By: E&P Staff An investigative series on pollution by a nine-person reporting team from The Record of Bergen County, N.J., has been awarded the first annual Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment.
The winning series, "Toxic Legacy," which was published in 2005, dealt with pollution caused by a Mahwah, N.J., automobile-assembly plant operated by Ford Motor Company. The articles showed how actions of Ford, government officials, and organized crime had exposed residents in northern New Jersey to many environmental hazards. The series led to an unprecedented federal re-listing of the contaminated site as a Superfund national priority cleanup site.
Jurors from the Grantham Prize called the articles "environmental watchdog reporting of the highest order, marked by exhaustive reporting, stellar writing, and an innovative multimedia presentation that sets a new standard."
The $75,000 Grantham award is given by the University of Rhode Island's Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, and it honors the work of one journalist or team of journalists for exemplary reporting on the environment.
Three other journalists received $5,000 "Awards of Special Merit" from the Grantham jurors.
* Douglas Fischer of the Oakland Tribune, for his series "Our Body's Burden: Our Chemical Legacy."
*Elizabeth Kolbert of The New Yorker for "The Climate of Man."
* John Sherman and Beau Kershaw of WBAL-TV, Baltimore, Md., for "Dirty Secret."
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