Aging sewer systems continue to pollute rivers, streams
A Gannett News Service analysis by Larry Wheeler and Grant Smith shows that "America's aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows." Wheeler and Smith analyzed enforcement and compliance records gathered by the EPA and state regulators from January 2003 to February 2008 for the report. Enforcement actions taken by federal or state authorities against municipal sewer authorities across the country are available in an online database.
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Orlando officials talk "green," yet guzzle gas
Despite championing "green" firehouses and pledging to be more environmentally friendly, Orlando's city officials are driving some of the biggest gas-guzzling vehicles on the road. Dan Tracy and Mary Shanklin , of the Orlando Sentinel, requested records from about 90 local government agencies and found that Ford Expeditions and Explorers were the vehicles of choice for mayors, managers and executive directors. Law enforcement agencies had the most sedans but the fleets were filled with Ford Crown Victorias. Meanwhile, one executive director drove a hybrid.
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Probe finds trace pharmecueticals in US drinking water
A five-month probe by Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard, of the Associated Press, found traces of medications in the drinking water supplies of over 40 million Americans. While the testing found pharmaceuticals diluted to miniscule concentration levels, some scientists question the long-term effects of sustained exposure. The AP reports: "The situation is undoubtedly worse than suggested by the positive test results in the major population centers documented by the AP. The federal government doesn't require any testing and hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted, the drinking water for only 28 was tested."
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"Coincidence or Cluster?"
A six-part series by Kevin Craver of the Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.) looks into lawsuits facing two chemical companies after a cluster of brain cancer patients were discovered in a small town. Craver studied documents going back 30 years to investigate the site's regulatory history, inspections, claims and counterclaims about pollutants and human exposure. The 22 plaintiffs in the case point to the disposal operations of Rohm and Haas and Modine Manufacturing Co. and whether the company's practices allowed carcinogens, such as vinyl choride, to leach into groundwater.
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More mayhem in the Meadowlands
In an ongoing investigation, Jeff Pillets of The Record in Bergen County, N.J., uncovered how a taxpayer-supported plan to reclaim the North Jersey Meadowlands instead reopened the infamous garbage dumps to millions of cubic yards of contaminated waste. A review of some 10,000 pages of state documents revealed that the site's developers won a string of state government concessions that stripped down or eliminated key environmental safeguards. At the same time, those developers were makings millions in tipping fees for the contaminated waste being brought to the site as a "cap" for the old landfills. Recent stories in the series also trace the political ties behind the deal and the fallout for politicians who initially supported the development.
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The Mercury Connection
Hundreds of miles of South Carolina rivers are tainted with mercury, and the state warns people not to eat fish caught in some of these waterways. But no one had checked to see if the mercury was harming humans until The Post and Courier in Charleston had tests conducted on people who eat the fish as part of an investigative series on mercury pollution. Tony Bartelme and Doug Pardue report that nearly half of the people tested had mercury levels above the amount considered safe.
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Santa Clara County soil tainted by pesticides
Amy Lynch of The San Jose Mercury News reports on environmental issues plaguing Santa Clara County. The county has more toxic cleanup sites involving old orchard pesticides than any county in California, as well as a significant number of other sites contaminated by other types of farming or pesticide handling, according to a Mercury News analysis of state records." It is believed that the problem is more extensive than even these reports suggest because they have only been identified due to pending development. Accompanying materials detail how the contamination occurred, a map of contamination sites, and the types of pesticides (pdf) present in the county.
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Book explores U.S., European responses to everyday chemicals
Mark Schapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting has released "EXPOSED: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power," a book that examines Europe's higher environmental standards for everyday products, such as cosmetics or plastic toys, and the significance for U.S. consumers and manufacturers. In an interview, Shapiro says the book "reveals how in many ways consumers in this country are being left exposed to environmental hazards to which their European peers are protected."
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Series investigates Twin Cities groundwater
In a three-part series that began Sunday, Sept. 16, David Shaffer of the Star Tribune analyzed databases and pollution reports to identify 20 areas of significant groundwater contamination in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region. Most of them are located in the suburbs, and some pose a serious threat to drinking water supplies. The series looks at the costly and seemingly endless effort it takes to filter the underground pollution and its toll on people and communities.
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Chronic Polluters, Tainted Waters
Josh Kovner and Regine Labossiere of The Hartford Courant conducted a two-month investigation into the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's lax enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act. They found that 17 of 35 companies covered by the Act are dumping toxic chemicals into the state's waterways under permit limits that have expired, some more than 10 years ago. The Courant also found Connecticut takes little action against violators, including companies that dump lead and cyanide at levels up to 200 percent above what is permitted.
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Mothball fleet polluting Suisun Bay
An aged maritime fleet located in Suisun Bay off the coast of California is an environmental threat according to an investigation by Thomas Peele of the Contra Costa Times. Over 21 tons of toxic metals have shed off the decaying ships into the water creating a significant environmental risk, significantly greater than Maritime Administration office have previously acknowledged.
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Wasting Away: Superfund's Toxic Legacy
The Center for Public Integrity has taken a look at the state of Superfund sites throughout the US. Twenty-seven years after the government developed a program to identify and clean up the worst of these sites, toxic waste remains a problem across the country. "A one-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity reveals the beleaguered state of the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund effort, uncovers the companies and government agencies linked to the most sites and tracks progress of the clean up." Included in the content are searchable databases on EPA contractors, sponsored travel and congressional correspondence with EPA officials. You can also search for detailed information about Superfund sites across the country. Federal procurement data for this series was provided by NICAR. Data on federal contracts and other federal awards, such as grants or loans, is available from the IRE and NICAR Database Library.
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Toxic vapors threaten well-being of residents of Victor, NY
The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, N.Y., presents stories from a two-month investigation into toxic vapor releases related to toxins improperly disposed of near Victor, N.Y., more than 17 years ago."State officials, drawing upon numerous visits and hundreds of water samples over the last 15 years, have mapped the damage: a mile-long plume of contaminated groundwater that underlies about 50 Victor homes and borders dozens of others. The principal contaminant, TCE [trichloroethene], can harm the central nervous, immune and reproductive systems, impair fetal development and cause cancer in people who are exposed to sufficient quantities." The Democrat and Chronicle website fleshes out the story with interactive graphics and links to documents related to the situation.
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Wisconsin's coal-burning plants pump out more greenhouse gas
Thomas Content and Lee Bergquist of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report on how Wisconsin is responsible for disproportionate contributions to global warming. By examining public records, they found that coal-burning power plants generate greenhouse gases about one-third faster than the national average. Wisconsin is one of twelve states that relies on coal for the majority of its power supply, and two more coal-burning power plants are under construction in the state. When they are completed in 2012, carbon dioxide emissions will rise by an additional ten percent.
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The Big Squeeze
An investigation by The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) shows that the habitat of endangered species is being developed despite a plan to protect such lands. "Some of the best places for western Riverside County's rarest animals and plants face destruction by developers despite a costly, sweeping plan to protect such habitat...In case after case, county and city officials have approved homes, stores and industry on land they had identified as essential habitat."
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Back in Black
In a three-day series, Spencer Hunt of The Columbus Dispatch reports on the environmental issues arising out of a resurgence in coal mining in the state of Ohio. He found that "state laws and programs designed to safeguard the land and water are riddled with problems."
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"Blighted Homeland"
In a 4-part series, the Los Angeles Times looks at the lingering results of uranium mining on a Navajo reservation where almost 4 million tons of uranium was mined for over 4 decades. "Navajos inhaled radioactive dust, drank contaminated water and built homes using rock from the mines and mills. Many of the dangers persist to this day."
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Suburban growth taxes water supply
In a series for the The Daily Herald (Elgin, IL), Patrick Garmoe reports on the threat of water shortages in the several Chicago counties in the coming years due to suburban growth placing stresses on natural resources. "McHenry County's Groundwater Resources Management Plan predicts the county's population growth, and corresponding surge in water demand, will rise 73percent, to about 63 million gallons per day, by 2030. While there's enough groundwater in the county as a whole to yield 120 million gallons per day, the report warns certain townships may be in trouble given that the distribution of water usage won't correspond to the water supply."
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County dumps toxic materials, fails to clean up
Asjylyn Loder of the St. Petersburg Times used local and state documents to show that Hernando County's public works facility served as a toxic dumping ground for years, and "instead of cleaning up the site, the county continued polluting. Instead of cracking down on the county's ineffective cleanup, the state allowed delay after delay." Despite hiring several consultants and hearing from residents and employees, government officials submitted reports late, cleanup efforts stalled and pollution continued. (Editor's note: For more about toxic dumping, look for the May/June 2006 issue of The IRE Journal which features several stories and resources for reporting similar stories.)
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Maui's sand could be gone in five years
Ilima Loomis of The Maui News reports that Maui's sand is expected to run out. "The vast system of inland sand dunes that stretches across Wailuku has largely been covered by development, and what's left is being mined — about 318,000 tons of the stuff dug out and used each year, 70 percent of it shipped to Honolulu." At that rate, the last available sand on the island will be gone within five to seven years. Sand is a key ingredient in concrete, and a shortage will mean importing a substitute, increasing the cost of construction across the state. It's also the only material available that can be used in beach-restoration projects. Sand has been mined on Maui since before World War II, and for years it was excavated in limited amounts from beaches in the Paia area to produce lime at a nearby kiln.
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City's weekly dam reports fabricated
Greg Bruno and Jessica Gardner of The Times Herald-Record reviewed documents to show that inspection reports designed to prevent catastrophic failings at two New York City-owned dams in the Catskills were repeatedly fabricated, even as water officials publicly proclaimed the structures' safety. "Since September 2002, about 70 percent of the city's weekly inspections for the Neversink Dam in Sullivan County and the Merriman Dam on the Rondout Reservoir in Ulster County have been photocopies of previous reports. Not only are the inspector's observations unchanged from week to week — citing evidence like cracks, seepage and other structural woes — but the handwriting on each questionable form is identical. The photocopies suggest that observations made during weekly dam visits were put on forms before the inspections were conducted — if they were conducted at all." (Editor's note: The National Inventory of Dams, a database including dam location, condition, maintenance, and inspection reports, is available to journalists from IRE and NICAR. Other resources for covering dams are available on our Web site.)
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Trains carry dangerous cargo through neighborhoods
Phil Pitchford, Ben Goad, David Danelski, Mark Kawar and projects editor Cathy Armstrong of The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise examine the safety issues surrounding trains carrying hazardous cargo as they travel through populated areas. "Every day, trains hauling tons of hazardous chemicals roll past Inland homes, schools, hospitals and businesses." The newspaper says residents are "largely unprepared for a large-scale chemical spill along a rail line" while chances of such an incident are increasing. "More than 1.5 million Inland residents live close enough to railroad tracks to be at risk from a serious spill, according to a recent analysis using geographic information systems technology from Redlands-based ESRI." (Editor's Note: IRE and NICAR offer the Hazardous Materials Incident Report Subsystem, maintained by the Department of Transportation. It includes incident reports of unintentional releases of hazardous materials for all modes of transportation — air, highway, railway, and water.)
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'Guest workers' suffer from exploitation, neglect
A nine-month investigation by Tom Knudson and Hector Amezcua of The Sacramento Bee "has found pineros [Latino forest workers in the United States] are victims of employer exploitation, government neglect and a contracting system that insulates landowners — including the U.S. government — from responsibility." The report, "based on more than 150 interviews across Mexico, Guatemala and the United States and 5,000 pages of records unearthed through the Freedom of Information Act" shows responsibility for these "guest workers" is spread among several federal agencies and private contractors with no effective oversight. Part two shows the government has been aware of problems with the program but has failed to do anything to fix it. "First in 1980 and again in 1993, Congress expressed shock at the abuse of Latino forest workers in America's woods and the hypocrisy of undocumented workers doing government work." The third part of the series focuses on "The number one cause of death among pineros" — van accidents. "They are the byproducts of fatigue, poorly maintained vehicles, ineffective state and federal laws, inexperienced drivers and poverty-stricken workers hungry for jobs."
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Major cleanup planned in New Orleans
Randy Lee Loftis of The Dallas Morning News reviewed government test results to show that the Army Corps of Engineers is planning one of the biggest environmental clean ups ever attempted in New Orleans. According to the report, part of an extensive look at the rebuilding of New Orleans, the clean up would involve scraping miles of sediment laced with cancer-causing chemicals from New Orleans' hurricane-flooded neighborhoods. "The clean-up plans would also include crews using front-end loaders to scoop up contaminated sediment that Hurricane Katrina floods left in yards, playgrounds and other spots throughout the greater New Orleans area." Despite one widely publicized study that said the Katrina floodwater was no more polluted than typical urban floods, the examination of the EPA's tests of flood-deposited sediments reveals long-term health concerns if the contamination were to remain.
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Decades of dumping of weapons pose threat
John M.R. Bull of the Daily Press examined Army records to show that the previously classified weapons-dumping program was far more extensive than ever suspected and that chemical weapons that the Army dumped at sea decades ago are ending up on shore in the United States. The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels. The investigation found that "these weapons of mass destruction virtually ring the country, concealed off at least 11 states - six on the East Coast, two on the Gulf Coast, California, Hawaii and Alaska. Few, if any, state officials have been informed of their existence. " Furthermore, with records missing, and some destroyed, the Army is unaware of the exact locations of the dumped weapons.
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Price of gold too high for the environment
Lowell Bergman, Jane Perlez, Kirk Johnson with other contributing reporters of the FRONTLINE/World and The New York Times examined the growing conflict between the local people and the Yanacocha Mine in Peru along with tours of gold mines in the American West, Latin America, Africa and Europe to provide a rare look inside an insular industry with a troubled environmental legacy and an uncertain future. "Some metal mines, including gold mines, have become the near-equivalent of nuclear waste dumps that must be tended in perpetuity. " Hard-rock mining generates more toxic waste than any other industry in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency estimated last year that the cost of cleaning up metal mines could reach $54 billion. The 6 month project revealed that with costs and suspicions of mining companies on the rise in rich countries, 70 percent of gold is now mined in developing countries like Guatemala and Ghana. See the " entire documentary and extra website features " including interview transcripts, FOIA documents and " recent developments " .
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Ford leaves behind toxic legacy in N.J.
"Toxic Legacy" is a five-part series by reporters at The Record exploring the environmental and health impacts of paint sludge and other industrial waste dumped a generation ago in watersheds and other environmentally sensitive areas by the Ford Motor Co. For 25 years, ending in 1980, the automaker operated a massive assembly plant in Bergen County that produced nearly 6 million vehicles and an ocean of industrial waste. Much of that waste remains where it was dumped, including a woodland watershed that's home to a low-income community whose members claim Native American ancestry. "The Record found that Ford repeatedly dumped in poor communities and failed to clean up its mess. "The tract was subjected to a Superfund cleanup, but the EPA repeatedly declared the site clean even though slabs of paint sludge and other waste was still readily apparent.
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S.C. port authority operates like a business
Michael R. Shea of The Beaufort (S.C.) Gazette delved into the South Carolina State Ports Authority, the state agency that manages "the fourth-largest waterborne shipping network in the country through marine terminals in Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal, South Carolina." The stories show that political contributions, political appointments and no-bid contracts blur the line between state agency and a private business. It also discusses its battle for records from the agency. The 18-story project includes more than a dozen of the public records, received through FOIAs, that were used in the reporting.
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Developers take advantage of agricultural breaks
Samuel P. Nitze and Beth Reinhard of The Miami Herald used local property data to show that “under a 1959 state law intended to preserve agriculture, developers reap huge property tax breaks by herding cows or raising crops in the most unlikely settings. Some pay less in annual property taxes than the average homeowner on parcels slated for multimillion-dollar projects.” One developer saved a quarter-million dollars last year by placing cows on land containing industrial warehouses. Florida has lost about 8 million acres of farmland since the law intended to preserve such property went into effect. With a methodological description.
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Chlorine plant is top mercury polluter
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used EPA data and records to show that a chlorine-producing plant in Natrium is West Virginia's single-largest air polluter, emitting more than 1,200 pounds of mercury into the air every year. Although much of the focus on mercury pollution centers on coal plants, chlorine producers are responsible for more mercury emissions. "Nationally, the average coal-fired power plant reported 84 pounds of mercury emissions in 2003. The average chlorine plant reported more than 1,074 pounds. Of the 100 power plants with the most mercury emissions, the average total air discharges was 484 pounds - less than half the average from a chlorine plant."
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Blast site had history of problems
Dina Cappiello of the Houston Chronicle used state records to show that "the portion of the Texas City refinery that burst into flames July 28 was the site of repeated malfunctions that could have been prevented if BP correctly and more frequently performed maintenance on the unit." The incidents included the installation of an incorrect pipe and a bad valve that released pollution. The paper found "at least eight cases where the incident was part of a 'recurring or frequent pattern'."
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Water supplies threatened by gasoline contaminates
Ron Hurtibise of the Daytona Beach News-Journal reports on Florida's efforts to clean up gasoline leaks in Volusia and Flagler counties, finding that "In 20 years, the state has spent $2.3 billion on cleanup strategies that often haven't worked. Old, steel gas station tanks, easily corroded in porous sandy soils, faithfully serviced generations of Florida motorists but paid no respect to the water supply vital to the state's growing population." Remediation efforts are successful for some spills but not at others, "despite outlays of hundreds of thousands of dollars, reams of paperwork and thousands of hours of employee work time."
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Bill could make wetlands easier to destroy
Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times used a social network analysis program analysis and documents to show that "a developers' lobbyist helped write a state bill that would make it easier to get a permit to destroy wetlands of 10 acres or smaller. When it passed, the builders persuaded 15 members of Congress to send Gov. Jeb Bush a letter urging him to sign it. He did." The measure's sponsor was warned by Bush that the legislation could hurt her legislative career.
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Regulators drop toxic chemical warning after plant lawyer complains
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette used the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain records showing that a plan by West Virginia environmental regulators to warn residents of Wood County about the spread of the toxic chemical C8 from DuPont Co.'s Parkersburg plant was killed after complaints from a DuPont lawyer. The paper reported that a state science adviser "insisted that DuPont review, edit and approve all C8-related statements issued by the state."
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Contamination levels still high years after discovery
Wade Rawlins of The (Raleigh/Durham) News & Observer reports on toxic chemicals that have been contaminating local water sources for the last 15 years. "Ward Transformer spilled thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals on its 11 acres at the edge of Raleigh-Durham International Airport." Investigators knew in 1978 and 1979 of the high levels of contamination, but have done nothing to clean it up, documents show. (Editor's Note: For tips on reporting similar stories, IRE offers "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide." The book, produced in cooperation with the Society of Environmental Journalists, shows reporters how to tap into resources for local investigations into environmental pollution.)
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Florida wetlands vanishing
In a two-part series, Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite of the St. Petersburg Times report on the destruction of Florida wetlands. The Times analyzed satellite imagery to determine the acres of wetlands lost to urban development. Their investigation uncovered that the federal agency primarily responsible for regulating wetland in Florida failed to keep records on how many acres they were allowing to be destroyed and doesn't track projects they were requiring to make up for the destruction. "... since the policy took effect in 1990, at least 84,000 acres of Florida wetlands have disappeared..." The Times found a system that creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the destruction. "The corps approves more permits to destroy wetlands in Florida than any other state, and allows a higher percentage of destruction in Florida than nationally." The series includes interactive graphics and a complete methodology on how the series was done and tracks how pressure from Congress is used.
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Airport project shut down for environmental violations
Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records on two logging contractors shut down for repeated environmental violations. Department of Environmental Protection records "showed that the agency cited Yeager [airport contractors] last month for two violations of its stormwater control permit on the slide repair work." The 170-acre airport project includes about 55 acres of clear-cutting.
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Police fail to report missing children
Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard News Service analyzed data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to find that "dozens of police departments across the nation failed to report at least 4,498 runaway, lost and abducted children in apparent violation of the National Child Search Assistance Act passed by Congress in 1990. Seventeen of these unreported children are dead, 131 are still missing." Twelve percent of the more than 37,000 children reported missing to the NCMEC between 2000 and 2004 were not reported to the FBI.
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Refinery warned about dangerous ventilation stack
Dina Cappiello and Anne Belli of the Houston Chronicle obtained OSHA data on the British Petroleum refinery that exploded March 23. They found that the refinery had been fined and warned about the ventilation stack and given ideas on how to make it safer in 1992. "To correct the problem, OSHA recommended that Amoco reconfigure the unit so that liquids and vapors discharged go to a flare, or set up air monitors." The company was cited for 15 violations and initially fined $50,000. If the flare system had been in place, officials said the accident would never have happened.
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Oil tanker regulations ignored, trimmed back
Eric Nalder of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigated the inner-workings of a tanker fleet owned by the third-largest oil company in the nation, ConocoPhillips. The series was inspired by a mystery spill in Puget Sound. The company had denied that its ship, the Polar Texas, was the spiller, while the U.S. Coast Guard said the oil matched the vessel's cargo. The investigation revealed a much wider pattern, that on the West Coast important reforms following Exxon Valdez spill are being undermined, ignored, violated and, in the case of tug escorts, trimmed back through the influence of the oil company. The P-I revealed through interviews and internal company documents a wide pattern of misconduct and dangerous behavior aboard a number of the company's huge ships, vessels that regularly carry nearly 40 million gallons of oil over some of the roughest seas in the world to refinery ports in Washington and California.
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Chicago recycling program success exagerated
Laurie Cohen and Dan Mihalopoulos of the Chicago Tribune, along with Gary Washburn, used city records to show that "less paper, plastic, metals and other recyclables were salvaged from Chicago's household garbage in the last two years than at any time since the program's earliest years." The paper's investigation found that the city "has quietly begun allowing nearly 30 percent of Chicago's residential waste to bypass the expensive sorting centers built a decade ago to pull out recyclables."
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High toxin levels downplayed by regulators
Keith Matheny of the Traverse City Record-Eagle used state and federal records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to show that while the public learned about deadly toxins present in the Bay Harbor gated community last fall, "regulators knew of contamination from cement kiln dust piles as far back as the 1980s." The documents also shed light on a deal between Michigan and Bay Harbor developers over the existence of contaminants and cleanup procedures.
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New York City employees still use cars, despite mayor's boast
David Seifman of the New York Post obtained city records to show that "more city workers are commuting in their government-owned cars, despite Mayor Bloomberg's boast that his administration is slashing spending while maintaining services." The number of civilian NYC employees who commuted in their city-provided cars increased 11 percent from 2003, even as the overall workforce increased only slightly.
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Europe filling shoes of EPA, FDA
Mark Schapiro of the Center for Investigative Reporting reports for public radio's Marketplace that "while the Bush Administration unravels decades of hard-fought environmental protections, a new global force is emerging with the power to reshape American industrial practices: the European Union." The three-part series finds that the EU is filling the void left by weakened health and environmental agencies in the United States. "The E.U. is confronting American manufacturers with a dilemma: either conform to Europe's stricter health and environmental standards, or give up the European market." The second and third parts will air in the next month.
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Companies pay only fraction of clean-up costs
David Pace of The Associated Press used federal records to show that "bonds posted by companies with federal oil and gas leases cover only a small fraction of the projected costs of plugging wells and restoring land once the fuel is extracted, leaving taxpayers with the potential for huge cleanup bills." The price tag for cleanup could reach as much as $1 billion, while the Bureau of Land Management has raised $132 million from companies that maintain more than 100,000 oil and gas wells. "The current rates were set in 1960, and gas and oil companies are the only federal mineral lease holders that aren't required to post full reclamation bonds. Coal and hard rock mineral companies must post bonds equivalent to the estimated cleanup costs."
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Polluters get lenient treatment in Colo.
Miles Moffeit and Theo Stein of The Denver Post reveal that "the London Mine, one of the richest gold-ore strikes in Colorado history, has hemorrhaged toxic metals into South Mosquito Creek for decades, killing fish habitat over a mile-long stretch," yet the state's Department of Public Health and Environment has never levied a fine. "This year, the mine owner and a developer persuaded the state to relax the pollution limits. Now the mine won't violate them so often." Researcher Monnie Nilsson and CAR Editor Jeff Roberts contributed to the story. (Editor's note: For useful tips on reporting similar stories, see the latest IRE Beat Book, "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide.")
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Chronic polluter escapes fines
Chris Bowman of The Sacramento Bee used state records to show that a Merced County cheese maker avoided spending millions on waste treatment equipment by dumping polluted materials onto land leased by the company. "The water board has recorded at least 4,000 violations against Hilmar Cheese in the past four years alone, making it one of California's most chronic offenders of clean-water laws. Yet, for years not a single fine or injunction was issued. Instead of cracking down, the Valley water board kept raising the limit on wastewater volume at the cheese maker's request, as production kept growing." (Editor's note: For those interested in doing similar stories, be sure to see IRE's latest beat book: "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide.")
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Oil refineries missing deadlines
Scott Streater of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram finds the Environmental Protection Agency has "quietly allowed oil refineries nationwide to miss court-mandated deadlines to reduce air emissions, prolonging the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people to dangerous pollutants." The article is based on an analysis of progress reports submitted by refineries that have settled, released by the EPA through the federal Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with more than 50 environmental regulators, legal experts and oil company officials. A second story looks at a deal the EPA has struck a deal to clean up five refineries owned by ChevronTexaco.
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Sewage agency slow to enforce rules
James Bruggers of the Louisville Courier-Journal used Metropolitan Sewer District enforcement records and internal e-mails to show that "the agency often takes longer to act on enforcement cases than called for under the law — and it has been reluctant to issue fines." The MSD and developers say the approach yields results. Local rules regarding runoff from construction sites are tighter than Kentucky or federal laws, but data from the agency "indicate that 88 percent of 860 enforcement cases during that time took more than two days to resolve. In 53 percent, it took more than seven days, and in 11 percent, cases lingered more than 50 days. The records also show that MSD issued just 15 fines during that time, and the fines were small — averaging $813." (Note: For others interested in doing similar stories, get the new beat book "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide," published by IRE in cooperation with the Society of Environmental Journalists.)
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Environmental beat book just released
IRE has just released the latest addition to its Beat Book collection. "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide" shows journalists how to tap into resources they can use for local investigations into environmental pollution. The guide, published in cooperation with the Society of Environmental Journalists, offers extensive resources for in-depth and time-intensive investigations but its main focus is to show you how to the heart of an investigation quickly and without waiting months for FOIA requests to be fulfilled. Much of the information focuses on using Web-based, federal database searches to get data to find and drive environmental investigations, but you'll also find numerous tips from veteran reporters about how to handle other aspects of investigative environmental journalism, including interviews and writing.
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Preschool, park stand on polluted land
Scott Streater of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that a former Army supply depot in Fort Worth that now contains a preschool, park and small lake has a hidden danger: "more than a dozen pollutants — including a suspected stash of the highly toxic herbicide Agent Orange — are spread throughout the center's 278 acres and beyond, including the preschool and the park. ... environmental inspectors have warned for years that children and other park users could be at risk from cancer-causing agents, and they have long recommended that the site be cleaned, according to the Star-Telegram review of more than 5,000 pages of federal, state and city records." (Note: For others interested in doing similar stories, get the new beat book "Covering Pollution: An Investigative Reporter's Guide," published by IRE in cooperation with the Society of Environmental Journalists.)
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Mont. makes deals for grazing leases
The Associated Press used records from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to show that the state has repeatedly reduced the amount ranchers have to pay to lease state-owned land during the past 10 years. The total amount discounted exceeds $1.5 million. "Over the past 10 years, 9,001 grazing and cropland leases were renewed. Usually less than 5 percent of those attracted a competitive bid and the current leaseholders usually matched it. In about half of those cases, leaseholders requested an administrative hearing to argue they should pay a lower rate. The department and state Land Board reduced the rental rate in about eight of every 10 cases, with an average decrease of 35 percent. That amounted to more than $1.5 million in discounts over the 10-year life of the affected grazing leases, money that would have mostly gone to education programs."
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Emissions testing machines fail own tests
Daniel Sforza and Dave Sheingold of The (Bergen, N.J.) Record analyzed information from New Jersey state audits to find that "the equipment used to test motor vehicle emissions failed its own state-mandated tests nearly 25 percent of the time over the past two years." Warm weather in particular seems to bring on failures, but the machines have been improving since they were first used in 2001.
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White House moves to open public lands to drilling
Alan C. Miller, Tom Hamburger and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times reveal that the Bush administration has created a little-known White House "task force to act as a complaint desk for the energy industry, passing concerns directly to federal land management employees in the field." Internal memos and interviews showed senior administration officials have pressed Interior and Forest Service employees to make oil and gas development a high priority, commended offices that approved large numbers of drilling permits and chastised those that were slow. "The effort is so intense in the oil- and gas-rich Rockies that some Bureau of Land Management employees there have taken to calling the region 'the OPEC states.'"
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Money to clean up old mines diverted for other uses
Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston (W.V.) Gazette reports that the U.S. coal industry pays taxes — more than $7 billion since 1978 — intended to reclaim old mines. "But today, more than $3 billion of mine sites that threaten public safety remain unreclaimed. The federal Abandoned Mine Land program has not met its goals in large part because regulators diverted more than $1.3 billion in AML money to other projects."
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Clean-air inspections down 52 percent
Jeff Claassen and Scott Streater of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Seth Borenstein of Knight-Ridder combined to study federal environment enforcement of oil refineries, finding that since 2001, "federal and state authorities have sharply cut back on clean-air enforcement actions at many of the nation's 145 oil refineries, even though they remain among the country's worst air polluters." Such regulatory actions peaked during the Clinton administration, but have fallen off during the Bush presidency. "Comprehensive clean-air inspections, a crucial step in identifying violations, are down 52 percent for refineries since 2001, compared with 4 percent for all industries. ... Notices of violations have plummeted 68 percent for refineries, compared with a 24 percent drop for all industries. And formal enforcement actions are down 31 percent for refineries but less than 1 percent for all industries nationwide." The Environmental Protection Agency says that it has not cut its enforcement efforts but that it has pursued legal settlements called consent decrees.
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Crucial waterway suffering from neglect
Brian Hicks of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier has the story of "the Ditch," otherwise known as the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Neglect by the Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains the route, has made it too shallow for passage in many areas and federal funding may be cut to zero next year. "If money for dredging is not provided soon, whole sections of the waterway could be virtually useless within a year or two, sending an economic shockwave along the Southeast coast." Intracoastal projects received about $6.7 million in 2004, but the paper concludes that several times that amount is necessary to keep the waterway open.
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Most Ariz. charter schools won't release information
Daryl James of the East Valley Tribune requested salary information on the principals of 81 charter schools, but "about two-thirds either ignored the requests or declined to grant access." Arizona state law defines charter schools as "public schools" and most receive state funding, but only 28 of the 81 schools provided the salary details requested. "Mission Montessori Academy in Scottsdale said it did not have to allow inspection of its records because salary information could be found on the Internet. The school declined to say where."
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Oil, gas leases on federal land concentrated among few
David Pace of The Associated Press analyzed records from the Department of Interior to find that "a single New Mexico family and a dozen big oil companies, including one once headed by Commerce Secretary Don Evans, now control one-quarter of all federal lands leased for oil and gas development in the continental United States despite a law intended to prevent such concentration." The federal government agency in charge of overseeing such property gave permits even though it knew that several of the firms were in violation of the law. "The government can cancel leases held by companies that exceed the cap. Agency officials acknowledge they have never done that nor denied a company's request for more time to comply." The list of top oil and gas lease holders is included.
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Accidental chemical release could sicken thousands
James Bruggers and Gregory A. Hall of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., used public records to determine the possible effects of toxic releases from dozens of plants in the area. "The newspaper's analysis of the risk-management plans for area companies found 33 reporting worst-case scenarios that could expose people to harmful concentrations of chemical vapors" in the six counties. Another story looks at public access to such data, noting that " Security fears compete with accountability." (Note: IRE and NICAR now offer the Toxic Release Inventory, information about on- and off-site releases of chemicals and other waste management activities reported annually by industries, including federal facilities.)
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Data reveals excessive water use in Utah
Brent Israelsen of the Salt Lake Tribune used data from the Salt Lake City Public Utilities Department to compile a list of the top water users in the area, finding that Ronald Gunnell's sprawling estate used 7.1 million gallons last year. "That's enough water to fill Steiner Aquatic Center's Olympic-sized swimming pool 16 times, and it's roughly 21 times the water used by a typical Utah family." It was the third year that Gunnell, an insurance executive, has topped the list. Eight of the top 12 reduced their usage after officials asked consumers to help fight the effects of drought in the state. NBA star Karl Malone's home in the area used more than 3.3 million gallons.
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Disaster funds pay for sand, signs, bike paths
Gilbert M. Gaul of The Washington Post obtained Federal Emergency Management Agency records on money given to towns after Hurricane Isabel last fall, finding that "dozens of wealthy beach towns and coastal communities turned to the federal agency after Isabel and received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded disaster relief. The bulk of the money was used to clear debris and pay for emergency workers' overtime. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, however, were used to repair flagpoles, signs, bike paths and ball fields. And, in what some environmental groups and regulators say is a troubling development, the federal agency is paying for an estimated $15 million worth of sand." The Post got the records through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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Former sawmill could have lasting effects on residents
Alan Scher Zagier of the Naples Daily News spent five months tracing the effects of a former sawmill in Jerome, Fla., that was destroyed in a chemical fire in 1956. Eighteen people "who worked at the Jones mill or lived in Jerome after the 1956 fire have died from various forms of cancer or brain tumors," and "dozens more — including a 5-year-old boy — are sick with a host of maladies, from skin lesions and fertility problems to behavioral disorders." The illnesses and deaths may be related to creosote, a wood preservative made from toxic chemicals, that seeped into the groundwater beneath the town. The fire that all but closed the town burned a holding tank containing 3,000 gallons of creosote. Former residents and their descendants have sued Collier Enterprises Inc., the company of county founder Barron Collier, which sold the land to the mill owner. "Officials with the state Department of Environmental Regulation, now known as the Department of Environmental Protection, did in fact laud the Collier companies for their response to the public health hazard. Yet those same state officials relied on incomplete and outdated evidence submitted by Collier Enterprises and its consultants to guide the cleanup process — a decision that saved the company millions of dollars."
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Company remakes itself after losing contract
Lisa Chedekel and Jack Dolan of The Hartford Courant obtained state records showing that a company that lost its state contract for emissions testing has essentially reconstituted itself to perform the same work. "Agbar Technologies, the company that won the right to succeed Envirotest, was founded by former Envirotest managers who had roles in overseeing Connecticut's troubled old system, and who have tapped a number of other Envirotest employees to run the new program in Connecticut." State officials halted the testing program last month after concerns were raised about Agbar.
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Analysis finds inconsistency in auto emissions tests
Lisa Chedekel and Jack Dolan of The Hartford Courant analyzed state records to find that the state's new emissions test may not be effective and may even lead to fraud. "In the first five months of the program, 621 cars and trucks that failed a standard emissions test were later given dubious passing grades on an alternate test that does not check for nitrogen oxides, and is considered easier to pass." In 143 cases, car owners were persuaded to have repairs made to their cars that were pointless.
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IRE awards three medals
An astonishing story of brutal war crimes by The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade and a book on the American tax system by David Cay Johnston took top honors in the 2003 IRE Awards. In addition, the Freedom of Information Award went to a team from the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader for exposing a massive secret pardons program rife with questions and conflicts for the governor.
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Sewage pours into Ohio river
John C. Kuehner of The (Cleveland, Ohio) Plain Dealer examined state environmental protection agency records to find more than 4 billion gallons of sewage were dumped into the Cuyahoga River last year. About 31 million gallons was released during last August's blackout, but "the releases Aug. 14 were just a trickle of the overall sewage," according to the records. "... all year long, sewage poured into the river from Ravenna to Cleveland, according to Ohio EPA's documents. Some of the sewage — more than 800 million gallons — was partially treated before it entered the river. Nearly 3 billion of the 4.38 billion gallons were a diluted mixture of sewage and rainwater."
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Low-income area subjected to industrial pollution
Tammy Webber, Mark Nichols and Bill Theobald of The Indianapolis Star have a two-day project on air pollution in Indianapolis' industrial neighborhoods, using federal data and health statistics to show that "residents may pay a price for living in Marion County's industrial hub," including increased rates of lung cancer and respiratory problems. "In 2001, the latest year for which there are data, more than 1.7 million pounds of pollution — three-fourths of all air pollution reported in Marion County, including ozone-producing compounds — were emitted by 19 companies within a two-mile radius of the low-income area around Morris Street and Tibbs Avenue." A second piece explains that officials have done little to address residents' concerns about their health.
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Petrochemical "upsets" belch pollution in Houston
Dina Cappiello of the Houston Chronicle reviewed state environmental data to find that "a dozen plants belonging to major petroleum and petrochemical companies accounted for 80 percent of all pollution released accidentally into Houston's air last year." The releases, known as "upsets," came from refineries and other facilities in the area. Just 2.6 percent of upsets in 2003 resulted in violations or fines.
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Aging oil tankers a risk on high seas
Reporter Mark Schapiro, in a project from the Center for Investigative Reporting and Frontline, looks at the maritime industry, "long shrouded in secrecy and protected from accountability by complex corporate structures and foreign flags." Aging tankers are allowed to continue carrying oil around the world as a result of a "tangled web of responsibility" and "elements of the international maritime system," according to "The Lawless Sea." The Los Angeles Times published a column about the subject written by Schapiro.
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Approvals to drill wells up 34 percent under Bush
The Associated Press reports that oil and gas companies seeking government approval for drilling since 1998 have an ally in the Bush administration, which is "approving wells at a pace well ahead of the Clinton administration and looking to get even faster." Nearly all the applications are for projects in the Mountain West states of Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
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Electronic waste poses problems for developing countries
Karl Schoenberger of the San Jose Mercury News reports on scrap yards in India that process waste from discarded computers. "As India emerges as a technology powerhouse, poverty, cheap labor and rampant corruption make it a prime market for the dumping and burning of unregulated electronic waste, environmental activists say." The Indian government maintains that electronic waste is not brought into the country and therefore isn't a problem.
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Developers use preservation method for tax write-offs
Joe Stephens and David Ottaway of The Washington Post report on the abuse of tax incentives intended to preserve land. "Conservation easements" allow landowners to "donate the easements to a nonprofit land trust or a government agency." The landowner can then "seek federal income tax deductions for the reduction in the land's market value." The story follows up on a series of articles about the Nature Conservancy and the way it has bought property, added easements, then sold the property and gotten tax write-offs.
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Lawyers get bulk of money intended for clean up of water supply
Chris Bowman, Cameron John and Rebecca Boyd of The Sacramento Bee pored over environmental, court and city government records detailing the city of Lodi's effort to make insurers pay for contamination of drinking water by city businesses. "The city's pursuit of polluters' insurance money has become a multimillion-dollar sinkhole, the result of state environmental authorities ceding enforcement powers to local government and locally elected officials, in turn, neglecting their watch on public spending." Since 1996, about $14 million in city money has gone to lawyer Michael C. Donovan and his associates — a total that amounts to nearly half of Lodi's annual budget.
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Timber industry tops other interests in campaign contributions
Diane Dietz of The (Eugene, Ore.) Register-Guard examined campaign contributions in local races in Eugene, Springfield and Lane County in the past five years, finding that members of Oregon's timber industry dominated the political landscape. "Together, timber-connected donors have dropped more than $200,000 into local races since 1998, routinely writing $500 or $1,000 checks to their favorite candidates." Development interests ranked second, but many of those donors "are backed by timber fortunes that have diversified over the years." Part of a series on local campaign donors, the paper also described how it collected the data for the stories.
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Virginia fishing enforcement growing lax
Scott Harper and David Gulliver of The Virginian-Pilot reviewed state fishing enforcement programs and records to show that the Virginia Marine Patrol "is at its lowest staffing level in at least 30 years. Its budget has been cut six times in the past 12 years - to the point that some officers say they have all but stopped routine fishing patrols." Even when the so-called "fish cops" catch offenders, courts and state regulators often go easy on those who break fishery laws. "Since 1996, about half of the commercial fishermen, or watermen, who appeared before the (Virginia Marine Resources Commission) went out and broke the law again."
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Chicago-area forestry jobs based on connections
Abdon M. Pallasch of the Chicago Sun-Times analyzed the payroll of the Cook County Forest Preserves, finding that "most top-paying jobs -- $80,000 and higher -- have been awarded to politicians and the politically connected, not to experts in forestry or natural resource management." Former local and state politicians and their family members often get the most lucrative positions with the organization, which was created to help conserve land. "The Forest Preserves over the years has hired political loyalists at the lower ranks and ex-elected officials at the higher ranks. Use of Forest Preserve property for private concerns was tolerated. One official was suspended a few months ago for attaching a Forest Preserve hitch to his daughter's car to haul her jet ski."
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Web blog to cover environment-related FOI issues
The Society of Environmental Journalists has launched a Web log that will follow First Amendment news, especially as it pertains to environment-related issues. The site is updated by editor Joe Davis as often as news occurs. Organizations and individuals can also subscribe to this page as an RSS News Feed. The site is also accessible via SEJ's home page.
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Denver's water supply dwindling
Lou Kilzer, Jerd Smith and Burt Hubbard of the Rocky Mountain News report that much of the well water for Denver, "once thought abundant enough for a century, could be out of reach in 10 to 20 years." Deborah Frazier writes that more than 80 percent of home owners in the affected areas were not told when buying their homes about the shrinking water supply. Another story reveals that officials and developers have ignored warning signs for 15 years. The last part of the series looks at possible solutions and obstacles.
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Non-native creatures threaten environment
Michael Hawthorne and Doug Haddix of The Columbus Dispatch have a lengthy series on the threat to the environment from foreign species of insects. The stories start with a beetle from China, the emerald ash borer, that has "killed more than 6 million trees" since journeying on cargo ships and other vessels. "People inadvertently have spread the destruction by moving infested trees, lumber or firewood to four counties in Ohio and one each in Maryland and Ontario. No matter how large or strong the trees, they have no defense." Other stories explain how U.S. regulations permit ships to dump "ballast water" in American ports, helping to spread foreign species.
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Public lands in Arizona have high crime rates
Judd Slivka of The Arizona Republic reports that "national parks and other federal recreation sites in Arizona have some of the highest crime rates of any public lands in the country, and those in southern Arizona lead the list." Coronado National Memorial and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument are among the most dangerous such sites in the nation. Both are close to the state's border with Mexico and offer less visibility and lighter security than other areas. The paper called them "virtual highways for smuggling."
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Gulf's health in decline
Cathy Zollo and a team of reporters from the Naples Daily News have a 15-part series on the declining environmental health of the Gulf of Mexico. The stories describe a "Dead Zone" the size of Massachusetts at the mouth of the Mississippi, the loss of coral and salt marshes and the introduction of invasive species as threats to the Gulf. Other pieces focus on the fishing industry and the impact of industrial pollution.
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NW Fla. residents drank unsafe water for 4½ years
Scott Streater of the Pensacola News Journal reviewed thousands of documents to find that "for at least 54 months, between February 1996 and September 2000, more than 10,000 residents in Pensacola and Gulf Breeze were drinking water polluted with radium 226/228 at levels considered unsafe by the federal government." Two former Escambia County Utility Authority regulators knew of the levels, records showed, but "resisted attempts by state regulators to force ECUA to take immediate corrective action, which the administrators said would cost the utility millions of dollars."
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Latest IRE Journal focuses on air pollution
The latest issue of The IRE Journal is out. The Sept./Oct. cover focus is on "Bad Air: Investigating Pollution." It includes stories by David Danelski, The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise; Mark Grossi, Barbara Anderson and Russell Clemings, The Fresno Bee; and James Bruggers, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal.
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Pollutants may force Louisville under fed control
James Bruggers of the Louisville Courier-Journal reviewed federal and local air pollution data to find that while "yearly releases of some types of industrial pollutants in Jefferson County have sharply decreased, but others, including those that contribute to cancer, heart disease and asthma, appear to be on the rise." The Louisville metro area is likely to fall short of new federal guidelines, which could trigger pollution controls. The paper used the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory and two local sets of records it obtained through a state open records request. With loads of graphics and follow-ups.
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Drug, terror cases mask drop in EPA’s pollution investigations
Chris Bowman of the Sacramento Bee found that the Environmental Protection Agency "has overstated its success in fighting polluters by lumping counterterrorism and narcotics cases led by other agencies into its environmental enforcement record." The agency has inflated the length of prison terms for offenders and reported higher numbers of cases referred to prosecutors while actually pursuing fewer criminal cases in the past two years. The paper examined enforcement statistics, reports to Congress and internal agency records.
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Power company's environmental record 'off the mark'
Carrie Teegardin of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined a decade worth of government records and data to find that power company Southern Co. "has overstated its environmental record, pollutes more than most of its peers even when using comparisons favorable to Southern, and has fought numerous federal cleanup efforts along the way." Figures from the company's recent PR campaign touting its environmental record, Southern acknowledges, "might be off the mark." While some plants have reduced their emissions by more than a third since 1990, "the bulk of Southern Co.'s plants are exceeding federal emissions targets -- some by a lot."
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James Bruggers and Mark Schavers of The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal find that "Louisville-area residents are being exposed to toxic chemicals in concentrations up to hundreds of times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe." The paper obtained air monitoring data from the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District and presented its analysis to several experts. A sidebar shows how Louisville air readings would be illegal in Louisiana, one of the few states with actual ambient air standards for toxic chemicals.
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Oystermen could benefit from suit against environmental project
Jeffrey Meitrodt and Aaron Kuriloff of The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune have a four-part series on Louisiana oystermen who could receive $2 billion through class-action lawsuits against an environmental project designed to improve the habitat for oysters. The initial story, on May 4, points out that "the awards are worth more than the total value of all oysters harvested in Louisiana since the state created its leasing program in 1902." The second explains how the oystermen found cause to sue the state for dumping fresh water in marshes containing oyster reefs.
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In the first of a three-part series on the Nature Conservancy, David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens of The Washington Post report that even as the environmental group has amassed $3 billion in assets, it has "logged forests, engineered a $64 million deal paving the way for opulent houses on fragile grasslands and drilled for natural gas under the last breeding ground of an endangered bird species." The charity acknowledged making mistakes in several of its ventures, but defends its philosophy of "compatible development." A sidebar explores the compensation package for Steven J. McCormick, the group's president.
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California's conservation backfires on the world's environment
Environmental reporter Tom Knudson of the Sacramento Bee anchors an imaginative project by the paper that attempts to assess the impact that Californians have on the world environment. "With 34 million people and the world's fifth-largest economy, California has long consumed more than it produces. But today, its passion for protecting natural resources at home while importing them in record quantities from afar is backfiring on the world's environment." The analysis includes how the newspaper itself does business, especially in buying newsprint.
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