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 "environmental contamination" ...
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C-HIT: Toxic Laundry Emissions
Industrial laundries in New England have recently come under intense scrutiny by the EPA, ever since the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) found that volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) were being released at a facility in Waterbury, CT. According to Steve Rapp, Chief of the Air Technical Unit, EPA Region 1, the problem is widespread and significant. “The industrial laundries are grossly under-reporting their VOCs,” said Rapp. “It’s a total sleeper.” The problem stems from the process of laundering shop towels, which are often contaminated with toxic solvents. When improperly cleaned, the solvents are vaporized and emitted to the surrounding air. This article investigated this little-known source of air pollution, shedding light on the industry’s practices and its impact on air quality and public health.
Tags: Volatile organic compunds; VOC's; DEEP; air quality; public health
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"Amazon Crude"
More than 15 years ago, Ecuadorean residents sued Texaco for contaminating the Amazon Rain Forest with crude oil. The "oil waste pits" built by Texaco, now owned by Chevron, continue to leak toxins into the "region's waterways." According to an agreement between the company and the Ecuadorean government, Chevron is to cleanup 40 percent of the mess; however, the company "admitted" there is no record of all the contaminated sites.
Tags: Ecuador; Chevron; Texaco; Amazon; oil spill; toxic waste; rainforest; environmental; Petroecuador
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Hidden Wells, Dirty Water
An investigation into groundwater contamination in the heavily agricultural Lower Yakima Valley found that local, state and federal agencies responsible for clean drinking water and environmental health repeatedly neglected their regulatory duties. This left low-income Latino farm workers exposed to health threats.
Tags: dairy industry; water; agriculture; Latino; contamination; nitrate; wells; environment
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Fly Ash: Coal-Fired Dilemma
This series of stories showed how a virtually unknown state environmental policy, blessed by the EPA, let developers sculpt an 18-hole golf course with 1.5 million tons of "fly ash," a contaminant-laden residue left from the burning of coal for electricity, posing a threat to the wells of adjacent homeowners. Fly ash contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury, which can pose environmental threats through air and water. Although the EPA has been studying the the environmental;ecological impacts of fly ash for decades, it has twice determined that it doesn't warrant classification as "hazardous waste." The result is that there are no national guidelines for fly ash disposal; regulation is left up to the states, resulting in a hodge-podge of policies.
Tags: environment; EPA; contaminant; coal industry; fly ash; testing; site assessment; homeowners
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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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Natural Gas Drilling: Is New York Ready?
Much of New York City's drinking supply lies near the Marcellus Shale, an area that has become increasingly attractive to energy companies because of natural gas. Drilling in the area may not be safe for residents as chemicals may alter the purity of the water supply.
Tags: environmental contamination; mining; conservation; aquifer; hydrofracking;
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Danger Below
This investigation began with citizen complaints about New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation. Many of the complaints concern old toxic waste disposal sites; the agency does not make sure the contaminated groundwater and soil are completely cleaned, nor does the agency communicate with people affected by the sites. The DEC's shortcomings may have stemmed, in part, from its diminished resources and power under the administration of governor George Pataki.
Tags: environment; toxic waste; FOI; EPA; state government; pollution
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Toxic Town
"A six-week investigation into the environmental contamination and public-health effects in Somerville, Texas caused byt a 110-year-old- wood-treatment facility that for three decades was the nationa's largest manufacturer of railroad cross ties."
Tags: Cancer; carcinogen; air pollution; incinerator; creosote-treated wood; Dennis DAvis; James Dahlgren
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Blighted Homeland
During the Cold War, the federal government, seeking to increase its nuclear arsenal, mined uranium on a Navajo reservation that spanned parts of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, with 3.9 million tons of uranium ore chiseled and blasted from the mountains between 1944 to 1986. Fifty years after a medical journal noted an almost complete lack of cancer on the reservation, that mining left a mark that still persists today. The L.A. Times finds that "groundwater is contaminated, gray mine wastes cascade down hillsides and erosion exposes once-buried radiation at reclaimed mines and illegal dump sites." Some Navajos have suffered from lung and breast cancer, attributable to the harsh conditions created by the mining. Now uranium is once again rising in price, and mining companies are preparing to move in again, this time with new technology. But still with environmental consequences.
Tags: Uranium; uranium mining; Navajo reservation; cancer rates; Cold War; environmental effects of mining
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What's a Life Worth?
The series began with an investigation into the affects of asbestos contamination on the small country town of Ragland, AL., and its relation to the international asbestos trade and legislation in congress to stem the tide of asbestos related lawsuits. It ended with an investigation of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which is responsible for protecting the public from environmental asbestos and other hazards.
Tags: asbestos; contamination; public health; Alabama Department of Environmental Management; law suits; lead; PCB; mesothelioma; FOIA