The Echo staff is soliciting nominations for the top Great Lakes environmental news stories of 2009. Nominate or support nominations in the comments section below this post. Guidelines:
- You need not cite a particular news story, although you can. Nominate an issue that’s been in the news.
- It should have occurred in 2009.
- It should have occurred in or affected the environment of the states or provinces bordering the Great Lakes.
- There are obvious choices. But be creative. It can be serious or funny. It can be a research finding, a critical event, a political action.
I believe the series of reports written by Gitte Laasby this fall in the Post Tribune about the landfill proposed by Arcelor/Mittal should be considered as a top story.
Through her reporting we find just how ineffective the EPA region 5 office is and how poorly the Indiana Depaartment of Environmental Management is being run.
We also find that the commisioner of IDEM, Tom Easterly, has a mountain of waste named after him.
None of this would have come to light without this story.
We appreciate the kudos for Gitte. She’s a graduate of the MSU School of Journalism and the Knight Center’s Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute. So we are certainly familiar with her excellent work.
That said, this is not a contest for the region’s best reporter. We’re looking for the most significant news stories of the year. Not the best writer, reporter or even the best written story. We’re looking for nominations for the most significant news events of the year that affected the Great Lakes region. That could be a law, a budget cut, a court ruling, a research finding, a policy shift, an election outcome, a pollution event, a conservation victory or many other things.
David Poulson
Echo Editor
I nominate Gitte Laasby of the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune for her investigative journalism work on several issues here. She reported on the BP issue, the Arcelor Mittal permit issue, she exposed Easterly’s Pile, and probably more that I am forgetting. She is truly an investigave reporter par excellance and we value her tremendously here in NW Indiana where we are 49th on most every environmental list there is. There needs to be more reporters like her and more newspapers willing to support their work.
I’m not sure if this is the appropriate place to leave a nomination for top Great Lakes environmental news stories. If it is, I nominate environmental investigative reporter, Gitte Laasby, with the Post-Tribune who has done a remarkable job reporting on critical environmental issues in Indiana including the recent exposure of “Easterly’s Piles.” Thank you for your favorable consideration.
Congress approves $475 million for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Emergency rooms treat people around the region for shock and dislocated jaws.