How important is nonprofit journalism?

Donate by May 7 and your gift to The Center for Public Integrity will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $15,000.

Click to donate

Poisoned Places

A view of the Tonawanda Coke plant in Tonawanda, NY. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has confirmed that the factory was emitting benzene and other carcinogens at many times the state's limit.

Where regulators failed, citizens took action — testing their own air

By Elizabeth Shogren, Kristen Lombardi and Sandra Bartlett

Citizens concerned about toxic emissions in a working class town in upstate New York tested the air themselves — forcing complacent regulators to act. Their story doesn't just highlight possible corporate wrongdoing and the failure of an environmental regulatory system that largely entrusts companies to disclose how much toxic pollution they emit. It's also about the clout citizens can wield when they dig in their heels and demand healthy air.

Continue reading this story

Poisoned Places

SLIDESHOW: Chanute divided over toxics

By Sarah Whitmire

John Galemore checks the oil pressure on a natural gas line at one of the family's oil and gas fields outside of Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

A water tower appears through the trees in downtown Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

Advertisement

The Ash Grove Cement factory sits on the northern edge of the city of Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

Pedestrians walk the along main street in downtown Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

Elsie Galemore is the Galemore family matriarch.

David Gilkey/NPR

The Ash Grove Cement factory sits on the northern edge of the city of Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

Advertisement

Jeff Galemore leans on his pickup truck near the Ash Grove Cement plant in Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

A pedestrian crosses the main street in downtown Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

The Ash Grove Cement factory sits on the northern edge of the city of Chanute, Kan.

David Gilkey/NPR

Poisoned Places

Jeff Galemore leans on his pickup truck near the Ash Grove Cement plant in Chanute, Kan. David Gilkey/NPR

Town divided over major employer's permission to pollute the air

By Howard Berkes and Sarah Harris

A Kansas community grows fiercely divided over a cement plant's permission to exceed emissions of hazardous waste incinerators - all allowed under federal rules. The plant can legally emit greater amounts of mercury, lead, cadmium, hydrogen chloride and other toxic chemicals than the special incinerators that burned waste from Love Canal and Times Beach.

Continue reading this story

Poisoned Places

Evan Bush/ iWatch News

Few criminal cases target big air polluters

By Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene

For a decade, hazardous emissions from a refinery regularly swept into a mostly poor, minority neighborhood in Corpus Christi known as Hillcrest, where residents complained of odors, dizziness, vomiting and a range of conditions from asthma to cancer.

Continue reading this story

Poisoned Places

A biker rides through downtown Ponca City, Okla. David Gilkey/NPR

Community coated in black mist — until citizens fought back

By Ronnie Greene and Howard Berkes

The air pollution flowing from local industry was so palpable residents could touch it - on their hands, on their shoes, on their pets, their clothes, their cars, their windows, their grass, their doors, their children’s toys. While localized air pollution has tainted towns across the country few communities visited by reporters for the Center for Public Integrity and NPR have been smothered like the residents this Oklahoma town.

Continue reading this story

Poisoned Places

SLIDESHOW: Life in Ponca City

By Sarah Whitmire

The Continental Carbon plant sits on the southern outskirts of Ponca City, Okla.

David Gilkey/NPR

Jesse Beck, the environmental manager for the Ponca Tribe – non-Native-American, was involved in the tribe's lawsuit against Continental Carbon.

David Gilkey/NPR

Advertisement

Dan Jones was chairman of the Ponca Tribe and went with the union to Taiwan during the fight against Continental Carbon over the pollution issue.

David Gilkey/NPR

Dan Jones was chairman of the Ponca Tribe and went with the union to Taiwan during the fight against Continental Carbon over the pollution issue.

David Gilkey/NPR

After years of complaints by citizens and inaction by state regulators, much of the black carbon mist has finally lifted in the Oklahoma community where Karen Howe lives.

David Gilkey/NPR

The Continental Carbon plant sits on the southern outskirts of Ponca City, Okla.

David Gilkey/NPR

Poisoned Places

News from our partners

NPR and affiliate coverage

Related content from the Investigative News Network

Poisoned Places

After years of complaints by citizens and inaction by state regulators, much of the black carbon mist has finally lifted in the Oklahoma community where Karen Howe lives. David Gilkey/NPR

Many Americans left behind in the quest for cleaner air

By Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Elizabeth Lucas

Americans might expect the government to protect them from unsafe air. That hasn’t happened. Insidious forms of toxic air pollution persist in hundreds of communities across the United States.

Continue reading this story

Poisoned Places

About this project

By iWatch News

This multimedia investigative series, Poisoned Places, is the result of that nine-month effort. Stories and video mini-documentaries — many featuring what has happened and not happened in communities across the country since the Clean Air Act amendments of 21 years ago — will appear during the next few weeks and into 2012.

Continue reading this story

Pages

Inside this topic