Reporters scrambling to inform the 300,000 citizens of Charleston, West Virginia, about why they could not drink their tap water, what health threats it presented, and who was responsible faced a stone wall from most of the responsible government agencies in the early days of the crisis.
"The Perry nuclear power plant is leaking tritium, a radioactive form of water with a half-life of more than 12 years. The radioactive water has been found in groundwater at concentrations more than twice the
federal drinking water limit outside of a building where the leak was discovered Monday. No other, more dangerous radioactive isotopes were found." John Funk reports for the Cleveland Plain Dealer January 21,
2014.
Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Japan, tweeted that she was "deeply concerned" about the killing of dolphins in the notorious Taiji cove in that country.
"There are more than a thousand species of sharks and rays in the world, and nearly a quarter of them are threatened with extinction, according to a new study. That means these ancient types of fish are among the most endangered animals in the world."
"The Arizona Supreme Court has greenlighted a lawsuit that the Hopi Tribe brought against the city of Flagstaff, Ariz. for selling wastewater to a local ski resort to make fake snow.
"Governor Christie declined to sign a bill that would have required public notification whenever sewer-outfall pipes dump raw sewage into local rivers and bays, legislation that had received overwhelming support by both parties in the state legislature."
"CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal and state investigators learned Tuesday that an additional chemical that wasn't previously identified was in the tank that leaked Jan. 9 at the Freedom Industries tank farm, just upstream from West Virginia American Water's regional drinking water intake."
Journalists had trouble overcoming EPA and CDC press office obstacles and getting access to agency experts and officials during this month's drinking water contamination crisis in Charleston, WV. SEJ and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) have sent a letter of complaint to heads of both agencies and their press offices. We urge them to adopt specific practices to end press office stonewalling and increase transparency, especially in times of crisis.
[UPDATE: Reply of January 29, 2014, from EPA Assoc. Adm. for Ext. Affairs Tom Reynolds]
[UPDATE: Reply of January 22, 2014, from CDC Public Affairs Director Barbara Reynolds]
[UPDATE: "CDC: Pregnant Women Should Have Been Warned About Water Sooner," Charleston Gazette, January 22, 2014, by Ken Ward Jr.]
"West Virginia's governor on Monday proposed legislation to regulate above-ground storage tanks, a move that comes after a spill of coal-processing chemicals shut off drinking water to about 300,000 people."
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