A tanker truck waits to be loaded with chemicals at K-Solv, a chemical distribution company nestled in a residential area in Channelview, Texas. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality repeatedly documented high levels of cancer-causing benzene downwind of the facility but has allowed the company to expand. Today K-Solv can legally release almost 20 times more volatile organic compounds — a class of chemicals that includes benzene — into the air each year than it did in 2005. Credit: Mark FelixThis story was updated August 16, 2024.Public Health Watch received two national awards this week for its series titled “Toxic Texas Air,” including a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award on Thursday from the Radio Television Digital News Association.The Online News Association on Friday also honored the investigative series with a first place in explanatory reporting for small news organizations. In the Murrow Awards, Public Health Watch won in the continuing coverage category for small digital organizations, which includes news outlets such as ProPublica, The Center for Public Integrity, KFF Health News and STAT.“Toxic Texas Air” revealed, among other things, that state environmental regulators knew about, but failed to stop, high benzene emissions in the majority-Latino community of Channelview, Texas, for two decades. The stories in 2023 exposed serial polluters and examined public health threats in the petrochemical industry.PHW journalists involved in the effort were David Leffler, Savanna Strott, Salina Arredondo, Jana Cholakovska, Jim Morris, Nazmul Ahasan and Susan White. The project involved poring over thousands of documents acquired through public records requests, more than 18 months of intensive reporting and dozens of interviews with scientists and epidemiologists. “This national [Murrow] award for continuing coverage speaks not only to the quality of our investigative work, but also to our persistence,” said Public Health Watch Executive Director Jim Morris. “It shows that we maintain close relationships with the communities we cover.”The Murrow Awards honor local and national news stories that “uphold the RTDNA Code of Ethics, demonstrate technical expertise and exemplify the importance and impact of journalism as a service to the community,” the association’s website says.The Online News Association awards, launched in 2000, “recognize major media, international and independent sites and individuals producing innovative work in digital storytelling,” the organization says. Public Health Watch’s submission letter is posted on the ONA website.“Toxic Texas Air” also won the 2023 Thomas L. Stokes Award for Best Energy and Environment Writing, announced in May by the National Press Foundation, and an Association of Health Care Journalists award for public health coverage.First published by Public Health Watch.