“Lithium Liabilities” is a multimedia investigation published and broadcast on Jan. 25, 2024 that reveals how the push towards a green, battery-powered future comes with a major tradeoff: increased domestic mining for lithium will require billions upon billions of gallons of water from already strained supplies. The reporting for this project was done entirely by students from the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at Arizona State University, who’s original scientific findings impressed top editors at PBS NewsHour, which debuted the report with a powerful nine-minute video narrated by student reporter Caitlin Thompson. The video opened in rural Nevada, outside America’s only current commercially active lithium mine, and uncovered government documents which showed how the mine was “exclusively” to blame for drying up groundwater in the area. Reporters scored the first ever interview with Nyle Pennington, a water scientist, who measures groundwater and documented the problem for local governments. The documentary followed Pennington to a dried up, government monitoring station and then took viewers to California’s Salton Sea – an area Gov. Gavin Newsom has dubbed “the Saudi Arabia of lithium” – where three lithium extraction projects are in development. Reporters also put together the most comprehensive digital map of coming lithium mines ever produced in America. The National Institutes of Health is using the interactive database for a forthcoming article in Environmental Health Perspectives, NIH’s journal, that will be published this summer. “It’s really a hell of a story,” NIH’s author Charles Schmidt wrote. “I’m looking globally. Your people did a nice thorough job.”
USA Today distributed a digital version of Lithium Liabilities, ensuring this important journalism reached a wide national audience through its flagship paper and more than 200 local media partners. Nearly two weeks after digital distribution, the story was still pinned to the top of USA Today’s homepage. USA Today also published “Lithium Liabilities” in its print publication on Feb. 7. The complete investigation is available on Cronkite News with additional digital stories, rich explanatory graphics about water use in mining and mining waste – and even an interactive “Mine Your Business” game, where you can try your hand at opening a new lithium mine while navigating complex environmental and regulatory challenges.
This project also puts this domestic story into international context, examining the environmental and business track record in Argentina of one lithium company also connected to major federal incentives for new lithium mining projects in the U.S.
Lastly, “Lithium Liabilities” continues the Howard Center’s commitment to reporting that affects Indigenous communities, with a sidebar story that specifically examined how Tribes are on the frontlines of the lithium mining expansion, and several sacred sites are at risk of destruction. That story was written by two Howard Center reporters from Indigenous backgrounds.
The ‘Lithium Liabilities’ story did an exceptional job highlighting a negative downstream effect of an energy solution with forward momentum. The presentation was slick, the visuals were strong and the team took into consideration how different people take in information, making the reporting accessible for all. Top of class work on a major tradeoff that needs more attention.
