Environment
Losing Louisiana series
A project by The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, La.) looks at the precarious nature of southern Louisiana as land sinks due to subsidence while the waters of the Gulf are rising. Over the next 100 years, the region could see a 2- to 6-foot rise in sea level, leaving cities like New Orleans dependent on levees…
Read MoreSmoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA
A four-part series in The Philadelphia Inquirer looks into the Environmental Protection Agency’s management under the Bush administration. Stephen L. Johnson, Bush’s appointment for EPA Administrator, has been accused by many in the scientific community for valuing the president’s politics over human health and environmental welfare.
Read MoreIndustrial pollution impacting air quality at nearby schools
USA TODAY’s Blake Morrison and Brad Heath have published a package of stories using government data to examine the air quality of American schools located near industrial plants. They found that thousands of schoolchildren are exposed to dangerous levels of carcinogens, metals and other chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency has never run these models and…
Read MoreU.S flex-fuel fleet fraught with problems
A 16-year long federal program to build a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles for the government has been riddled with problems, according to a report by Kimberly Kindy and Dan Keating of The Washington Post. “Under a mandate from Congress, federal agencies have gradually increased their fleets of alternative-fuel vehicles, a majority of them ‘flex-fuel,’ capable…
Read MoreNatural gas drilling may be harming U.S. drinking water supply
Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica reports that natural gas drilling in the United States may be endangering water supplies. A sample of water from a well in Sublette County, Wyo. found benzene — a chemical linked to aplastic anemia and leukemia — at a level 1,500 times higher than what is safe for human consumption. “Sublette…
Read MoreDumping in Louisiana’s Red River
An environmental investigation by The Times (Shreveport, La.) culled through data from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and identified “at least 83 permitted dischargers within Bossier, Bienville, Caddo, Claiborne, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine and Webster parishes that put wastewater into Red River or a nearby tributary.” At least…
Read MorePollution credits profitable for landfills
Jeffrey Ball of the Wall Street Journal reports that landfills all over the country may be capitalizing off the sale of carbon credits for environmental initiatives they already had in place. A pollution credit allows a company to offset their own “carbon footprint” by purchasing credits earned by others for their green initiatives. “The credit…
Read MoreHidden wells, dirty water
An investigation by Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.) reveals that evidence of area groundwater contamination has long been ignored. “A little noticed scientific study six years ago found that one in five of 195 wells tested outside five Lower Valley communities contained levels of nitrates above federal safety limits…Responsibility for keeping…
Read MoreWater agency failed to disclose uranium contamination
Brian Joseph of the Orange County Register reports that the nation’s largest water district has known for eight years about uranium contamination at the site of a proposed groundwater storage project, but failed to disclosed this information to key officials or the public. “The top official at the water district says the contamination is isolated…
Read MoreUrban sprawl remains a problem in Fresno
A series by Brad Branan of The Fresno Bee looks at problems with how the city of Fresno, Calif. regulates development. Despite a plan to curb urban sprawl, it continues to plague the area leading to some of the country’s worst air quality and the most concentrated poverty in the nation. Lawsuits filed under the…
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