"EPA Region 5 is one of the biggest offices for the country’s top environmental enforcer, tackling thousands of air, water and land pollution issues in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin."
"Debra Shore, who has served as an elected commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District since 2006, will head the six-state Midwest headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, the Sun-Times has learned.
Shore, 69, will lead EPA Region 5, one of the biggest offices for the country’s top environmental enforcer. It tackles thousands of air, water and land pollution issues in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as 35 Native American tribes. She’ll be responsible for protecting Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes, the source of drinking water for tens of millions of people. The region also includes more than 100 of the most toxic waste sites under the U.S. Superfund cleanup program, a legacy of the manufacturing concentration in the rust-belt states.
“It’s a big job with big responsibilities and I believe Debra Shore is up for the challenges,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the advocacy organization Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago. “The EPA Region 5 administrator is probably the biggest regional administrator job in the country because it has the usual responsibilities along with the Great Lakes national program office and the enormous number of Superfund and other toxic sites.”"
Brett Chase reports for the Chicago Sun-Times October 7, 2021.
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