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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Environment - "Covering The Environmental Beat In Northwest Indiana"

Dave Dempsey of Ecolocalizer has a great article today on the Gary Post Tribune's outstanding environmental reporter, Gitte Laasby. It begins:

During the last year, three newspaper reporters covering environmental and Great Lakes matters full-time have left the beat as their former homes downsize. Only a handful of such reporters remain. The youngest and most enterprising is Gitte Laasby of the Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Indiana.

A native of Denmark and a 2004 master’s graduate of the Michigan State University School of Journalism – known for its outstanding Knight Center for Environmental Journalism – Laasby broke a 2007 story about a proposed ammonia dumping increase by the local BP refinery into Lake Michigan. Picked up by Chicago and eventually Great Lakes regional media, the story stirred up public outrage. Ultimately, BP promised not to increase its discharge. More recently, Laasby broke a story about a pile of contaminated material a few hundred yards from Lake Michigan at what is now the ArcelorMittal steel facility at Burns Harbor. “Easterly’s pile” was nicknamed for the-then superintendent of environmental affairs at the company when it was U.S. Steel. Thomas Easterly is now the commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Manage.

There are plenty of opportunities for Laasby to unearth similar stories in northwest Indiana. Although only about 45 miles in length, the state’s Lake Michigan shoreline begins not far east of Chicago and has been heavily industrialized for a century. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and state park are anchored in the midst of steel plants, many now closed, coal fired power plants and other pollution sources. The pollution history of the region has spawned an active citizenry of environmental advocates.

Following the intro are a series of questions and thoughtful answers.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 10, 2010 03:23 PM
Posted to Environment