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 "solid waste" ...
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The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database
The Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD) is a Web-based resource that tracks the civil, criminal, and administrative misconduct of the federal government's largest suppliers of goods and services. POGO created the FCMD to ensure that the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars the federal government awards every year in contracts (over $530 billion in fiscal year 2008) go to companies with solid records of responsibility, integrity and performance. POGO developed the FCMD because government contracting officers are required by law to award contracts to responsible vendors only but lack a centralized repository of information on vendors' misconduct histories. To make decisions that are in the best interest of the public and prevent fraud, wasted and abuse, the government must have as much information as possible reflecting the past performance and responsibility of prospective vendors. The FCMD provides this information free to the public in a concise and user-friendly format. The FCMD spotlights each of the top 100 federal contractors. It complies each contractor's instances of misconduct -- actual and alleged -- dating back to 1995. In addition to misconduct instances, the FCMD includes primary source documents and links to the contractors' Web sites, annual reports, SEC filings, and lobbying and campaign finance information. Search and sort features allow users to search the data for key words, or to organize the data in interesting ways. The FCMD is an evolving resource. POGO continually adds and updates instances and contractor information. POGO also periodically updates the contractor list to reflect the most current fiscal year ranking. Each year, the roster of contractors will change, but POGO will keep all old rankings on a special archive page so that eventually the FCMD will include hundreds of contractors.
Tags: government contracts; computer-assisted reporting; database work; government oversight; misconduct
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Wasting Away: Superfund's Toxic Legacy
An analysis of the EPA's Superfund program listing nearly 100 companies responsible for more than 40 percent of America’s most contaminated sites. Since the Superfund’s creation in 1980, of the 700 sites less than one in five have been cleaned up or removed from the list. From 1998 to 2005, the companies spent more than $1 billion lobbying to the federal government and contributed more than $120 million to federal campaigns.
Tags: hazardous waste; unhealthy; contaminate; EPA; toxic exposure; solid waste;
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Our Tax Dollars at Work
A look at how the tax money in Kansas City is spent on street maintenance, police, fire/ambulance, water, sewer, parks and recreation, municipal courts, and solid waste removal.
Tags: Utilities; tax money; city spending; taxes; streets; emergency services; municipal courts; garbage pickup; solid waste removal
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Biosludge
This story explores whether any health risks exist from the spreading of biosludge on farmland. People in the Green Bay, Ala., area complained that the biosludge, the solid byproduct from sewage treatment plants, was making them sick. Scientists say the practice, while legal, merits further study. Calling the situation a developing public health problem, a former microbiologist with the EPA says biosludge needs to be treated to remove all of the pathogens and not just some of the pathogens as present practices allow.
Tags: biosludge; byproduct; solid waste; sewage; sewage treatment
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The Need for Nuclear Power
Rhodes and Beller find that solar-energy systems, wind farms and geothermal sources would only waste resources. Instead, they write, nuclear energy is the cleanest solution to the world's increasing energy demands. "The massive investment in renewables could have been better spent making coal plants and cars cleaner."
Tags: power plants; toxic waste; environment; pollution; fuel; oil; solid waste
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A guide to trash management: the changing mix
Governing reports on changes that take place in local waste management systems, as governments "confront rapidly evolving solid waste policy requirements." The story looks at administrators' ambitious efforts to build costly incinerators or to increase the capacity of landfills, while the amount of solid waste is growing nationwide. Recycling programs can hardly grow anymore, the magazine reveals. The main finding is that today's counties and cities see more potential for "preventing waste through source reduction programs, spurring markets for recyclable materials and working with innovative private ventures that use or dispose of wastes."
Tags: EPA; landfills; Solid Waste Association of North America; Waste Management Inc.; Browning Ferris Industries; Chambers Development Co.; Sanfill Inc.; waste-to-energy plants
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What a Waste!
News 12 Long Island reports that "recycling is a badge of honor for the Town of Islip. Ever since Islip's notorious garbage barge made headlines in the 1980s, the Long Island town has established a reputation as a leader in waste disposal and recycling efficiency. ...(but) Islip may not deserve that reputation. ..not only did the Town regularly dump recyclable plastic collected from its citizens, but it did so illegally in the Town landfill...."
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No title (id: 13349)
When her brother and sister both got cancer, she became suspicious. When she learned many more people who lived near the landfill were sick, she became obsessed. Philadelphia Magazine looks at Robin Wilson's crusade to uncover the horrifying effects of the more than 3 million gallons of toxic liquid waste and 12,000 cubic yard of toxic solid waste dumped into Pittman, N.J.'s Alcyon Lake between 1957 and 1971. (July 1996)
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No title (id: 8508)
Village Voice (New York) describes the private/public incineration lobby's exploitation of consumer society's weakness for waste and its penchant for high technology; one real solution to solid waste--recycling and waste reduction--has not been considered; tells the story via the biograghy of one member of the incineration lobby, Nov. 19, 1991.
Tags: None
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Money laid to waste by Kootenai official
"Kim Yerxa enjoyed life as a high-roller during his two years as director of the solid-waste department of Kootenai County, Idaho. Unfortunately, county taxpayers often paid the bill. The Spokesman-Review/Spokane Chronical documented 15 instances of how Yerxa routinely lavished work clothes and other perks on his staff, favored friends and relatives with jobs, and used county equipment and vehicles as his own."
Tags: Cronyism; graft; malfeasance; corruption; local government county government nepotism