- AT&T wrote in a recent court filing that it “strongly disagrees” with The Wall Street Journal’s investigative series on phone companies using lead cables, saying the outlet failed to “disclose that it relies on testing funded by an advocacy organization.”
- The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) noted that it provided funding to the Marine Taxonomic Services (MTS), which collected samples for the WSJ’s report, in a July 17 press release.
- The WSJ affirmed MTS “received guidance and funding from EDF” but denied EDF paid for the testing “used in the Journal’s analysis.”
Update: The WSJ issued a correction clarifying that the Environmental Defense Fund provided $85,000 to partially fund Marine Taxonomic Services’ research for its project after the DCNF published this piece. It still did not disclose MTS’s employees’ close ties to those who brought a lawsuit against AT&T over its lead cables.
The Wall Street Journal failed to initially disclose that an environmental activist group funded its investigative series on phone companies’ use of lead cables.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a group that focuses on “climate change solutions,” provided funding to Marine Taxonomic Services (MTS), the group that collected samples for the WSJ’s series on health hazards posed by lead cables left behind by telephone companies, the EDF noted in a July 17 press release. Though the WSJ disclosed tests for its series were conducted by MTS, it did not say that EDF provided funding to MTS until July 18 — nine days after the first piece was published — when it noted in a separate story that “MTS has received guidance and funding from EDF.
The WSJ also stated in the July 18 story that EDF “didn’t pay for testing used in the Journal’s analysis.”
“The Wall Street Journal reached out to EDF to learn more about the risk of lead cables in lakes, rivers, and streams around the country,” the EDF’s press release says. “EDF agreed to provide guidance, assistance, and funding to MTS to help identify cables and conduct sampling.”
“EDF’s goal was to understand the extent to which lead-sheathed cables pose a public health risk, especially to drinking water sources, that may need to be addressed,” the release continues. “Consistent with that goal, EDF provided guidance and technical assistance to MTS and the Wall Street Journal when questions about lead arose.”
The WSJ’s reporting found soil and sediment lead levels exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) safety recommendations at over four dozen tested locations. Following the report, environmental groups including EDF called for the EPA to investigate “the release of lead by more than 2,000 lead-sheathed telecom cables into water or surface soil across the nation.”
AT&T, one of the subjects of the investigation, wrote in a court filing July 18 that it “strongly disagrees with the Journal’s reporting” because it was performed by “individuals with clear agendas and conflicts of interest” and “differs dramatically” from its own expert testing.
“The Journal’s failure to disclose that it relies on testing funded by an advocacy organization and designed to generate selectively high lead levels calls into question the integrity of the reporting,” AT&T wrote. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Watchdog Group Sounds Alarm About Top EPA Official’s Ties To Prestigious Legal Center)
EDF supported a @WSJ investigation re: old telecom cables leaching lead into soil & water across the nation. Tom Neltner explains our role in that investigation in this CNBC interview. His key message? #GetTheLeadOut https://t.co/KWgn6fEkkI
— EDF (@EnvDefenseFund) July 24, 2023
The report notes that the WSJ “selected the laboratory and paid for the analysis” to determine the lead content in the samples. In a July 9 story on how it investigated the lead cables, the WSJ said it sent samples to University of Washington professor Bruce Nelson and New York University environmental public-health professor Jack Caravanos.
The MTS divers who performed the tests, Monique Rydel Fortner and Seth Jones, are also co-founders of Below the Blue, an organization founded to “protect Lake Tahoe.” EDF said in its press release that it learned about Below the Blue’s cofounders, “who also work at Marine Taxonomic Services,” after it was contacted by the WSJ.
AT&T said in the court filing these are the “same divers that aided” the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) in its lawsuit against their company in January 2021 over the cables.
The WSJ wrote in its first story that MTS “isn’t a party to the litigation,” though it noted Jones and Fortner discovered the cables over ten years ago. The divers credit this discovery as inspiration for founding Below the Blue in a press release celebrating AT&T’s settlement with CSPA.
Reports indicate Jones also prompted the litigation. Moonshine Ink South and South Tahoe Now state he “connected with” CSPA prior to the lawsuit.
In November 2021, AT&T agreed to spend up to $1.5 million to remove the lead cables in Lake Tahoe in a settlement with CSPA, a decision it says was made “to avoid the expense of litigation.” The company wrote in its recent court filing the cables should be kept in place for further analysis, citing the letter EDF sent with Below the Blue asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate following the WSJ’s reporting.
“In the spirit of transparency and informed public health, the parties should agree to maintain these cables in place to permit further analysis by any qualified and independent interested party, including the EPA, and allow the safety of these cables to be litigated with objective scientific evidence rather than sensationalized media coverage,” AT&T wrote in the July 18 court filing. “To do otherwise would give the misimpression that these cables present a health risk, which they do not, and would destroy evidence necessary for all relevant facts to be made public in court.”
The Wall Street Journal, MTS and EDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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