Poisoned USA: Hastings, NE
Contaminate. Clean Up. Repeat.
This is the first investigation in a new Hunterbrook Media series on the poisoning of American communities.
For decades, polluters have sickened towns and cities across the country by releasing toxic chemicals, often with impunity. Now — with the Environmental Protection Agency captured by the same industries the EPA was meant to regulate — the crisis worsens.
Hunterbrook has built a nationwide database to expose harm to communities and ecosystems, then hold accountable those responsible.
We start today in Nebraska.
A factory in rural Hastings, Nebraska, is among the top emitters nationwide of trichloroethylene, a carcinogenic chemical. The county has among the highest rates of cancer in the country. From mechanics and a bartender, to parents and neighbors, the community is asking: Why are we so sick?
