Air

Anything related to air quality, air pollution, or the atmosphere

Texas Quietly Sets Weak Cancer Risk Standard For Industrial Air Pollution

"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has quietly proposed maintaining a target cancer-risk level for air pollution permits that scientists and public health officials consider inadequate to protect public health, especially for communities like those east of Houston that are exposed simultaneously to many sources of industrial emissions."

Source: Inside Climate News, 10/17/2023

Watchdog Finds La. Honeywell Chemical Plant Isn’t Reporting Emissions of CFCs

"U.S. chemical manufacturer Honeywell International released chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—climate super-pollutants and ozone depleting substances that are banned except for limited uses under an international environmental agreement—according to a report released Oct. 10 by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit environmental organization based in Washington, D.C."

Source: Inside Climate News, 10/17/2023

Prying Open the Statehouse Doors

Reporting on environmental stories often leads to the state legislature, where key material can be frustratingly hard to access. Whether that’s because the state is deliberately hiding information, has poor systems for sharing it or isn’t even tracking it, there are ways to get what you need. Four seasoned environment reporters offer tips, tricks and commiseration.

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Here’s Your Handy Doomsday Dataviz Dashboard

If you’re harboring serious doubts about the climate future but want to be prepared to cover it, the latest Reporter’s Toolbox offers up a seasonably ghoulish list of a dozen and a half great visualization sources to help tell the story. And lest it leave you spooked, remember, as the saying goes, everything will be OK in the end. And if it's not OK, it's not the end.

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October 25, 2023

SEJ Webinar: Mining Public Records To Unearth Air Pollution

In this SEJ webinar, join California Newsroom reporter Molly Peterson and MuckRock data reporter Dillon Bergin to learn how to turn a question into an effective public records request; find the records you want and use them in your reporting; and see how you can use data from a recent investigation to scrutinize air pollution erased from the regulatory record near you. 1-2pm ET.

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"Mega CAFOs on the Chesapeake"

"Chicken farms housing millions of animals threaten a fragile ecology"

"On a drizzly day in May, Maria Payan walked along a country road in Somerset County, Maryland, near her home. On one side of the road was a white house with a peaked roof and an American flag flying from the porch; a ride-on toy tractor was parked by the front steps. On the other, a row of six long, windowless metal buildings housed tens of thousands of chickens. “Oh, the smell is so bad,” Payan said. “Can you imagine living with this every day?”

Source: Sierra, 10/09/2023

"EPA Objects To Air Quality Permit Issued To US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works"

"The Environmental Protection Agency objected to an air quality permit issued to U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, a move advocates say will protect Mon Valley residents from emissions of harmful air pollutants. The EPA filed the objection under the grounds that the permit — which was issued by the Allegheny County Health Department in November — did not comply with the Clean Air Act."

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/09/2023

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