The estuaries that proliferate across the United States can be hard to define — and protect. But their role in a healthy environment makes them a crucial focus of good reporting. The latest Issue Backgrounder explores their importance, the many challenges they face, and how to track the agencies and programs meant to protect them.
A running list of endangered rivers becomes an annual starting point for strong local coverage of critical water issues. This week’s TipSheet spotlights the latest additions to an inventory of trouble spots around the United States, plus key angles and issues for coverage, and a selection of top resources.
The Great Lakes are not only the largest fresh water system in the world, supplying drinking water to tens of millions. They also face a range of environmental woes that make them ready fodder for reporters. This week’s TipSheet runs down some ongoing developments, plus key resources to cover them.
"Blood lead levels in Flint children are declining, according to a new study."
"The Kasich administration — after years of resistance on behalf of agriculture — announced Thursday it will declare the open waters of western Lake Erie as impaired, marking a reversal on what has arguably been northwest Ohio’s most contentious water-policy issue."
"TRENTON, Mich. — State taxpayers will be on the hook for the clean up of old barrels holding toxic chemicals as well as contaminated soil discovered along the Detroit River at the site of the former Chrysler Corp. Trenton Chemical Plant, officials say."
Find biographies (or links thereto) of speakers for SEJ's 28th Annual Conference, October 3-7, 2018, in Flint, Michigan, as well as the sessions they're participating in.
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has objected to a wetland permit for the proposed Back Forty Mine in Michigan's western Upper Peninsula near the Wisconsin border."
Decades after the nation’s capital began its historic cleanup, sanitary sewage still occasionally swamps the Potomac River. Are sewage systems also dumping human waste and other pollutants into waterways near you? This week’s TipSheet has the background on the problem of combined sewage overflow, as well as resources for finding out what’s happening near you.
