Respiratory risks are high on the public health agenda these days amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So when Reporter’s Toolbox noticed some exemplary reporting on how West Coast wildfires were polluting the air, it took a look under the hood to see how other environmental journalists might use the same data sets for localized stories.
"A pair of wind-driven wildfires actively burning in Orange County and a couple of nearly extinguished blazes in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties have spawned the worst air quality in the nation, according to the government’s air quality monitoring agency."
"The cleanup of thousands of lead-contaminated homes, child-care centers, schools and parks surrounding the closed Exide battery recycling facility in Vernon is running behind schedule and over budget due to poor management by California regulators and has left children at continued risk of poisoning, according to a state audit released Tuesday."
"Decades ago, the Los Angeles coast was a dumping ground for thousands of barrels of acid sludge laced with the toxic pesticide DDT. The ocean buried the evidence for generations. No one could see it — until now."
"The elk are a main attraction in Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco. But ranchers who share the park say the elks’ numbers create problems."
"A bankruptcy court ruled Friday that Exide Technologies may abandon its shuttered battery recycling plant in Vernon, leaving a massive cleanup of lead and other toxic pollutants at the site and in surrounding neighborhoods to California taxpayers."
Hotter temperatures and strengthening winds raised wildfire risk in California and prompted power shutoffs.
"For decades, families across a swath of southeast Los Angeles County have lived in an environmental disaster zone, their kids playing in yards polluted with brain-damaging lead while they wait on a state agency to remove contaminated soil from thousands of homes. Now, the cleanup faces even greater uncertainty."
"Sixty percent of California’s public water supply wells that were tested for so-called forever chemicals contain those compounds, according to research that the State Water Resources Control Board released Wednesday."
"Saying more needs to be done to preserve nature as a way to help address climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday committed the state to a goal of protecting 30% of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030."
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