U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, whose district includes 11 Superfund sites, requested details on how the Environmental Protection Agency deals with the pollution that’s left behind by treating and shipping toxic waste across the country and whether it’s looked into alternative cleanup methods.
Susanne Rust
Environment Reporter
Susanne Rust is a former investigative reporter for The Center for Investigative Reporting who focused on the environment. Before joining CIR, Susanne held a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. She began her journalism career in 2003 at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In her last three years at the Journal Sentinel, she focused much of her reporting on dangerous chemicals and lax regulations, working with colleagues Meg Kissinger and Cary Spivak. The series “Chemical Fallout” won numerous national awards, including a Sigma Delta Chi Award, George Polk Award, and two Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Awards in 2009 and 2010. The series also won the John B. Oakes Award for environmental reporting. Susanne and Meg were finalists in 2009 for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting. She also shared a National Headliner Award in 2010 for a series on conflicts of interest involving doctors and research at the University of Wisconsin.
Posted inEnvironment
The weak points in the Superfund system
This story began with a simple question: What happens to the waste that’s pulled from the ground beneath Silicon Valley’s Superfund sites? Here are six weak points in the Superfund system identified by our reporting.
Posted inEnvironment
Six things to know about CIR’s Superfund investigation
Our investigation tells the story of the toxic trail of unintended consequences left behind by the landmark federal Superfund program.
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Posted inEnvironment
Cleanup of Silicon Valley Superfund site takes environmental toll
The landmark Superfund program is supposed to clean up the country’s hazardous waste. But it’s creating unintended, and potentially worse, environmental consequences.
Posted inEnvironment, Food for 9 Billion
California looks to milk China’s growing dairy demand
A growing demand for milk and cheese in China has the potential to bring California’s beleaguered dairy industry back to life – and with it, renewed concern about its damaging effects on the environment. As China’s middle class grows, so does its penchant for dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt. U.S. government data […]
Posted inEnvironment
Boy Scouts put rare plant in danger
Biologist Andrea Edwards inspects a Dudley’s lousewort along a trail at the Boy Scouts’ Camp Pico Blanco south of Monterey, Calif. The Boy Scouts have cut down old-growth trees at the camp and trampled specimens of the rare plant.Erik Verduzco/For the Center for Investigative Reporting Expulsion from the Boy Scouts of America is a dishonor […]
Posted inEnvironment
Google employees face health risks from Superfund site’s toxic vapors
Elevated levels of trichloroethylene, or TCE, were found at Google’s satellite campus in Mountain View.
Posted inEnvironment
System turns US fishing rights into commodity, squeezes small fishermen
San Francisco fisherman Larry Collins waits for a crabbing boat near Fisherman’s Wharf in January. Collins says catch shares are squeezing out small fishing operations. “This system has given it all to the big guys,” he says.Mike Kepka/San Francisco Chronicle SAN FRANCISCO – For centuries, men like Larry Collins, a garrulous crab and sole fisherman, […]
Posted inEnvironment
Who Owns the Fish?
Any commercial fisherman used to be able to fish in U.S. seas. Not anymore. Today, the right to fish belongs to a number of private individuals who have traded, bought and sold these rights in unregulated markets. This system, called “catch shares,” favors large fishing fleets and has cut out thousands of smaller-scale fishermen. How […]
Posted inMoney and Politics
Women use emoticons more often; men have more variety ;-)
Texting on a smartphoneJhaymesisviphotography/Flickr Women might use emoticons more than men, but men have a broader emoticon vocabulary. That’s what researchers from Rice University are saying in a new study that evaluated the use of emoticons in text messages. “This was a unique study in that we were able to collect data from subjects as […]