They may not be the sexiest topics on the environmental agenda. But building codes and zoning can become a matter of life and death when natural disasters strike. This week’s TipSheet runs down the reporting challenge when floods, earthquakes and wildfires threaten your coverage area.
"Our nation’s founders decided to build their new capital city on a square of land at the confluence of two rivers — the Potomac and the Anacostia. In the years since, the Potomac has been acclaimed as “the Nation’s River.” The Anacostia, however, has been known by less illustrious nicknames: “the forgotten river,” or simply “one of the most polluted rivers in the United States.”"
"A legal battle over the storage of more than 3 million tons of coal ash in Virginia is headed to a federal appeals court in a case closely watched by environmentalists and energy companies."
Decades after the nation’s capital began its historic cleanup, sanitary sewage still occasionally swamps the Potomac River. Are sewage systems also dumping human waste and other pollutants into waterways near you? This week’s TipSheet has the background on the problem of combined sewage overflow, as well as resources for finding out what’s happening near you.
"The fossil fuel lobby preached its gospel in Virginia. Now, black churches are fighting back."
"The Chesapeake Bay restoration plan is fueling the most robust resurgence of underwater grasses and submerged aquatic vegetation in the world, according to a new study."
"The Clean Air Council has filed notice it will sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unless the agency forces the Allegheny County Health Department to review and issue long overdue operating permits for many of the county’s biggest industrial air pollution sources."
As new research reminds us that pollution often disproportionately affects poor and minority communities in the United States, a long-standing mapping tool from the EPA can help reporters explore and discover those environmental justice stories nearest them. The latest TipSheet explains the problem, and walks you through the mapping app.
"The Environmental Protection Agency agreed Thursday to restore $325,000 in funding this year for the Bay Journal, a publication with a print circulation of 50,000 that has covered environmental issues involving the Chesapeake Bay for more than a quarter-century."
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