SEJ joined with several dozen other journalism groups to support the right to film police activity in a public place, and bills to block information of importance to environmental reporters failed in Louisiana, California and Iowa, but a Colorado paper was blocked from covering a wild horse roundup. All that in this month’s WatchDog Tipsheet.
"The Chesapeake Bay’s recovery took a step back in 2018, but the estuary retained its “C” grade on an annual report card from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science."
"A local company that once helped the West Virginia town of Minden thrive had for for decades dumped untold amounts of industrial chemicals nearby. Years after that coal-equipment manufacturer shuttered and the rest of the local coal economy fell into decline, those toxic chemicals remained."
It’s a good case for the global-local nexus: The potent greenhouse gas methane may be leaking from your local landfill. And this week’s TipSheet explains the latest news developments in this long-standing controversy, as well as policy disputes over capturing the gas. Plus, get story ideas and questions to ask for your local reporting.
Coal companies got Trump's Interior Department and West Virginia officials to reverse endangered wildlife protections that had closed mines.
"Maryland environmental regulators were in talks with a Western Maryland paper mill about how to significantly reduce the facility’s output of a harmful pollutant when its owner shocked state officials last week by announcing plans to shutter the 131-year-old factory."
Happen to have any air breathers in your audience? Then the latest State of the Air Report will give you fodder to cover the persistent pollution problems that plague the skies. This week’s TipSheet has the backstory on the fight against air pollution and five smart ways to tell the story from a local-regional context.
"A once-common farm pesticide killed millions of birds before the U.S. government took steps to restrict its use in the 1990s and ban it in 2009. Since then, such poisonings have made up a small fraction of deaths among bald eagles — except in Maryland."
"Two environmental organizations filed a federal lawsuit in Pittsburgh Monday alleging that U.S. Steel Corp.’s illegal operation of its three Mon Valley facilities following a Dec. 24, 2018 fire, that knocked out pollution controls at its Clairton Coke Works, damaged the health of nearby residents."
Washington, D.C.’s long-neglected Anacostia River bears both tragedy and beauty. And author Krista Schlyer plumbs its depths in her most recent book, “River of Redemption.” In this Between the Lines, she speaks of her connection to the urban waterway, as well as her latest reporting on the environmental impact of the border wall.
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