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 "storm water" ...
-
MSD
Corruption in the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District. The MSD oversees sewer treatment, storm water management and Ohio river flood control for the several hundred thousand people who live in Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky. Throughout the investigation, The Courier-Journal discovered that MSD board members owned companies that they were doing business with the agency they served, excessive bonuses to top officials, and a secret $140,000 lawsuit with an HR chief when he threatened a whisteblower lawsuit.
Tags: Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District; MSD; Jefferson County; Kentucky
-
Heart Like Water: Surviving Katrina and Life in its Disaster Zone
"Hundreds of oral histories, interviews, and anecdotes lace through the author's own narrative of the storm and its ten week aftermath." Clark lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit and did not evacuate, this is his memoir.
Tags: Hurricane Katrina; natural disasters; memoir; New Orleans; wetland
-
Your Home. Our Sewage
This story uncovers the fact that thousands of Hamilton County residents were dealing with basements that were flooded with storm water and raw sewage following rainstorms. Many homeowners did not report it because of the fear that it might affect the future sale of their homes. However, of the residents who did report the problem, were faced with the fact that no one would accept the responsibility of fixing it. The Metropolitan Sewer District claimed that the responsibility for repairs belonged to the cities. Meanwhile, the cities were claiming that the repair should be done by the Metropolitan Sewer District according to a 1968 contract. After a number of county commission hearings following WCPO's investigation, the MSD finally assumed full responsibility for the repairs.
Tags: basement flooding; sewer damage; Metropolitan Sewer District
-
New Jersey fails to protect its wetlands
The Atlantic City Press reveals how weak enforcement has made "a mockery out of the county's toughest wetlands law." The major findings are that "the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection took forever to resolve cases" and that "penalties were so light that it made economic sense for wetland violators to take their chances." Violators often filled wetlands illegally and this resulted in flooding of the adjacent houses. Another finding is that a state agency created to develop new wetlands has done nothing over the 13 years of its existence.
Tags: Wetlands Mitigation Council; Army Corps of engineers; storm water; buffer areas; floods; rainstorms
-
A Flood of Problems
A Columbia Missourian investigation reveals the neglect of local city and county officials in planning and handling storm water floods amidst new development. Boone County and city of Columbia systems for handling planning subdivisions place "little emphasis on storm water's potential to cause flooding or damage water quality."
Tags: storm water; urban sprawl; subdivisions; planning and zoning; Columbia; Boone County; water quality; growth; urbanization; development
-
Murky waters
A Star-Telegram two-part investigation sheds light on water pollution problems caused by the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. The story reveals that the airport "sits on underground lakes of jet fuel." It has hemorrhaged toxic waters into the nearby Trinity River tributaries and into Trigg Lake for at least a decade. The major findings are "that pollutants ... have flowed into waters where people fish, that the airport sometimes misrepresented waste problems to investigators and that antifreeze can still escape into creeks despite recent improvements."
Tags: chemicals; toxins; waste dumps; de-icing fluid; environment; government; Clean Water Act; Superfund; contamination; EPA; sewer system; fraud; wastewater; fish; drainage; storm-water; natural resources; conservation
-
A Developing Problem
Pitch Weekly reports on a Kansas City neighbohood assocation going to the mat with city council officals to prevent new development in their area. The association accuses the council of siding with the developers because they're afraid of getting sued. If development occurrs, the neighborhood assoication fears increased traffic, crime and storm water runoff.
-
Sewage spills make bay unsafe
The Post-Intelligencer found the Seattle area's outdated sewer system allowed nearly 2 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with storm water to drain into nearby lakes and bays.
Tags: Sewers; storm runoff
-
A River Under Seige
In a three-day series examining the environmental and economic issues surrounding the San Joaquin River's slow death, The Record reveals the costs of living next to the sick river. The lower San Joaquin carries thousands of pounds of salt and selenium-laden runoff from farms, waste from dairies and untreated storm runoff. Ratepayers in Stockton face higher utility bills to improve a wastewater treatment plant. Farmers lose crops to salty water, and water earmarked for households and businesses must instead be used to help dilute the polluted river. (June 30 - July 2, 1996)
Tags: Nickles A river under siege Contest entry Environment 29 pgs.