McCullom Lake Series: Coincidence or Cluster, by Kevin Craver and Danielle Guerra, Northwest Herald.
In May 2006, residents of the Illinois town of McCullom Lake, population 1,074, packed into the village hall. A month before, they'd learned that three townspeople had contracted extremely rare forms of brain cancer and were suing two local chemical companies, alleging that the companies had allowed chemicals to contaminate the drinking water. These plaintiffs weren't alone: several more residents suffering from brain and nerve cancer had also come forward after learning about the lawsuit from the area's newspaper, the Northwest Herald.At the meeting, the county health department assured residents that it had performed a study on the issue and concluded that the seemingly high number of cancer cases was "not statistically significant." While chemicals had leaked from the manufacturing plants, officials said, the plume of contaminated groundwater had not mixed with the town's water supply. As proof, the health department displayed a PowerPoint slide locating the plume clear of the town--with a chemical company's logo in the corner of the image.
For Herald reporter Kevin Craver, the Board of Health findings "didn't pass the smell test." He asked his editors if he could spend three months investigating the story, but they weren't sure the Herald, with a small staff and a circulation of 40,000, could afford to lose a veteran reporter for that long. Craver continued covering the lawsuit the best he could.
As his stories began appearing, Danielle Guerra followed them closely. A recent college graduate, she'd just joined the paper as the videographer for its new multimedia team. She pushed hard for an in-depth project: "I wanted the community to know that these were real people," she told the Monthly.
One plaintiff particularly interested Guerra: Johann and Frank Branham had spent most of their lives in McCullom Lake before moving to Arizona. Frank was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2004 and had died two months later. Johann's anguish was something you "couldn't capture on a newspaper page," Guerra said.
In August, Craver and Guerra traveled to Arizona to interview Johann Branham. Their editors found the footage so moving that they launched the most ambitious reporting project the paper had ever undertaken. For several months, Craver pored over "at least 25,00 pages" of legal documents and internal health department communications that he obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Guerra recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with chemical company executives and the loved ones of cancer victims.
In December 2007, the paper ran a six-part series in the Herald accompanied by a multimedia presentation on the paper's Web site. In print, Craver revealed that a novice epidemiologist had botched the health department's study, and that the department had relied on the chemical companies' analyses when it concluded that chemicals had never contaminated drinking water. The county board has since called for another study.
On the Web site, a rich combination of interactive diagrams, photographs, and video interviews brings the town to life. Each side gets a chance to speak; Rohm and Haas, one of the chemical companies, agreed that the Herold's investigation was fair. There are now twenty-two plaintiffs, most of whom learned about the suit from the paper.
One chemical company settled with the plaintiffs in late January; the other will probably begin litigation in early summer. Herald editor Chris Krug hopes the series serves as an assurance that investigative journalism "continues to thrive."
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| Author: | Blumberg, Phillip |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Washington Monthly |
| Geographic Code: | 1U3IL |
| Date: | Jan 1, 2008 |
| Words: | 558 |
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