News Futures 2014: How Many Ways Will Climate Make News? [1]
As 100-car trains of explosive crude oil snake through U.S. cities and river gorges, the railroad industry continues to tell the public they are being kept secret from terrorists. But now a series of articles by Rob Davis for the The (Portland) Oregonian seems to have caught the railroads and the feds in their own contradictions.
One worker was killed February 11, 2014, when a Chevron gas well exploded near Bobtown, Pennsylvania, and burned for five days. But inspectors from the state's Department of Environmental Protection were stopped by Chevron from approaching the site — thus keeping them from seeing possible safety violations. The DEP acquiesced at the time, but later cited Chevron for nine violations at the site.
U.S. Capitol officials apologized for the brief detention March 28, 2014, of BNA energy reporter Ari Natter, effectively conceding that such incidents should not occur. Apologies came from both Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terry Gainer and Capitol Police Chief Kim C. Dine in separate e-mail responses to an April 8 letter of complaint from SEJ.
"Inside Story" editor Beth Daley interviews Charleston (WV) Gazette reporter Ken Ward Jr. — who is recognized nationally for his reporting on coal mining, the environment and workplace safety — about his unique work on the Freedom Industries spill story. Photo: The FI tank which leaked a coal-cleaning chemical into the river on Jan. 9, 2014, contaminating the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians for weeks. Credit: Commercial Photography Services of WV via USCSB.
While EPA and local utilities make much data available online, the Environmental Working Group has compiled a tap water database that is much easier to use. It gathers data from the states as well as from EPA, and compiles city-by-city rankings of the best and worst drinking water quality. It also explains the health significance of contaminants and lists contaminants not regulated by EPA.
After the SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists complained January 20, 2014, about federal agency press office stonewalling in the face of the Charleston, WV, drinking water disaster, the agencies responded. Read the text of their replies here.
You read about the 300,000 West Virginians who don't know if they are drinking safe water — and ask "Could it happen here?" The answer is "You betcha!" Environmental journalists have many tools for discovering drinking-water disasters-waiting-to-happen in their own bailiwicks.
Reporters scrambling to inform the 300,000 citizens of Charleston, West Virginia, about why they could not drink their tap water, what health threats it presented, and who was responsible faced a stone wall from most of the responsible government agencies in the early days of the crisis.
Under law, Pennsylvania was supposed to publish a report outlining climate change impacts on the state by Spring 2012. But the Department of Environmental Protection says it is still being reviewed, and nobody will say when it might be published.
Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/publications/sejournal-sp14/news-futures-2014-how-many-ways-will-climate-make-news
[2] https://www.sej.org/category/sej-publication-types/features
[3] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/climate-change
[4] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/energy
[5] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/journalism/media
[6] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/water
[7] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national
[8] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national/mid-atlantic
[9] https://www.sej.org/taxonomy/term/81
[10] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/you-can-hide-oil-trains-public-not-terrorists
[11] https://www.sej.org/category/sej-publication/watchdog-tipsheet
[12] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/disaster
[13] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/people-population
[14] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/transportation
[15] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/chevron-blocks-access-state-regulators-gas-well-explosion-site
[16] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national/california
[17] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national/southwest
[18] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/capitol-officials-call-reporters-detention-isolated-apologize
[19] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/environmental-politics
[20] https://www.sej.org/publications/sejournal-sp14/covering-chemical-spill-ward-zags-when-others-zig
[21] https://www.sej.org/category/sej-publication-types/inside-story
[22] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/chemicals/toxics
[23] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/environmental-health
[24] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/health
[25] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/ewg-database-helps-public-journos-find-drinking-water-threats
[26] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/technology
[27] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/laws
[28] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/cdc-epa-respond-sej-complaints-about-press-office-obstacles
[29] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/drinking-water-crisis-reveals-knowledge-gaps
[30] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/sej-spj-urge-epa-cdc-end-press-office-obstacles-public-health-crises
[31] https://www.sej.org/publications/watchdog-tipsheet/pennsylvania-blocks-report-criticizing-shale-gas
[32] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48
[33] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=9
[34] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=6
[35] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=7
[36] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=8
[37] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=11
[38] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=12
[39] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=13
[40] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=14
[41] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/%2A/48?page=16
[42] https://www.sej.org/publications/list/Watchdog+TipSheet