Beginning in the 1940s, industrial facilities and wastewater treatment plants on the Saginaw River, Michigan, released PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and related compounds into the Saginaw River. Because of on-site contamination, releases from the facilities continued after PCBs were banned in the 1970s. These releases also damaged the Saginaw Bay ecosystem. Saginaw Bay is one of the prime walleye fishing and waterfowl hunting areas in the Great Lakes and also drains into Lake Huron. Contamination has impacted fish and wildlife in the Saginaw River and Bay, resulting in advisories against human consumption of fish for all species of fish in the River and many species of fish in the Bay. Also, bald eagle reproduction is significantly lower in these areas than is found in less contaminated areas.

A co-trustee group consisting of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the State of Michigan, and the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan (collectively known as the Natural Resource Trustees), reached a negotiated settlement for natural resource damages with General Motors Corporation and the cities of Bay City and Saginaw in 1998. The settlement, estimated to cost General Motors over $28 million at the time, consisted of a combination of projects that General Motors and the cities would implement along with funding that they would provide to the Natural Resource Trustees for their past costs as well as for future restoration and monitoring. The settlement provided for substantial cleanup of river contamination and continues to provide for protection and restoration of fish and wildlife habitats in and around the Saginaw River and Bay.

General Motors and the Trustees completed substantial restoration by 2005. The Trustees then published a Restoration Plan for the use of remaining funds from the settlement in 2021. In 2023, the Trustees combined some of the remaining funds with funds from another NRDA case in the Saginaw Bay watershed to fund additional restoration projects as described in a joint restoration plan: Tittabawassee River – Saginaw River & Bay Natural Resource Trustee Councils Final Supplemental Restoration Plan and Environmental Assessment.

Additional case information can be found on the FWS trustee's website at: https://www.fws.gov/project/saginaw-river-and-bay-natural-resource-damage-assessment-and-restoration