Jonathan Thompson

Editor in Chief

In the old mining towns of Silverton, Colo., the sticky issue of acid mine drainage is getting some press, and it’s not all about death and environmental destruction. In Silverton, local volunteers and a host of government agencies are celebrating ten years of a cooperative effort to clean up abandoned mines.

Silverton’s issue has been a tough one for the public or the press to wrap its mind around. It lacks the sexiness of a David vs. Goliath, scruffy-hero-saves-the-environment from corporate rape and pillage. Sure, some people still try to frame it that way: The mines are spilling toxic sludge into the streams and killing all the fish. Only it’s not that simple.

(Read on …)

The Center for Public Integrity came out today with the results of a year-long investigation into the government’s handling of Superfund hazardous waste sites. The large-scale conclusions are eye-opening:

• Superfund site clean-up has slowed down significantly during the Bush administration.
• About 100 companies and the federal government are connected to more than 40 percent of the country’s most dangerously contaminated toxic sites, at least 114 of which “could pose immediate health hazards for people living nearby.”
• Companies connected to Superfund sites have tried to limit their environmental liability through a variety of questionable ownership shenanigans.
• Companies with apparent Superfund liability spent $1 billion lobbying Congress, the EPA and other federal agencies over a recent seven-year period. (Yes, that’s billion, with a “b.”)
• Companies and organizations paid for nearly $12 million in trips for Environmental Protection Agency employees over an eight and one-half year period ending in March 2006.

But the center’s investigation may be most notable for its depth; beyond the stories that explain the investigation’s main findings are a whole series of maps and databases that provide a window into the country’s toxic waste problem, locally and nationally, in macro and micro terms. This isn’t just superior journalism by one of the country’s leading investigative reporting organizations; it’s a research tool for scientists, journalists and citizens who wonder what kind of toxics they’re living with.