A lengthy investigation yielded one small-market environmental reporting team an award-winning project examining the adequacy of a toxic solvent cleanup in a polluted community. Our latest “Inside Story” talks with a team member behind the project to learn about the challenges, the lessons learned and advice for others tracking similar problems.
"The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, heavily reliant on fish, berries and wild rice, wants to join the 60 other US tribes who the feds have granted control over setting water regulations."
"Eleven attorneys general sent a letter last week urging EPA to reconsider its recent interpretive statement specifying that Clean Water Act permits are not required for pollution that moves through groundwater before reaching a federally regulated waterway."
"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in an interview Monday that he will emphasize the importance of curbing marine debris during an upcoming summit with his Group of 20 counterparts in Japan, rather than seeking new action on climate change."
"The devastating flooding that has submerged large parts of the Midwest and South this spring has also brought barge traffic on many of the regions’ rivers to a near standstill. ... Shipments of grains, fertilizers and construction supplies are stranded."
"A near record-sized “dead zone” of oxygen-starved water could form in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, threatening its huge stocks of marine life, researchers said."
"Despite years of devastating flooding and hurricanes, the number of Americans with flood insurance remains well below its level a decade ago, undermining the nation’s ability to cope with disasters just as climate change makes them more frequent and severe."
"Nicholas Sloane doesn’t mind discomfort. The 56-year-old South African marine-salvage master has survived two helicopter crashes and spent thousands of hours aboard ships that are burning, sinking, breaking apart, or leaking oil, chemicals, or cargo into the ocean. Often, he gets calls in the middle of the night asking him to pack his bags and fly immediately to a disaster zone across the world, anywhere from Yemen to Papua New Guinea. Twice, he’s fought off armed pirates using water cannons, sound cannons, and strobe lights."
"Members of EPA's Science Advisory Board grappled with whether and how to weigh in on the Trump administration's rollback of clean water standards given the administration's insistence that the proposal is a question of policy, not science."
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