Old coal plants

Team Bell assembled this interactive which involved an animator, Flash AS3 coder and an environmental reporter in Montana. We basically had all the elements and skills for a really slick package, showing the rise in the production of old style coal plants without the needed pollution controls. As the need for electricity in the U.S. grows, more of these type plants are being built while the nation waits for the technologies to curb greenhouse gas pollution in clean-coal plants become available.

My role in this assignment was being the researcher, designer and anchor.

See it here: http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/coal_plants/

Grading the Gulf of Mexico after the spill

After the BP oil spill, oceanographers familiar with the Gulf of Mexico were asked to give their assessment of the water quality and grade various categories. Surprisingly, the overall view for the viability of the Gulf was good.

See the interactive here:

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/gulf_grades/

Toxic water in schools

I worked on this investigative piece with an environmental reporter who was able to get 10 years of water surveys from the Environmental Protection Agency. In her series of reports, she verified that toxins were being leaked into schools' water supply - mostly in rural areas and off city water systems and relied on wells.

A majority of the pollutants came from chemicals found in agricultural fertilizers. Check out the link to see the interactive. This was a collaberative effort with me working with a Flash programmer:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33018955/ns/health-kids_and_parenting#.TknIxM1p2kI