Dan Telvock is Investigate Post's environmental reporter. A native of the Finger Lakes region, he was an award-winning newspaper reporter in Virginia for 13 years, including stints at The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg and The Winchester Star, before joining Investigative Post. He founded and operated The Landry Hat, a blog that covered the Dallas Cowboys, from 2005 to 2008, while also working as a reporter.
Mar 2
2016
In the past two weeks, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, and US Senator Charles Schumer have each sounded a call for action in Buffalo, where lead poisoning remains a significant problem. Whether the calls get answered on the local level is another story.
Mar 1
2016
On WBFO’s Press Pass, Investigative Post’s Dan Telvock discusses his reporting on Buffalo’s serious lead poisoning problem.
Feb 29
2016
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced over the weekend that his office is “investing” $346,825 in the Buffalo Green and Healthy Homes Initiative. This is the attorney general’s first financial commitment earmarked for lead programs in Buffalo since the initiative launched in 2009. About 40 low-income, owner-occupied homes will benefit from the attorney general’s funding. That’s in addition to the 882 homes already made lead-safe since the program’s inception. While those numbers represent a degree of progress, consider there are 85,000 housing units in Buffalo at risk for lead hazards. In other words, about 1 percent of the homes were[...]
Feb 25
2016
Sen. Chuck Schumer has told Investigative Post that the state should bring its standards for lead poisoning in line with stricter federal thresholds, which would almost certainly show the problem is worse than currently reported. Schumer’s comments add to the growing call for action in Buffalo, where elevated lead levels have been a problem for years because of the presence of lead paint in its old housing stock. Four years ago, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention lowered the threshold that requires medical care for children testing positive for lead in their blood from 10 to 5 micrograms per deciliter of[...]
Feb 22
2016
A state senator lashed out Monday at the Department of Environmental Conservation for its failure to protect residents living by a landfill in Wheatfield that was recently declared a Superfund site. In responding to a Feb. 10 story by Investigative Post, Sen. Robert Ortt questioned how the state DEC could insist for 25 years that the landfill off Nash Road did not pose a significant risk to unsuspecting adults and children who have been using the property for recreation. The senator said it made little sense when the DEC in December 2015 reversed itself by declaring the landfill a Superfund site, even[...]
Feb 17
2016
While noting the problem of lead poisoning is primarily a local responsibility, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told Investigative Post on Wednesday that the state is prepared to act “right away” to help deal with the problem. “Well, if there are children who are in homes with lead paint and the lead is friable or lead is peeling, then that should be remediated, and if it’s not being enforced by the local government then the state should, and if you tell me where they are we will have the state on it right away,” Cuomo said during a visit to Buffalo. The[...]
Feb 10
2016
Varsha Kraus and her family fled their neighborhood in Love Canal in 1981 only to learn two years ago that its toxic waste had been dug up and buried in a landfill behind their subdivision in North Tonawanda. After insisting for 25 years that the closed landfill posed no significant health threat, state officials changed their minds in December and declared it a Superfund site. But warning signs were evident all along: rusted chemical drums, battery casings stacked waist high and children getting burns from splashes of orange pond water. The Love Canal waste – enough to fill 80 dump[...]
Feb 10
2016
Dan Telvock reports on how state authorities insisted for decades that a landfill in Wheatfield that has a Love Canal legacy posed no health risk to residents, but then changed their minds in December 2015 by deeming it a Superfund site. Meanwhile, neighbors report health problems and the state is ignoring recommendations made in 1989 to minimize the hazards.