Here’s a reminder for Earth Day eve. Be sure to watch PBS tonight (Tuesday, April 21) at 9 p.m. to catch Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith’s Frontline documentary, “Poisoned Waters.”
It’s an in-depth look at invisible but chronic problem of water pollution in the U.S., focusing on the Chesapeake Bay and Puget Sound. For more, click here.
David Fahrenthold, who covers the Bay for The Washington Post, wrote a review of the documentary in today’s paper.
He muses that perhaps it would be better if the Chesapeake Bay caught on fire. After all, it was a fire on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland in 1969 that helped to spark the outrage that led to the first Earth Day in 1970 and the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972.
“The Chesapeake, sick as it is, has never been flammable. And it has never been fixed,” Fahrenthold writes.
The Post’s preview says the documentary provides some strong journalism. “Smith takes on the Eastern Shore's chicken industry and prods its representatives into the kind of verbal evasions that would twinkle a tobacco industry scientist's eye. He also wrings a startling admission from a scientist who discovered that male fish in the Potomac River are growing eggs. Smith asks: Would she drink Washington tap water, which comes from the same river? ‘Probably not,’ she says.”
A program worth watching. Afterwards, write in to Bay Daily to share what you think.
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