The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "great lake" ...
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The Great Lakes: An Endangered Legacy
A series of stories that invesigate how pollution, sewage and foreign marine animals are helping to destroy the Great Lakes
Tags: Great Lakes; Marine Animals; Lake Michigan; Huron; Ontario; Eerie; Superior
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Invaded Waters
Foreign fish and other creatures have invaded the Great Lakes and are killing off native lake life. This investigation found most of these creatures arrived by ship from Europe or Asia and that many of these ships are not inspected as they should be before being allowed passage. Biologists believe these new species will soon dominate the lakes' ecology. Some of these changes may pose risks to humans. Most fishermen have been negatively affected. 'Flying' fish have also proved dangerous.
Tags: great lake; fish; wildlife; ecology; biology; water; coast guard; goby; environmental protection agency
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Sandcastle Politics
Governing looks at the environmental and fiscal controversies surrounding beach nourishment pleas in hurricane-prone East Coast states, around the Gulf Coast, along the Pacific shore and across the Great Lakes. "Hunkering down to fight against the ocean may be a futile game in the long run and could ultimately only make matters worse," reports the magazine. The story points to geologists' warnings that multimillion efforts to keep sand on the coastlines have to be repeated every few years, and voices concerns that "nourishment merely makes beach towns lazy about doing serious land-planning." The report includes a sidebar with information on "sand dollars" spent by 11 states for shore protection from 1995 to 1999.
Tags: land use; Oak Island; hurricanes; erosion; sand; tourism; storms; coastline; sea; ocean; local governments; beaches; Coastal Area Management Act
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Clear Progress
Audubon looks at the positive results from the Clean Water Act passed in 1972. The report finds that the landmark law has "spurred an unprecedented cleanup of the nation's waters," and tells the success stories of several big rivers' cleanup. The article reveals also that much remains to be done and points to an Environmental Protection Agency report showing that "forty percent of the nation's surveyed rivers, lakes and estuaries are too polluted for basic uses."
Tags: environment; rivers; lakes; drinking-level quality; contamination; pollution; Potomac; French Broad River; the Great Lakes; the Connecticut River; the Boise River; the Mississippi River; Fish and Wildlife Service; wetlands
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Feeding the World, poisoning the planet
In just the past two decades, industrialization, population growth and intense use of chemical fertilizers have doubled the amount of nitrogen in circulation among living things...And this sudden explosion of nitrogen has meant mounting worldwide environmental problems that promise to soon get worse and, some scientists predict, to reach the point of calamity." Some examples: More frequent algae blooms (red tides) kill fish and other sea life in coastal waters, invasive plants take over prairies in Minnesota, acid rain in the Blue Ride Mountains, visibility impaired in waters near the Great Barrier Reef, forest mushrooms disappear in Holland.
Tags: nitrogen; environment; water; red tide; algae; seafood; sewage; fishing; "dead zones"; praires; fertilizer; ammonia; farming; sea grass; Baltic; blue crabs; sea grass; agriculture; scallops; monk seals; sea lions; shrimp; hogs; Lake Pontchartrain
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Deep trouble
Just a decade ago, after a century of devastation, scientists were finally growing confident in their ability to manage the ecology of the Great Lakes. But today, even the once prolific yellow perch is disappearing. Chicago looks at Lake Michigan's fragile web of life.
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The Exterminators
State and federal pesticide regulations have failed to protect thousands of unsuspecting consumers from unlicensed exterminators who have illegally sprayed homes from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes with highly toxic pesticides intended only for outside use on farms. The pesticides, which are related to a Nazi nerve gas, are so toxic that the EPA is spending $70 million to decontaminate homes.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 13175)
Once a placid 18th-century backwater, Lake Erie was transformed in the 19th century into a great commercial highway. This Audubon article investigates how agriculture and industry left the lake clogged in the early part of the 20th century and now that the lake is finally clear again a burgeoning population of zebra mollusks threaten its ecological survival. (Sept. - Oct. 1996)
Tags: Luoma Pesticides Phosphorus Hazardous wastes Toxic substances 12 pgs.
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No title (id: 9459)
E Magazine (Norwalk, Conn.) documents the danger poised to wildlife and to humans by the use and disposal of chlorine; looks at the Great Lakes and the effect water pollution by chlorine has had on the lakes; gives alternatives to the use of chlorine, July/August 1993. # CN Moberg Chlorofluorocarbons CFCs Greenpeace
Tags: None
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No title (id: 3673)
Milwaukee Journal investigates the presence and lingering effects of toxic chemicals in the Great Lakes basin in a series covering past pollution, the clean-up, continued pollution, health effects and politics surrounding the toxic remains of industry and agriculture, Nov. 13 - 20, 1988.