Times Reporter Wins 2 National Awards

Seattle Times reporter Duff Wilson has won two prestigious national awards for his reporting on how hazardous industrial wastes are used in fertilizers.

Wilson's "Fear in the Fields" series and follow-up reporting was chosen as a winner of the 1998 Goldsmith Prize in Investigative Reporting and of a National Headliner Award.

The Goldsmith Prize is awarded by Harvard University "to the journalist whose investigative reporting in a story or series of related stories best promotes more effective and ethical conduct of government, the making of public policy, or the practice of politics."

The award comes with a $25,000 cash prize, which Wilson will split with his co-winners, Michael Duffy, Michael Weisskopf and Viveka Novak of Time magazine. They were cited for their series on the abuse of campaign-finance laws.

The Times previously won the Goldsmith in 1993 for its reporting on allegations of sexual misconduct by U.S. Sen. Brock Adams.

The National Headliner Awards, presented by the Press Club of Atlantic City, N.J., are among the oldest and largest annual contests in American journalism.

"Fear in the Fields," published in July, revealed how industrial wastes were being recycled into fertilizers to be spread on crop fields, usually without farmers' knowledge. The series explained that the practice was largely unregulated.

Since publication of these stories, most of the 50 states have begun to craft new rules and regulations on the use of hazardous wastes in fertilizers.

Washington state's Legislature adopted the nation's toughest fertilizer-regulation law this month.

Free copies of Wilson's report are available from The Times' downtown and suburban offices from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. The downtown office is at Fairview Avenue North and John Street. The others are 10777 Main St., Suite 100, Bellevue; 31620 23rd Ave. S., Suite 312, Federal Way; and 1211 164th St. S.W., Suite 101, Lynnwood. To receive a copy by mail, please include $1 per copy for postage and handling and send the request to: "Fear in the Fields" reprint, Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111-0070