For 35 Years, This Black Illinois Town Has Been Told Its Sewage Crisis Isn’t Real
"Residents proved their tap water carries sewage and bacteria. Federal funding dried up anyway."
"Residents proved their tap water carries sewage and bacteria. Federal funding dried up anyway."
"Lee Zeldin started off his tour of congressional hearings this week with a bang. The EPA administrator appeared Monday before the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees his agency to defend a fiscal 2027 budget proposal that would slice the agency down to $4.2 billion — or more than half of its enacted funding."
"EPA’s independent federal watchdog found the agency’s process for inspecting large hazardous waste generators was inconsistent, leaving one-fifth of sites without oversight during a five-year period."
"Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is planning a detention facility for children and their families on one the nation’s most Pfas-contaminated sites, which also serves as a hub for the president’s deportation program."
"A proposed waste-to-energy facility in Fiji has been labelled as "waste colonialism" by opponents of the plant. The $900 million venture, backed by Australian billionaire Ian Malouf, would burn hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste each year at a site built near a popular tourist destination."
"After Texas regulators said Tesla’s lithium refinery near Corpus Christi wasn’t violating its permits by discharging what local officials reported as black wastewater into a drainage ditch, independent water testing there this month found two toxic metals and other contaminants."

SEJournal is providing full coverage of all eight of the day-long tours from the annual Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference, April 15-18, in Chicago. In Part 2, contributors Meg Duff, Nathaniel Eisen, Nhung Nguyen and Marlowe Starling provide detailed reports from tours focused on the transitioning steel industry, microgrids, climate-friendly crop practices and evolving Midwestern agricultural systems.
Also check out the first round of tour coverage and read all the great work from our team of early-career freelance journalists, part of SEJournal’s live #SEJ2026 Live conference reporting.

Nearly as rejuvenating as attending the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual gathering is perusing the après-conference spoof by contributing quipster David Helvarg. While it seemed he was mostly there unabashedly preselling his forthcoming book, he somehow found time to send up SEJ’s earnest sessions, lambast its blown-up tours and rib its beat dinners. Read his Chicago roast.
"Independent testing of the Salween River began in September 2025 after researchers found alarming levels of toxic contaminants in the nearby Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers in Thailand, much of it linked to unregulated mining in Myanmar."
"The Potomac River, otherwise known as “the nation’s river,” has been named the most endangered river in the country, following a massive sewage spill earlier this year and the ongoing buildout of thirsty data centers across the watershed."