Disasters
Wildfire risks fail to slow home growth
Diana Hefley and Scott North of The (Everett) Herald used state and local data to show that “the areas of Snohomish County with the highest potential for wildfires are home to more than 5,500 people, most relatively new arrivals. … Since 2000 an average of 100 new houses and mobile homes have sprouted in the…
Read MoreOil 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…
Read MoreUtah dams improve, but high hazard conditions still exist
Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used state data to show that “44 percent of such Utah ‘high hazard’ dams meet all minimum safety standards – more than a sixfold improvement” since the paper last examined Utah’s dams in 1988. “At that time, officials rated as safe a mere 7 percent of those dams…
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