Journalist Ashli Blow has spent three years investigating Velsicol Chemical’s toxic legacy in Memphis for the Tennessee Lookout. The investigation began with a 2021 tip about Velsicol possibly stalling efforts to avoid Superfund designation, leading to years of reporting through public records requests, data analysis and interviews with residents, scientists and legal experts. Supported by the Fund, Blow’s latest story uncovered that after environmental regulators and attorneys raised concerns about mismanagement and potential fraud, Velsicol proposed transferring its defunct 83-acre site to the State of Tennessee as an environmental trust. The state environmental agency estimates that Velsicol is still responsible for $137 to $143 million in cleanup costs. Community members and environmental advocates, informed by Blow’s reporting, have voiced frustration over Velsicol’s decades-long delay in addressing contamination in the historically Black neighborhoods of Hollywood and Douglass Park.
Grantee uncovers chemical company’s ongoing effort to avoid accountability for toxic hazards in Tennessee
