An effort most likely to win a Pulitzer Prize by journalistic award magnet Charles Duhigg: Toxic Water, a series about the continued and worsening pollution of U.S. water. Nationwide, there have been over 500,000 violations of the Clean Water Act of 1972. Some are minor, but 60 percent were categorized as significant, and the vast majority go unsanctioned.
Duhigg and team have done a great service to all of us. Not only have they exposed and scrupulously documented an outrageous situation, they’ve developed a powerful tool to help us deal with it. From the article (italicized emphasis ours):
The Times obtained hundreds of thousands of water pollution records through Freedom of Information Act requests to every state and the E.P.A., and compiled a national database of water pollution violations that is more comprehensive than those maintained by states or the E.P.A. (For an interactive version, which can show violations in any community, visit www.nytimes.com/toxicwaters.)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: contaminated water, Environmental Protection Agency, water contamination, water pollution
Kudos to Charles Duhigg, he’ll be winning some awards.
Good news. The numbers are shocking.