"It’s been surreal to see all of the fallout and consequences — and to see that the bravery of these workers led to accountability."
Tampa Bay Times reporters were investigating a story about lead in the water at local schools when a source shared a lengthy state health report with two pages dog-earred.
Those pages showed that Hillsborough County suffered a higher rate of lead poisoning than anywhere else in Florida. An unnamed battery recycler was to blame.
Over the next several years, Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray scrutinized the recycler closer than any regulator ever had.
They exposed how Florida’s only lead smelter, run by Gopher Resource, endangered its employees and the surrounding community. They read 100,000 pages of government and medical records, spent countless hours talking to workers and made themselves experts on lead toxicity.
On Monday, the reporters were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting for their series, “Poisoned.”
Read more at the Tampa Bay Times