Shop

This session will dive into several environmental topics that you can investigative no matter where you live. We'll dig into:

-Fish Consumption Rates: Many states estimate the average fish consumption rate for its residents as a means of setting an allowable water pollution standard. What’s your state’s fish consumption estimate? What does it say about how much pollution your regulators are allowing? How does it compare to your neighboring state? Why the difference?

-Dam Safety: They’re almost everywhere yet there’s a level of secrecy imposed on the National Inventory of Dams. We’ll offer databases and tips for local reporters to examine safety records and other relevant issues. http://tinyurl.com/SEJdams

-Manure: It ain’t what it used to be. Modern factory farms have made this a pervasive issue nationwide that gets little coverage. Very powerful interests exert influence on state and municipal officeholders when it comes to regulating (or scaling back regulation) of manure, runoff, containment, etc. Yet new lawsuits and scientific findings are now pushing back (“Your ruling will change everything” a dairy exec recently told a federal judge). Drinking water, shellfish beds, fishing, swimming beaches, and much more is affected. We’ll provide contacts, sources, databases, lawsuit transcripts, etc.

-Pipeline Safety: There is a pipeline safety story in almost every community, and one key to those stories is skill at using available map data. This data is imperfect, but no longer AS secret as it once was. PHMSA may have new regulations that could be unveiled in time for IRE.