Skip to content
  • Science
  • Politics & Policy
  • Justice
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Today’s Climate
  • Projects
  • About Us
Inside Climate News
Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet.
Donate

Search

  • Science
  • Politics & Policy
  • Justice
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Today’s Climate
  • Projects
  • About Us
  • Newsletters

Topics

  • Activism
  • Arctic
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Law & Liability
  • Climate Treaties
  • Denial & Misinformation
  • Environment & Health
  • Extreme Weather
  • Food & Agriculture
  • Fracking
  • Nuclear
  • Pipelines
  • Regulation
  • Super-Pollutants
  • Water/Drought
  • Wildfires

Information

  • About
  • Jobs & Freelance
  • Reporting Network
  • Impact Statement
  • Contact
  • Whistleblowers
  • Memberships
  • Ways to Give
  • Fellows & Fellowships

Publications

  • E-Books
  • Documents

Fumes in South Portland

Fuzzy Math: How Do You Calculate Emissions From a Storage Tank When The Numbers Don’t Add Up?

For over a year, this Maine city has worried about toxic fumes from a tank farm. But figuring out whether they’re harming people is not an easy task.

By Sabrina Shankman

Credit: Sabrina Shankman
A group of concerned parents and their young kids listen as Protect South Portland organizers talk about how to engage in the activists’ fight for clean air. Credit: Sabrina Shankman/InsideClimate News

Parents Become Activists in the Fight over South Portland’s Petroleum Tanks

By Sabrina Shankman

They Built a Life in the Shadow of Industrial Tank Farms. Now, They’re Fighting for Answers.

By Sabrina Shankman

Mayor Claude Morgan stands near some of South Portland's petroleum tanks. Credit: Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

With Giant Oil Tanks on Its Waterfront, This City Wants to Know: What Happens When Sea Level Rises?

By Sabrina Shankman

A Portland Pipe Line tank next to the Ferry Village neighborhood in South Portland, Maine. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

'This Is Not Normal.’ New Air Monitoring Reveals Hazards in This Maine City.

By Sabrina Shankman

Andy Johnson, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Air Quality Assessment Division, speaks to South Portland residents about the air quality results. Credit: Sabrina Shankman

City's Air Testing Reveals Troubling Benzene Spikes That Officials Don’t Fully Understand

By Sabrina Shankman

Reporter Sabrina Shankman and her son, Oscar, collect their air sample. The city expects results in late August. Credit: Andrew Hodgkins

Activists Gird for a Bigger Battle Over Oil and a Port City's Tank Farms

By Sabrina Shankman

Maine DEP Air Bureau Senior Chemist Danielle Twomey trains South Portland residents Jay DeMartine, Annika Frazier and Ryan Frazier to use portable air-collection canisters. Credit: Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Fearing Toxic Fumes, an Oil Port City Takes Matters Into Its Own Hands

By Sabrina Shankman

South Portland felt like an idyllic town, one where kids can run around and be kids. Then news surfaced about the tank farms' fumes. Credit: Sabrina Shankman

Fumes from Petroleum Tanks in this City Never Seem to Go Away. What Are the Kids Breathing?

By Sabrina Shankman

Newsletters

We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free.

Keep Environmental Journalism Alive

ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going.

Donate Now
Inside Climate News
  • Science
  • Politics & Policy
  • Justice
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Whistleblowers
  • Privacy Policy
Inside Climate News uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept this policy. Learn More