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LNG terminals threaten to push Calcasieu River pollution ‘beyond repair’

The shrimp stopped coming up the Calcasieu River after Venture Global built its Liquified Natural Gas terminal. The river’s ongoing pollution, on top of decades of hazardous waste dumping, earned the Calcasieu the #9 slot on American Rivers’ 2025 list of most endangered rivers.
by Delaney Dryfoos April 28, 2025 Updated May 6, 2025

Angola’s Farm Line again asks judge for consistent shade and water

While prison officials and Farm Line workers disagree about whether the incarcerated workers have all the shade and water they need, Farm Line workers are asking the judge to reverse DOC’s recent policy changes, which make field work even more dangerous in Louisiana’s summer heat, they contend.
by Nick Chrastil and Bernard Smith April 24, 2025 Updated January 18, 2026

Levee board members have no sway over Army Corps design

The Army Corps controls the design and operational procedures of flood reduction, so it doesn’t matter whether the governor selects the levee board members or if a panel picks candidates – or even if we choose the first nine people coming out of church on Sunday.
by Stephen Estopinal April 24, 2025 Updated April 27, 2025

In Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, a legacy of resistance lives on.

In the River Parishes, at the site of the largest slave revolt in history, a new generation is fighting for a cleaner future.
by Ned Randolph April 22, 2025 Updated April 27, 2025
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Behind The Lens episode 271: ‘Death warrant’

Nick Chastil and Katy Reckdahl on working conditions at Angola's Farm Line, with an eye on summer heat, and execution in Louisiana, following the first state execution in more than a decade.
by Carolyne Heldman April 17, 2025 Updated April 17, 2025

Mississippi River named the most endangered of 2025 by non-profit American Rivers

With budget losses to both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers, mitigation grant programs to address riverine flooding could be impacted substantially. According to FEMA, every federal dollar spent on flood mitigation yields $7 in benefits. 
by Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Delaney Dryfoos, The Lens April 16, 2025 Updated April 27, 2025

Down the Drain: A watershed moment for America’s greatest wetlands

The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a journalism collaborative based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in partnership with Report for America, publishes an examination of how legal and policy changes will impact wetlands in the basin.
by Ag & Water Desk Reporters April 14, 2025 Updated April 16, 2025

One Iowa landowner fights to farm a designated wetland. Others could face consequences downstream

The 1985 "Swampbuster" law — which has protected millions of acres of U.S. wetlands from being cleared and plowed — is being challenged in court.
by Jared Strong, The Gazette; Jess Savage, WNIJ and Illan Ireland, Mississippi Free Press April 14, 2025 Updated April 14, 2025

A Mississippi flood relief project could harm 90,000 acres of valuable wetlands. Is it worth the tradeoff?

The Yazoo Pumps project purports to reduce flooding while protecting farmers and minimizing environmental harm. But concerns over wetland degradation have stymied past, smaller versions of the project.
by Illan Ireland, Mississippi Free Press April 14, 2025 Updated April 14, 2025

Framing wetlands as a flooding solution won bipartisan support in Wisconsin. Could it work elsewhere?

Communities across the state are testing the economic value of grant programs to build new wetlands that reduce flooding risk. In the upper Midwest, researchers found that wetlands save nearly $23 billion a year that would otherwise be spent combating floods.
by Madeline Heim and Caitlin Looby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel April 14, 2025 Updated April 14, 2025

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For more than a decade, we have reported on issues as well as public policy meant to address the needs of residents. The Lens seeks to focus on the inherent inequality that has created a multi-tiered system. We, at The Lens seek to uncover, illuminate, inform and take part in a forward-looking community. Join us.

 
 

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