Resource Center

Stories

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 "dumping" ...

  • City Hall Documents Out in the Open

    The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters discovered thousands of documents containing the personal and financial information of city residents dumped in the basement of Hartford City Hall. The basement is easily accessible to anyone who enters City Hall. As a result of our investigation, City Hall cleared out the basement, put locks on the door and secured the documents in another location.

    Tags: Government; city hall; document security

    By Sabina Kuriakose

    NBC News

    2012

  • "Cruise Ships Dodge Rules"

    This investigation takes a look at the claims of cruise ships boasting "green" cruising and whether or not it can truly reduce the "impact on the environment." Despite the claims, reporters found that ships are playing the system and continue to dump harmful waste along their cruise routes, in areas where the rules are "less stringent."

    Tags: Canada; Straight of Juan de Fuca; cruise ships; waste disposal; Port of Seattle; Carnival; Royal Caribbean

    By Rita Hibbard; Lee van der Voo; Katie Farden

    InvestigateWest

    2010

  • Toxic Landscape

    The series examines the contamination left behind by dirty industries and illegal dumping in New Jersey.

    Tags: environment; toxic; contamination; pollution; pollute

    By Scott Fallon; Jim O'Neill; Mary Jo Layton; Andrea Alexander; Jeff Pillets

    Record (Trenton, N.J.)

    2010

  • "Tainted Water"

    For more than 20 years, the harmful chemical perchlorate has seeped into San Bernardino County's groundwater. The seep is thought to have started at a local dump site; however, records about the site were lost in the late 1980s by "two state regulatory agencies." The problem wasn't reported again until 1997, but warnings were "dismissed" by the county. The site was "rediscovered" in 2001, but it wasn't until 2009 that the county got serious about stopping the chemical seep. It is estimated that the cleanup operation will be completed by 2013.

    Tags: Perchlorate; Broco facility; Department of Toxic Substances Control; Butch Ariza; Water Board; Barry Groveman

    By Frank Snepp; Colleen Williams; Yvonne Beltzer; Dino Castro

    KNBC-TV (Los Angeles)

    2009

  • 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

    By Dan Rather; Wayne Nelson; Elliop Kirschner; Sianne Garlick

    Dan Rather Reports

    2008

  • 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;

    By Alison Bath; Alise Stingley

    Times (Shreveport, La.)

    2008

  • The Grim Sleeper

    Pelisek's story details a secret the Los Angeles police were shielding from the public: "that a serial murderer had begun killing Angelenos since 1985, taking a 13-year hiatus before recently resuming his bloody assaults almost exclusively in a poor, black sector of the city." DNA evidence linked a single killer to several murders of mostly young women, drug users and prostitutes. It was Pelisek that informed families of some of the victims that their daughters' murder was the work of a serial killer.

    Tags: police; serial killer; Los Angeles; body dump; murder; cold case; public records; police documents; court documents

    By Christine Pelisek

    LA Weekly

    2008

  • Meadowlands for Sale

    "The stories examined how a $1-billion plan to clean up and reclaim a large swath of the Meadowlands -- New Jersey's infamous toxic swamps and trash dumps -- lead to an environmental disaster underwritten by the state's taxpayers." The reporters found that the plan was plagued with corruption. For example, the developers who were supposed to be cleaning the area made $30 million by opening it up to dumpers. The Meadowlands site is now more polluted than when the project began.

    Tags: development; developers; EnCap; toxic waste; garbage; environment; EPA; state government

    By Jeff Pillets; John Brennan; Dave Sheingold; Tim Nostrand; Prashant Gopal; Oshrat Carmiel; James Quirk; Richard Whitby

    Record (Hackensack, N.J.)

    2007

  • Radioactive Dumping

    "Tennessee, for nearly 20 years, had been allowing low level radioactive waste to be disposed of in 5 ordinary trash landfills, strategically located throughout the state without public knowledge, with out a public hearing and in violation of NRC regulations."

    Tags: radioactive waste; trash dumps; landfills;

    By Demetria Kalodimos; David Sussman

    WSMV-TV (Nashville, Tenn.)

    2007

  • Unit 32: Mississippi Supermax

    Unit 32, the super-maximum security facility at Mississippi State Penitentiary, has been the subject of scrutiny due to claims of harsh conditions for inmates. This review of the current conditions showed that Unit 32 had become "a dumping ground for the violent, the mentally ill, prison gang leaders, and newly arrived prisoners." "The stories continued through a summer of shocking violence as gang tensions within the unit overflowed."

    Tags: Unit 32; Mississippi State Penitentiary; conditions of inmates; violence in prisons; metally ill;

    By Chris Joyner

    Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.)

    2007