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 "treatment plant" ...
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Lethal and Leaking
In Hanford, WA millions of gallons of nuclear waste have been stored underground. The Department of Energy has been working to clean up the site since the early 1990s. However due to engineering miscalculations, the development of a treatment plant is behind schedule. Errors such as defective equipment and other mistakes that risk the safety of the plant have forced the price of the clean up to triple.
Tags: Department of Energy; environment; nuclear waste; treatment plant; construction; construction delays; Bechtel; ecology; toxic waste
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Toxic Offender: Disastrous Sewage Plant Threatens Health
This series documents Twarowski's investigation into complaints of dangerous and unhealthy conditions inside the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant in Wantaugh, NY. Employees clandestinely videotaped horrendous conditions inside the plant and Twarowski later verified their findings in person. Each visit to the vast plant turned up more safety hazards.
Tags: Environment; pollution; waste treatment; sewage; hepatitis; viruses; public health; OSHA; Public Employee Safety and Health; Department of Environmental Conservation
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"Downer Cow Controversy"
This investigation began by raising questions about the lack of federal inspection outside a slaughterhouse and the treatment of cows. Particularly it raised questions about health risks involving "downer" cows -- weak, sick or crippled dairy cows processed into beef for the kitchen table. The state's beef and dairy commissions, state agencies funded by fees attached to beef and dairy products, criticized the station's reports. The television station was tried in abstentia by the Washington News Council and found to have been unfair to the beef industry. The station earlier had refused to participate in the arbitration, saying its reports were accurate and that the council itself is partial. On Dec. 23, the first U.S. case of mad cow was announced. The animal was a downer cow processed at the same slaughterhouse that was the subject of the station's initial investigation.
Tags: beef; cattle; mad cow; downer cows; USDA; dairy; E. coli; food safety; meat-packing plants; slaughterhouse
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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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State of Security - 9.11 Two Years Later
Two years after the 9/11 attacks, The Times of Northwest Indiana looks at the region's security and how it remains unchanged post 9/11. This four part series looks at the region's special risks and found the region's water supply system had ample loopholes, especially security conditions in the local water treatment plant. They also found that the chemical plants in the area stored enough hazardous material to bring harm to all the people living in the area.
Tags: 9/11; Terrorism; Homeland Security; Security at chemical plants; Security at water supply units; local security
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Don't drink the water
An investigation of the Pompano Beach city water department turned up several problems at a new $25 million water treatment plant, the coverup of a chlorine outage factoring in prominently. The reporter also showed that officials held a sham grand opening of the plant - tricking the public into thinking the plant was up and running months before it was actually ready.
Tags: sewage; treatment; water treatment; cleanliness; sanitation
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Dirty Work
Three women stepped forward to expose a hostile and dangerous work environment at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Chicago. The stories of on-the-job harassment ranged from supervisors demanding sexual favors for possible promotions to being physically attacked on the job for refusing sexual advances. Hidden cameras also found pornographic magazines and graffiti in the break rooms at two sewage treatment plants. One of the whistleblowers received a bomb threat days before the report was aired.
Tags: Sexual Harassment; Tape; Transcript
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Giving workers the treatment: If you raise a stink, you get the shrink!
Downs reports about "an increasingly popular weapon against whistleblowers: the psychiatric reprisal ... Across the country, companies have seized upon concerns about workplace violence to quash dissent. Hundreds of large corporations have hired psychiatrists and psychologists to advise them on how to weed out 'threatening' employees ... But by drawing the definition of 'threatening' as broadly as possible, they are giving themselves a new club to bang over workers." For example: Ford Motor Company electrician was barred from the factory and sent to a psychiatrist after he complained that he could not do his job because many of his bosses were taking equipment out of the plant to work on their homes or personal businesses.
Tags: workplace safety; U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration; American Postal Workers Union
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Dishonorable Discharge
Pitch Weekly investigates Turkey Creek, a waterway that runs in both Wyandotte and Johnson counties. Right at the border of these two counties sits the Nelson Complex- "a sewage-treatment facility that serves some 130,000 residents" and dumps its waste into Turkey Creek. "The Nelson Complex has been operating under a permit that expired ten years ago . . . State and federal water-quality standards have been amended several times in an ongoing effort to protect the environment. But until its permit is renewed, the Nelson Complex remains beholden only to the older, weaker laws." While Johnson County's chief wastewater engineer says the water pumped out is clean, others disagree. The article details several studies and tests done on Turkey Creek which revealed unsafe amounts of waste.
Tags: pollution; sewage plants; Kansas Department of Health and Environment; Environmental Protection Agency; Clean Water Act; environmentalists; contaminants
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A Fish Story: Last December A Poisonous Chemical Spill Wiped Out White River's Fish Population. Officials Say the Problem's Gone - But the Fish Still Are, Too.
A December 1999 chemical spill from a wastewater treatment plant killed fish along a 50-mile stretch of Indiana's White River. Once home to a variety of game fish - catfish, crappie and bass - the river now "offers about as much sport as a washbasin." The treatment plant apparently took a week to admit the incident to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. In turn, IDEM did not notify the public for several more days about the spill. For three decades before the spill, the river had made a comeback to a viable waterway. Fortunately for those who care about the river, "the poison that caused the damage seems to be gone" and the river will hopefully recover. Environmentalists say that IDEM needs to be staffed with more environmental professionals, and that plants should be required to report anomalies within two hours.
Tags: fish; chemical spill; Indianapolis; white river; Anderson Wastewater Treatment Plant