Investigations into air pollution and the oil industry took many of the top prizes as the Society of Environmental Journalists announced the winners of the largest environmental journalism contest in North America on the opening night of the group's 15th annual conference.

First-place winners in each of nine categories accepted $1,000 checks and a trophy at a ceremony at the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin marking the fourth annual SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment. The gala event celebrated journalism on a wide range of environmental subjects in print, online and on television and radio, and in large and small markets alike.

Judging panels consisting of leading journalists and journalism educators selected the 27 winners from among 240 entries.

This year's contest marked the debut of the Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting. The award, for print entries, was named for Kevin Carmody of the Austin American-Statesman, who died earlier this year. A founder and former president of SEJ, Carmody was the chief organizer of this year's annual conference, SEJ's 15th. Close to 600 journalists, academics, advocates and students attended the conference, which ended October 2, 2005.

Some of the 2005 SEJ Award winners at the Austin conference. Photo by Kenneth Friedman. Click photo to enlarge.

And the winners are...
Kevin Carmody Award For Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Print
Outstanding Beat Reporting, Print
Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Print
Outstanding Online Reporting
Outstanding Radio Reporting, Large Market
Outstanding Radio Reporting, Small Market
Outstanding Small-Market Reporting, Print
Outstanding Television Reporting, Large Market
Outstanding Television Reporting, Small Market

Kevin Carmody Award For Outstanding Investigative Reporting, Print

1st Place:
Dina Cappiello and Dan Feldstein of the Houston Chronicle for "In Harm's Way" (requires free registration), a five-part investigative series that identified petrochemical plants as the source for toxic air pollutants in residential neighborhoods. As part of the project, the newspaper installed its own air monitors.

2nd Place:
Tom Hamburger, Alan C. Miller and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times for "Environmental Politics: A Changing Landscape."

3rd Place:
George Watson, Guy McCarthy, Ben Schnayerson and Lisa Lambert of The San Bernardino Sun for "Unnatural Disasters."

Outstanding Beat Reporting, Print

1st Place:
Craig Welch of The Seattle Times (requires free registration) for seven stories that covered the gamut of environmental issues, from old-growth forests to oil spills:

1. "Old-Growth Logging Nearing a Standstill in Dramatic Shift." Sidebar.
2. "Exxon Valdez, Other Spills, Taught Alaskans to be Ready"
3. "Tough Battle Against Oil Spill Amid Icy Seas"
4. "Coral Concerns Spur Vast Trawling Ban"
5. "For Good or Ill, Bush Clears Path for Energy Development." Sidebar.
6. "Bush Switches Nation's Tack on Protecting Species." Sidebar.
7. "Bush Cut Some Diesel Pollution But Let Big Ships Keep Spewing." Sidebar.

2nd Place:
Tom Pelton of The Baltimore Sun.

3rd Place:
Tom Avril of The Philadelphia Inquirer for a selection of stories (requires free registration).

Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, Print

1st Place:
Bruce Barcott for "Changing All the Rules," a story he wrote for the New York Times Magazine that detailed the electric utility industry's successful push to rewrite air-pollution rules (free preview/paid archive).

2nd Place:
Dennis R. Dimick, Peter Essick, Lynn Addison, David Whitmore, Jeff Osborn, Tim Appenzeller, Daniel Glick, Fen Montaigne, Virginia Morrell, Nora Gallagher, Abigail Tipton and Patricia Kellogg of National Geographic Magazine for "Global Climate Change" (see FEATURES section).

3rd Place:
Ray Ring of High Country News for "Environmental Politics: New Angles":

1. "Shooting Spree: The Bush Administration is Perforating our Basic Environmental Laws. Can a Cadre of Seasoned Green Lawyers Stop It?" Sidebar.
2. "Conservationist in a Conservative Land." Sidebar.
3. "Where Were the Environmentalists When Libby Needed Them Most? The Story of an Ailing Town in Northwestern Montana Calls into Question the Health of the Environmental Movement." Sidebar.

Outstanding Online Reporting

1st Place:
Bob Williams, Kevin Bogardus, Daniel Lathrop, Alexander Cohen and Aron Pilhofer of The Center for Public Integrity for "Gimme Shelter (From Taxes)" and other stories, a series on the oil industry and its powerful influence on government.

2nd Place:
Roger McCoy, Jon Schwantes, Gerald Tebben and Joel Chow of Dispatch.com and WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, for "Radon in Schools: A Lesson to Learn."

3rd Place:
Kellyn Betts of Environmental Science & Technology Online for "PBDEs and the Environmental Intervention Time Lag."

Outstanding Radio Reporting, Large Market

1st Place:
Vicki Monks of National Public Radio's "Living on Earth" for "Carbon Black," a riveting account of how industrial pollution has affected Native Americans in Oklahoma.

2nd Place:
Rebecca M. Williams of the Great Lakes Radio Consortium for beat reporting:

1. "How Long Do You Keep a Polluting Heap?"
2. "Containing Chronic Wasting Disease"
3. "Packrats Hooked on Freecycling"

3rd Place:
Daniel Grossman and John Rudolph of American RadioWorks for "Climate of Uncertainty."

Outstanding Radio Reporting, Small Market

1st Place:
Sadie Babits of KNAU, Arizona public radio, for "Living Without: Water in a Dry Land," her colorful and compelling stories about water shortages in Kenya.

2nd Place:
John A. Dillon of Vermont Public Radio for stories on several subjects:

1. "State Attempts to Control Cormorant Population on Lake Champlain"
2. "Neighbors Rally to Help Farmer Control Runoff"
3. "Inside the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant" (Part One/Part Two)
4. "Lobbyists, Lawmakers and Activists Look at Dry Cask Storage and the Future of Vermont Yankee"

3rd Place:
Erin Toner of WKAR, Michigan State University public radio, for her stories about environmental issues in the Great Lakes region.

Outstanding Small Market Reporting, Print

1st Place:
Wendy Lyons Sunshine of Fort Worth Weekly for "Mud Wrestling," a three-part series about the environmental damage caused by the fast-growing region's ravenous appetite for construction stone:

1. "Mud Wrestling: High-Flying Seniors and an Heiress Want to Save the Brazos From Rock Miners"
2. "Clearing a Path to a Cleaner River"
3. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The State's Quarry Crackdown is Progressing — Fitfully"

2nd Place:
Benjamin Joffe-Walt of The Progressive magazine for "China's Computer Wasteland."

3rd Place:
Hope Burwell of Orion magazine for "Jeremiad for Belarus."
(Note: This is an abbreviated version only. The full version is not available online.)

Outstanding Television Reporting, Large Market

1st Place:
Jeffrey Cooperman of NBC News for "Clearing the Air," a hard-hitting story about the Bush Administration's campaign to rewrite air-pollution rules to accommodate industry.

2nd Place:
Jim Parsons, Kendall Cross and Michael Lazorko of WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh for "Dying to Breathe" and other stories.

3rd Place:
Carisa Scott, Brian Maass and Kevin Hartfield of KCNC-TV in Denver for "Water Thieves" (Part One, Part Two).

Outstanding Television Reporting, Small Market

1st Place:
Barbara Noyes Pulling, Michael McDade and Caleb Crosby of Maine Public Broadcasting for "Quest: Aquaculture, Down on the Salmon Farm," a series about the economic promise and environmental perils of fish farming.

2nd Place:
Marc Schollett of WPBN/WTOM in Traverse City, Michigan, for "Water Watch."

3rd Place:
Hagit Limor, Anthony Mirones and Bob Morford of WCPO-TV in Cincinnati for "Airport Pollution."

Founded in 1990, SEJ is a lively network of journalists and academics, with more than 1,300 members in the United States, Canada and 32 other countries. Run by and for working journalists, SEJ seeks to advance public understanding of environmental issues by improving the quality, accuracy, and visibility of environmental reporting. In addition to SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment, SEJ programs and services include annual and regional conferences; daily EJToday news service; quarterly SEJournal; biweekly TipSheet; freedom of information WatchDog Project; diversity program including Latin America initiative; members-only listservs; mentoring program; gatekeeper project and other special initiatives.

Previous winners: 2002 | 2003 | 2004