This is Yanqi Xu, a Flatwater Free Press investigative reporter and your guest newsletter writer today. In case you were curious: My name is pronounced Yen-Chee Shu.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time fixating on the maps hanging in my bedroom wall in Southern China, imagining the faraway countries, the terrains, the rivers.
When you overlay maps with other data, patterns begin to surface. You start to wonder what that means to the people living on that land. I was drawn to the map you see above — it shows more than 28,000 wells, tested by our state’s environmental agencies for the past 50 years. More than 6,000 of them show up as red, higher than the EPA safe drinking water limit of 10 parts per million of nitrate.
Those red dots are multiplying, because the problem is getting worse. The median nitrate level has doubled in the past 40 years.
Nitrate causes a birth defect called blue baby syndrome, but experts at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have found that Nebraska counties with elevated nitrate levels also tend to have have high pediatric cancer rates. They have found sharp increases in leukemia, lymphoma and — sharpest of all — pediatric brain cancer.
Nick Herringer’s family well is one of those red dots. He drank water from the well for years before his brain cancer diagnosis. His family now wonders: Was it caused by the high nitrate in their water? And why does Nebraska have a higher pediatric cancer rate than any state west of Pennsylvania?
A skate park, and Junior’s gift: A bunch of adults from different communities chipped in $450,000 to build a skate park in Thurston County, hoping it would help pull Native kids there back from the brink — many teen suicides on the reservation have taken the lives of their friends and classmates.
And then, on grand opening day, as kids rolled down the half pipes and did tricks, a 15-year-old named Junior gave another teenager a gift. He gave us all a gift. FFP editor Matthew Hansen with the story.
It’s time for journalism on stage: Join us soon in Lincoln for our latest Flatwater Forum. This one is called “Nebraska’s Corrections Department at a Crossroads.” We’ve held other events diving into issues like out of state landlords in North Omaha, and the future of journalism in Nebraska. This time, we’re talking prisons.
From overcrowding to skyrocketing overtime to programming backlogs, we’ve spent a year digging into Nebraska’s prison system. Joined by officials and advocates, reporter Natalia Alamdari will moderate a discussion on the challenges facing the prisons, as well as solutions moving forward. The panel gets going at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, in Swanson Auditorium in UNL’s Nebraska Union.
New co-worker: Last but not least, please join me in welcoming our newest colleague Sara Gentzler, who will join this small but mighty team as the State Government Watchdog Reporter. Sara starts next Tuesday.
Questions wanted: As we continue to dig into how high nitrate has affected Nebraskans, we’d love to hear from you about your experience and questions you might have for us. Complete this form or reach our newsroom at [email protected].
Sincerely,
—Yanqi Xu, Reporter at FFP
Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- Nebraska Public Media’s Elizabeth Rembert and the Omaha Reader reporter Bridget Fogarty reported what Latino voters are asking for from the 2nd Congressional District candidates. Latinos are the fast growing demographic in the state and will likely help shape the race between incumbent Rep. Don Bacon and challenger Tony Vargas, a South Omaha state senator.
- Nebraska Examiner’s Paul Hammel wrote about the harrowing details of violence described by the ex-wife of a man recently pardoned by a 2-1 vote. The decision can’t be reversed. At the same hearing, they refused to commute the sentence of Earnest Jackson.
- Will Sen. Ben Sasse become president of the University of Florida and vacate his Senate seat? Will Bauer at Nebraska Public Media reported the reaction after Sasse was announced the lone candidate for the job. UF students protested. And then on Thursday, the university’s faculty senate issued a vote of no confidence. The university Board of Trustees will decide next week on the appointment.
- And finally, news that broke this morning: The lawsuits between State Sen. Julie Slama and former governor candidate Charles Herbster are no more. The Examiner’s Aaron Sanderford with that story.
