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 "chemical pollutants" ...
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A Quiet Hell
This story didn't focus on one specific chemical plant; instead it focuses on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). After analyzing data for individual pollutants that were emitted during non-routine operations, a number of details were revealed. Some of these details are that "more than 20 million pounds of pollutants were emitted", TCEQ infrequently enforced the laws, some penalties were never finalized, and "the plants with the most violations paid the least percentage of their fines".
Tags: pollution; chemical plants; emissions; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ); Houston Ship Channel; pollutants; oil industry; gas industry; air; politics; atmosphere
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Danger Creek
Reporters for KGAN-TV discovered that the water downstream from the Linn County Airport was heavily polluted with toxic chemicals. The water produced a putrid stench that had the people of Cedar Rapids complaining for years. Acting on a tip, KGAN-TV tested the water and delivered the shocking results to the airport and the Department of Natural Resources.
Tags: DNR; Linn County Airport; pollution
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Toxic Waters
With the aid of more than 500 Freedom of Information requests, reporter Charles Duhigg uncovered major problems with the nation's Clean Water Act. He found that out of the many "chemical plants" and "large manufacturers" who broke water pollution laws over the past several years, few were punished or even fined. He also found that millions of U.S. residents "have been exposed" to water that could be damaging to their health.
Tags: Clean Water Act; Safe Drinking Water Act; E.P.A.; toxic waste; atrazine; pollution
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The Body Toxic
Baker writes about the "dizzying array of chemical contaminants, the by-products of modern industry and innovation that contribute to a host of developmental deficits and health problems that are just now being understood."
Tags: toxins; health; poison; well-being; health problems; chemical poisoning; chemical pollutants; biomonitoring; FDA; EPA
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A Few Good Men, A Lot of Bad Water
Over the last few decades, hundreds of thousands of marines have trained at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. In 1980, during routine testing, their water was found to have high levels of a number of chemicals but primarily perchloroethylene, a dry cleaning agent, and trichloroethylene, a degreasing solvent.
Tags: contamination; dumping chemicals; pollution; waste; wells; Camp Lejeune; Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry
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Red River Dumping
Millions of gallons of toxic waster were secretly being dumped into a northern Louisiana waterway. The September story started with an anonymous tip and led to the discovery of thousands of pages of online documents revealing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality concerns about the presence of dangerous toxins in waste water stored by CCS Midstream Services, LLC, hidden caches of toxic waste, falsified records and a hidden pipe leading into Red River.
Tags: toxins; public health; environmental violations; protected waters; toxic waste; pollution; dumping chemicals;
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The Smokestack Effect: Toxic air and America's schools
The air outside hundreds of schools nationwide appears to be rife with toxic chemicals. Children are as much as 10 times more susceptible to toxic chemicals than are adults.
Tags: pollution; EPA; children's health; toxic chemicals; exposure risks; Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators; air quality; industrial pollution
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Witnesses Wait
Humans have found ways to synthesize chemicals that cause terrible damage in the human body and do not decompose; they last and last. Most companies that produce these compounds locate away from people, in industrial zones. But in one neighborhood of New Orleans, an old chemical company mixed some of the most hazardous substances ever produced by man: Agent Orange, Heptachlor, Endosulfan, Dieldrin and DDT. They produced these chemicals out in the open on a small parcel of land ringed by people's homes. The wind blew the dry chemicals onto the houses, and there has been no effort to remove the soil or the risk to people who play and raise children and gardens there. Using an EPA database and Google Earth, the reporter found that there is no place more polluted with old, canned, organo-chlorine insecticides than this tiny, black, new Orleans neighborhood.
Tags: Pollution; Agent Orange; heptachlor; endosulfan; dieldrin; DDT; New Orleans; soil contamination; EPA; Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
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A River Lost?
This investigation explored the many ways in which a Seattle Superfund site, the Duwamish River, was being neglected by the government. The reporters found that plans to clean up the pollution fell short, that local governments did not follow EPA orders regarding the river, and locals who fish in the river are eating unsafe levels of contaminated fish.
Tags: environment; pollution; chemicals; toxic waste; EPA; federal government; local government; Boeing
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Toxic Traces Revisted
The first story in the series shows that the Minnesota Dept. of Health knew about the contaminated drinking water in the Twin Cities almost a year before releasing the information to the public. The second story reported that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency ignored the fact that perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in the soil near the 3M Company building were spilling into the Mississippi River and ground water. Last in the series, MPR News reported on how pressure from the public drove the investigation in regulating the flow of PFCs into the city's water.
Tags: contamination; Minneapolis; St. Paul; PFBA