Category Archives: Research

        
 
 
 
 

Knight Center alum investigates toxic plume in Ann Arbor

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Elinor Epperson

What began as a professional project at Michigan State has turned into a feature project at Michigan Public radio.

Elinor Epperson spent 18 months researching, writing, fact-checking and editing a series of threelongform articles about the Gelman plume, an area of groundwater contamination under Ann Arbor that is several decades old.

The contamination comes from the disposal of industrial wastewater disposal by Gelman Sciences, a one-time medical filter manufacturer.

She also wrote a reporter’s notebook and appeared on the Stateside podcast to provide a more condensed version of the project.

Epperson earned her master’s degree in journalism from the MSU School of Journalism in fall 2024 and still works at the station as an intern.

From plagues to dinner platters?

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This is the 4th in a series of feature stories on environmental topics by Knight Center students who attended the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

By Julia Belden

Julia Belden

Journalism – environmental and science journalism in particular – demands from its practitioners a curiosity that often lands one in unusual places.

Out of a myriad of mini-tour options at the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Tempe, Arizona, I chose to visit the laboratory facilities of the Global Locust Initiative.

Apparently, attracting conference attendees to visit a basement lab full of locusts was a tough sell.

Of the hundreds of environmental journalists swarming Arizona State University’s campus for the week, I was the only one to attend this insect-themed tour.

It’s a shame, really. Despite their abundance, variety, and ecological and economic importance, insects rarely inspire thoughtful, nuanced press coverage.

Locust meet & greet: a dream for an animal nerd like me!

Here in the United States, most people are familiar with locusts only in Biblical terms. (Fun fact: it’s thought that the Moroccan locust, Dociostaurus maroccanus, is responsible for the swarms depicted in the Old Testament.)

But in the Global South, locusts swarms can cause catastrophic damage to agriculture – so much so that in 2019-21 desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) swarms landed on a United Nations list of global disasters.

“Locusts don’t attack people directly, they don’t spread disease. The thing that makes them incredibly dangerous is their voracious appetites,” research scientist Rick Overton tells me as we prepare to enter the lab.

Along with ASU professor Arianne Cease, Overton co-directs the Global Locust Initiative, leading a team of undergraduate and graduate student researchers and collaborating with stakeholders from 40 countries to develop strategies for locust management.

“We affectionately call it ‘Hoppertown,’” Overton says of the laboratory, which is home to tens of thousands of locusts, representing three to six species from around the world, depending on research needs.

The lab adheres to strict standards set out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS). Continue reading →

‘No Desecration for Recreation’: Indigenous nations speak out against corporate pollution

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This is the 3rd in a series of feature stories on environmental topics by Knight Center students who attended the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

By Mia Litzenberg

Mia Litzenberg

When most people flush the toilet, the thought of where wastewater ends up goes down the drain.

At the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort, treated wastewater is used to create artificial snow that blankets the San Francisco Peaks – a sacred mountain to over a dozen Indigenous tribes.

“I was out here inspecting the area one time and some family with some kids were out here, and they were eating the snow,” said Diné activist Shawn Mulford.

Mulford said the parents had not noticed the sign saying the resort was using reclaimed wastewater that should not be drunk. Since the incident, Mulford said the sign was moved away from the entrance even further down the hillside.

An empty ski lift at the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort in April. Credit: Mia Litzenberg

Although the resort uses Grade A+ reclaimed water to make its snow, it does not pass drinking water standards.

The Indigenous tribes who have stewarded the sacred mountain, called Dookʼoʼoosłííd in Navajo, have harvested medicinal plants and held religious ceremonies there for thousands of years.

“My elders have been telling me ‘You can’t go harvest on the peaks anymore,’” said Ka-Voka Jackson from the Hualapai tribe. “We don’t know what’s in those plants – the drugs, the chemicals, hormones. Birth control is a big one that’s not something they can filter out or that they do.”

The San Francisco Peaks of Arizona. Credit: Mia Litzenberg

The Rio de Flag Wastewater Treatment Plant that supplies reclaimed water to Snowbowl does not have the technology to remove contaminants of emerging concern, according to the facility’s staff. These include pharmaceuticals, personal care products and PFAS, which are all classified as endocrine-disrupting compounds for their damaging effect on organisms.

In the 2008 Supreme Court case Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Service, the court ruled that “there are no plants, springs, natural resources, shrines with religious significance or religious ceremonies that would be physically affected by the use of such artificial snow.” Continue reading →

PESTICIDE EXPOSURE – Dangerous pesticides remain in use despite expert concerns, investigations show

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This is the 2nd in a series of feature stories on environmental topics by Knight Center students who attended the 2025 Society of Environmental Journalists conference.

By Ruth Thornton

Ruth Thornton

The widespread use of several potent pesticides remains a problem in several countries, according to investigative reporters.

Their research shows that the often-cozy relationship between government officials who issue permits and the industry endangers not only the environment but also human lives.

The reporters discussed their reporting on a panel at this year’s Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual conference at Arizona State University.

Panel members were Liza Gross, a reporter with Inside Climate News, Sanket Jain, an independent journalist, Talli Nauman, a contributing editor at Buffalo’s Fire, and Carla Ruas, a freelance journalist. The panel was moderated by Mark Schapiro, an investigative journalist and lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Toxic fumigant pesticide use in California

The “toxic fumigant 1,3-D should probably not be on the market, because it’s been known to be a carcinogen for years,” Gross said.

The fumigant 1,3-D, short for 1,3-Dichloropropene, is a pesticide also known under its tradename Telone. It is applied to farm soils to control nematodes, a type of worm that can harm crops, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It was first registered in the 1950s.

SEJ Pesticide Panel

Gross said she originally focused on that chemical when an advocacy group in California was upset that regulators in the state proposed standards that would have exposed residents near application sites to about 14 times the safe amount.

“When I started looking into 1,3-D’s regulatory history, I found some troubling things that were going on at the federal level,” Gross said.

“It was pretty clear, without that much digging, that I could test the idea that there was regulatory capture going on there,” she said. Continue reading →