Water Contamination in Lee County Reporters Roundup

By Mike Kiniry,

Julie Glenn, Rachel Iacovone, Jessica Meszaros

Published December 12, 2017 at 12:55 PM EST

Pine Island Flatwoods Preserve, Lee County

Over the past year three different local reporters have investigated three different complaints of water contamination in Lee County. WGCU's Jessica Meszaros uncovered arsenic in groundwater on Pine Island; News Press reporter Janine Zeitlin reported on contaminated well water in Charleston Park in Alva, and News Press reporter Patricia Borns reported on toxic sludge dumping in the Dunbar neighborhood in Fort Myers.

We’re joined by all three reporters to track down who is responsible, and what’s next in each of these water cases. Plus, we'll get an update from Eric Staats from the Naples Daily News about a project to reduce pollution in Naples Bay.

You can see areas currently under Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) cleanup oversight by checking their Contamination Locator Map.

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Mike Kiniry

mkiniry@wgcu.org

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Julie Glenn

(1971 - 2022)

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Rachel Iacovone

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

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Jessica Meszaros

Jessica Meszaros is a reporter and host of Morning Edition at WUSF Public Media, and former reporter and host of All Things Considered for WGCU News.

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