Border pollution report award finalist
The series “Poisoned Cities, Deadly Border” has been recognized as a finalist for the 2019 John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.
The four-part series by The Desert Sun chronicles how lax regulations and growing industrialization led to rampant pollution in the Mexicali area, creating an environmental and public health crisis on both sides of the U.S.Mexico border.
Reporter Ian James and photojournalist Zoë Meyers spent nearly two years investigating how government officials from both the United States and Mexico allowed the region’s air, water and ground to suffer from dumping and toxic pollution.
They traveled regularly to the California-Mexico border from The Desert Sun’s newsroom in Palm Springs, and collaborated with journalists at The Arizona Republic and USA TODAY to produce the project, which featured an online design with multiple entry points, including interactives, video and VR.
The series, published in English and Spanish, examined how toxic pollution hurt people on both sides of the border, from air so contaminated it kills people to a river of sewage that flows from Mexico into California. The reporters also offered 10 steps Mexican and U.S. government agencies could take to reduce pollution on the border.
Go to environment.azcentral.com to read the series.
Judges for the Oakes Award commended the reporting team for an “evocative, immersive and deeply reported series and the changes it has spurred for the people living along the California-Mexico border.”
After the investigation was published in December 2018, California announced plans to hire a new regulator to oversee border pollution and deliver 50 air quality monitors to better track pollution in Mexicali. Lawmakers have also cited the series in pushing for additional funding to clean up and protect the New River.
The Columbia Journalism School presents the Oakes Award annually for news reporting that makes an exceptional contribution to the public’s understanding of environmental issues.
In June, “Poisoned Cities, Deadly Border” also won the Society of Professional Journalists’ New America Award. The award honors journalism that sheds light on important issues of immigrant or ethnic communities in the United States.
The winner of the Oakes Award was InsideClimate News, for the report “Harvesting Peril: Extreme Weather and Climate Change.” The Oakes Award also recognized ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine as a finalist for “Fuel to the Fire.”