A few weeks ago, by 10 a.m., I was out in Garfield County taking photos of an oilfield waste disposal company.
I’d driven a little over two hours to see the disposal pits and visit a tiny town where residents had complained of a stench like a buried body floating into town from the disposal facility. No smell lingered in the air — the company had been shut down.
On the drive back, I had a background conversation with a source to discuss the political workings of regulatory agencies in Oklahoma. And later that afternoon, I typed up my reporting notes and began working them into what would become my story on the fumes that made residents feel sick and how Oklahoma regulators weren’t sure who had jurisdiction over enforcing rules on possible hazardous waste.
I spent several days looking through court documents, inspection records and complaint filings to understand what happened. My editor and I went through rounds of fact-checking and edits to ensure we fairly and accurately told the story.
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