1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
"Steamrolled" by Chris Vogel.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
October 28, 2010.
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
This story reveals that Houston residents are victim to industrial polluters located in residential areas and that state and local regulators routinely fail to protect citizens, instead leaving people with no recourse other than to seek protection from the courts on their own dime, effectively ensuring that most residents never receive relief from environmental and health hazards. Houston is unique in that the city does not have zoning laws, meaning that a strip club, convenience store or industrial plant is allowed to set up shop in residential neighborhoods. Vogel's story examines several examples of how citizens have tried to safeguard themselves and get the polluters to move from their neighborhood — mostly in vain. Through his reporting, Vogel demonstrates that Houston environmental inspectors simply punt these cases to the state regulatory agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and that the TCEQ not only conducts flawed investigations — in one case it took more than a year for inspectors to correctly measure the distance from a woman's home to a concrete factory next door — but that the agency does not shut residential polluters down but rather helps them into compliance, even when the facility is in clear violation of state health and safety codes. State officials themselves recommend to residents that the most effective way to shut down a polluter is to sue them in state district court. However, as Vogel's piece reveals, that is hardly a perfect solution, for while the court can issue an injunction telling a polluter to cease operating, there is no system of enforcement, meaning the industrial facility can easily refuse to shut down and openly violate the court order with no repercussions, leaving the residents helplessly trapped next door to deadly polluters.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Chris Vogel submitted requests under the Texas open records law to the TCEQ and City of Houston to get the complete files relating to residents complaining about polluters next door. These included the complaints, the agency's inspection notes, and the outcome. These documents were the key to showing how poorly the agencies conduct inspections and how they routinely do nothing in the face of acknowledged health and safety violations. Vogel also obtained numerous EPA reports and found several lawsuits in state court, which revealed that even an injunction from a judge was not worth the paper it was written on because no system of enforcement was in place. There were no difficulties obtaining documents through the state open records law.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Vogel interviewed numerous people for this story. These included several TCEQ officials, environmental officials from the City of Houston, state and city elected officials and policy experts, representatives from the industrial facilities, clean-air advocates, and of course the residents whose health was being harmed.
6. Results (if any).
The story was recently published, therefore it is too early to tell.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No correction or clarification has been asked for or published.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
This piece was a lesson in persistence, patience and finding the right story to tell. Because pollution in Houston is so commonplace and is for the most part an accepted way of life, it was not difficult to find residents who were upset with neighborhood industrial polluters. It was a very deep pool of people. However, it did take a while to talk to residents and weed out the less compelling or illustrative examples. In many cases, people just accepted the pollution as part of life and had never taken any action, or knew that they could. Vogel interviewed many people who did not make it into the story, looking for the best examples to show the size, scope and depth of the problem and the failings of the regulatory agencies.