Prize Winner Spurs Policy Change on Illinois PFAS Contamination

Inside Story: Prize Winner Spurs Policy Change on Illinois PFAS Contamination

Drinking water in Illinois is contaminated with potentially dangerous levels of PFAS chemicals, known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment and are linked to cancer and other serious diseases. Despite warning signs, a Chicago Tribune investigation (may require subscription) found local and state officials delayed testing for the chemicals and downplayed the results. The story won Outstanding Beat Reporting, Large, for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 22nd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The investigation revealed that more than 8 million people in Illinois — at least six out of ten in the state — get their drinking water from utilities that have detected at least one forever chemical.

SEJ judges noted the herculean effort undertaken by Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Hawthorne to investigate the health and environmental effects of unregulated PFAS, as well as for the impact of his reporting. Not only did his work prompt extensive discussion and response by officials, including the introduction of legislation to ban PFAS pollution nationwide, but Hawthorne created an online tool (may require subscription) to allow readers to determine if there was PFAS in their water supplies. “This is a shining example of the finest kind of journalism," SEJ judges wrote.

SEJournal discussed the story with Hawthorne by email. It was edited for clarity and brevity.

Investigative reporter Michael Hawthorne

SEJournal: How did you get your winning story idea?

Michael Hawthorne: I first learned about the chemicals we now call PFAS while reporting another story in 2002. Two decades later, I decided to revisit the topic when I discovered the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency was conducting long-delayed testing for PFAS in the state's public water systems but was downplaying the results. Through FOIA requests I determined the local sewage agency knew more than a decade ago that it was giving PFAS-contaminated sludge to farmers as free fertilizer. The agency also promoted its sludge giveaways to gardeners, in particular urban farmers in predominantly Black neighborhoods. Documents obtained through another FOIA request revealed a 3M plant in northwest Illinois had for decades dumped unlimited amounts of PFAS-laden waste into the Mississippi River upstream from the Quad Cities, the region's population center.

SEJournal: What was the biggest challenge in reporting the piece and how did you solve that challenge?

 

‘It can be difficult to incorporate the voices

of people affected by toxic pollution when

they don't know they are being exposed.’

 

Hawthorne: It can be difficult to incorporate the voices of people affected by toxic pollution when they don't know they are being exposed. I'm generally not a fan of telling people their water or land is contaminated and then asking them how they feel about it, but I did so a few times during my reporting because I felt it was important to not rely solely on scientists and lawyers familiar with the problem.

SEJournal: What most surprised you about your reporting?

Hawthorne: The sheer amount of PFAS-contaminated sludge spread on farmland near Chicago and the repeated denials by local officials that this practice is unsafe.

SEJournal: How did you decide to tell the story and why?

Hawthorne: While reporting about PFAS has expanded significantly in recent years, I felt it wasn't high enough on the agenda of policymakers in Illinois. My goal was to spur public discussion and prompt policy changes to protect Illinoisans.

SEJournal: Does the issue covered in your story have disproportional impact on people of low income, or people with a particular ethnic or racial background? What efforts, if any, did you make to include perspectives of people who may feel that journalists have left them out of public conversation over the years?

Hawthorne: A spreadsheet I obtained through FOIA directed me to more than two dozen vacant lots in predominantly Black neighborhoods on Chicago’s South and West sides where the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District had dumped PFAS-contaminated sludge. Then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot had put young men to work transforming the lots into gardens — one of her first efforts to combat gun violence. The Grounds for Peace program withered in part because the city determined the land was tainted with PFAS, emails and other documents showed. I also dug through the archives of a South Side church to detail the sharp contrast between the lack of federal and state action to combat PFAS and how local gardeners and environmental regulators reacted to another hazard during the late 1970s.

SEJournal: What would you do differently now, if anything, in reporting or telling the story and why?

Hawthorne: Work faster.

SEJournal: What lessons have you learned from your story?

Hawthorne: If you can pull it off, it is worth revisiting something you wrote about in-depth years earlier.

SEJournal: What practical advice would you give to other reporters pursuing similar projects, including any specific techniques or tools you used and could tell us more about?

 

‘You might be faced with demands for

quick-hit stories, but it can serve you well

to cast a wide net for longer-term story ideas.’

 

Hawthorne: You might be faced with demands for quick-hit stories, but it can serve you well to cast a wide net for longer-term story ideas. Don't be afraid to call potential sources to talk about your ideas. Read widely. Stow bits of information in online folders because something you can't wrap your brain around today could make sense when another tidbit comes your way next week or next month or next year.

SEJournal: Could you characterize the resources that went into producing your prize-winning reporting (estimated costs, i.e., legal, travel or other; or estimated hours spent by the team to produce)? Did you receive any grants or fellowships to support it?

Hawthorne: In moments between reporting other stories, I had to build my reporting to a point where editors allowed me to focus almost exclusively on this series.

Michael Hawthorne is a Pulitzer-finalist investigative reporter who focuses on the environment and public health for the Chicago Tribune. He has written extensively about the Great Lakes and Chicago River, the dangers of toxic chemicals in household products and the lingering hazards of brain-damaging lead in homes and drinking water. Hawthorne covered state government and the environment for newspapers in Florida, Illinois and Ohio before joining the Tribune in 2004.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 9, No. 40. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.