Report reporting goes sour

An Editor's Note:

An article by a freelance reporter in the March 18 Business section about the International Marine Terminal in Portland, Maine, inaccurately described the status of the facility. The article said the facility was closed. It is open and has three tenants. The story should have noted the existence of these three current leases.
The article was based on a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health assessing the status of efforts to eliminate mold contamination, which had been discovered in the summer of 2004. NIOSH inspected the facility in March 2005, and, as the story reported, found a number of serious problems outstanding.
However, the report also said the repair work at that point was only about two-thirds done, a fact that the story did not include and should have.
The story said Portland officials claim they subsequently corrected the problems detailed by NIOSH, but it nonetheless left an impression that the building remained in disrepair. Testing conducted in April 2005 by an environmental consultant hired by the city found air quality to be safe, according to documents provided by the city to the Globe after the article was published.)