that effort is EGLE’s brownfield redevelopment program, which cleans up contaminated sites so they can be used for housing, business and community needs like parks or recreation centers.

“We’re going to try to step that up another level in the next year,” Roos said. “We have legislation Rep. [Alabas] Farhat (D-Dearborn) has sponsored which would remove some of the red tape and give us more flexibility in what sites we can use the Brownfield program for.”

Under the current system, grants and loans for each site are capped at $1 million, which Roos said has limited the sites they are able to redevelop. One of the changes within Farhat’s legislation would double that cap to $2 million, marking the first increase since the program began in 1998.

Building on previous efforts, Roos said the department will also be placing an increased focus on storm water management and dam safety.

There are a number of dams throughout the state that are in bad shape, Roos said, some of which have owners who have not invested in necessary maintenance and some that have either outlived or are approaching the end of their useful lives.

“You’re going to see a lot of efforts for us to get out in front of that,” Roos said “We’ve had a very successful dam safety fund that we’re just about out of money on. We’re going to hope to get a little help from the Legislature on that.”

A home with rooftop panels installed by CBS Solar in Michigan. Credit: Courtesy of CBS Solar/Michigan Advance

The department will also continue to focus on clean and affordable energy Roos said, noting that it will be expanding its home energy rebate program, which provides funding to address the upfront costs of energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, air sealing and heating and cooling, as well as the purchase of electrical appliances, wiring upgrades or buying a heat pump for heating and cooling their household.

Roos also pointed to EGLE’s Renewables Ready Communities program, which provides funding to communities that adopt large-scale solar energy, wind or battery storage.

While Michigan Attorney General is pursuing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration over the decision to revoke funding for the Solar For All Program, Roos noted that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, which set Michigan’s goal of reaching 100% carbon neutrality by 2050 predates the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which brought an influx of funding and incentives to support the transition to clean energy, including the Solar For All program.

Although EGLE plans to “fight like hell” to get its Solar For All funding back, Roos said, there are other funding mechanisms for programs like Renewables Ready Communities that will help the state to reach its clean energy and climate goals.

Rep. Angela Witwer (D-Delta Twp.), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Director Phil Roos announced a $290 million expansion of the MI Clean Water Plan. April 22, 2024/Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance

Between a 40% pause in its funding as a result of the Trump Administration’s attempted pause on federal grants and loans, and modest cuts to its budget, EGLE has weathered a lot in the past year, Roos said. Despite those challenges, Roos said he’s proud and thankful the department has been able to continue to provide its core functions alongside meeting its commitments.

However, further cuts could begin to threaten EGLE’s ability to deliver on protections for the residents of Michigan, Roos said.

“Despite everything we’re on our feet, we’re living our mission,” Roos said. “We’re doing everything we can to protect everybody in the state according to what we can under the law. But there’s not a lot of room to mess around here.”

The Michigan Advance, a hard-hitting, nonprofit news site, covers politics and policy across the state of Michigan through in-depth stories, blog posts, and social media updates, as well as top-notch progressive commentary. The Advance is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.