Shopify, a Canadian e-commerce company, rolled out its Meeting Cost Calculator internally Wednesday as part of ongoing efforts to encourage emptier calendars. Please consider supporting our reporting by donating to the fund at OrlandoSentinel.One tech company is escalating its war on meetings by introducing a calculator that shows employees how much it really costs to force dozens of their colleagues to huddle together for an hour instead of just sending an email. He can be reached at support our investigative reportingĬontributions to the Orlando Sentinel’s Community News Fund helped us produce this series. He has received Emmy nominations, along with recognitions from the Online News Association and Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. He can be reached at Rich Pope is the Orlando Sentinel’s videographer. He has spent more than three decades covering Central Florida with his visual reporting. He joined the newspaper in 1988 after working for Agence France-Presse news. He can be reached at Joe Burbank is the Orlando Sentinel’s senior photographer. He started at the newspaper in 1988 and has covered key Seminole stories including the death of Trayvon Martin and its aftermath, and the controversies surrounding disgraced Tax Collector Joel Greenberg. Comas is the Orlando Sentinel’s Seminole County reporter. She joined the newspaper in 2021 after previously working in public health research. He can be reached at Caroline Catherman is the Orlando Sentinel’s health reporter. He has been with the newspaper for 34 years and for most of that time has covered key issues relating to water, wildlife and land use. Kevin Spear is the Orlando Sentinel’s environmental reporter.How one family found out.ĭo you have pertinent information about the 1,4-dioxane contamination in Seminole County water you would like to share with us for our reporting? If so, please email us at the journalists who reported this series Thursday, July 22: Part 4 – 1,4-dioxane in Seminole water has been a virtual secret.Tuesday, July 18: Part 3 – 1,4-dioxane has a seemingly sinister ability to invade the Floridan Aquifer.Thursday: Part 2 – Local water utilities have struggled with how to address 1,4-dioxane, a likely carcinogen.Today: Part 1 – A toxic chemical, 1,4-dioxane, has infiltrated waters of three utilities.Toxic Secret: Our series about 1,4-dioxane in Seminole water In future parts of Toxic Secret, the Sentinel will explore the nature of 1,4-dioxane and what’s known about its health effects how it got into the Floridan Aquifer and how what may be the Orlando region’s most worrisome instance of contaminated drinking water remained a secret to residents, business owners and local officials for years. Newly drilled wells this spring detected high levels of 1,4-dioxane near Lake Mary’s fire station 37, which Sanford officials view as a smoking gun, further validating the theory that the chemical migrated from the Siemens factory.This June, Sanford’s city commission began seeking a treatment plant like Lake Mary’s, only much larger, to be paid for by state and federal agencies.Sanford officials embarked on an effort to determine the source of the 1,4-dioxane, hiring two expert firms, which determined the chemical likely had originated at the Siemens factory and traveled through the Floridan Aquifer to the city’s water supply.Senior officials at the county were unaware. ![]() Apparently, no further efforts have been taken to completely eliminate it. Seminole County’s initial response to the contamination was to adjust the flow rates of its wells to reduce the chemical’s concentration in the water supply to below the recommended limit.The plant, which went into service in 2021, had an estimated cost of nearly $40 million. After a well drilled by Lake Mary near the plant was found to be badly contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, Siemens eventually agreed to pay for an upgrade at the city’s water treatment plant to remove that chemical and other solvents.Still, infiltration of Seminole County’s water supply was only found in 2013, when the EPA required a one-time round of testing for the chemical by water utilities nationwide.And by 2010, the state knew of high 1,4-dioxane levels at the Siemens plant. In 2006, the EPA reported the chemical could travel swiftly and widely through aquifers. Warnings were missed: A factory leak of 1,4-dioxane into drinking water in Sarasota sparked concern about the chemical in Florida as long ago as 2000.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |