THE MARGIN

The Margin is an award-winning non-profit publication that was housed at Counterstream from 2024-2025.

During this time we produced 12 stories over three issues that center the people and places most affected by environmental injustice in the United States.

The Margin’s stories expose the ongoing cycle of unjust actions that intentionally push the poor and people of color to the edge of society while driving our planet to the brink of collapse. Every story in The Margin combines personal narratives with data analysis and visualizations.

By pairing in-depth reporting with data, The Margin aims to immerse readers in the issues, to look back historically and see how the landscape has changed, to understand where we are now, how we got here, and where we go next.

Learn more about The Margin.

AWARDS

  • 2025 Nonprofit News Awards 
    Best Investigative Journalism, “A River of Deception”

  • 2025 Nonprofit News Awards
    Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism, “After Allen Field”

  • 2025 Nonprofit News Awards 
    Insight Award for Visual Journalism “Pursuing Higher Ground”

  • 2025 Online Journalism Award Finalist
    "Eroding Indigenous Sovereignty"

  • 2024 Shaufler Prize in Journalism (Honorable Mention)
    from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University for “Eroding Indigenous Sovereignty”

Fall/Winter 2025 Issue

Deserted at The Border

The federal government is quietly abandoning Arizona farmworker and miner communities, stripping funding from hundreds of thousands of residents facing deadly heat and dwindling water. Read the story.

Licensed to Contaminate

From city permits to state acquiescence and federal contracts, how every level of government enabled toxic detention. Read the story.

Breathing After BioLab

One woman's reflection on the 2024 BioLab chemical fire and her ongoing fight to breathe, heal, and hold industry accountable. Read the story.

Mid-Barataria’s Muddy End

Louisiana's decision to kill its cornerstone coastal restoration project leaves the state without a clear plan as it faces some of the fastest rates of sea level rise on Earth. Read the story.

Mourning Land That Leaves

Alaska Native communities grapple with ecological grief as their ancestral lands slowly vanish. Read the story.

Spring/Summer 2025 Issue

Pursuing Higher Ground

Six Months after the hurricane that changed Appalachia. Read the story.

After Allen Field

Lessons from Houston’s Mandatory Buyout Program. Read the story.

Mining The Past, Threatening The Future

Facing the brunt of the mineral rush, Tribal Nations sue the federal government. Read the story.

Saving Sinking Homes

How climate change is escalating a housing crisis in Alaska’s Native villages. Read the story.

In Toxic Detention

Examining the alleged abuse and contaminated water crises at the Northwest Detention Center. Read the story.

Summer 2024 Issue

A River of Deception

Historical documents reveal how Seattle City Light’s dams deprived the Skagit River of fish, impacting the Upper Skagit Tribe’s treaty rights for over a century. Read the story.

Mining The Past, Threatening The Future

How climate change complicates the fight for Tribal Nations to prove who they are. Read the story.