Dan Telvock

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.

Oct 9

2014

Unfinished business for Buffalo’s Outer Harbor

Buffalo, which has suffered over the years from a series of planning mistakes, is nearing a decision on how to develop its Outer Harbor even though the state agency managing the project hasn’t completed its homework on key legal, financial and environmental issues. These unresolved issues, particularly whether to build five-story condos, shops and restaurants near the environmentally sensitive Times Beach Nature Preserve, are at the core of a dispute that boiled over last week. Rep. Brian Higgins and Assembly Member Sean Ryan went public last Friday in their opposition to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation’s development plan for[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Oct 6

2014

Higgins, Gioia split on Outer Harbor

Two prominent politicians have endorsed a nonprofit environmental group’s Outer Harbor development plan that significantly scales back the residential and commercial footprint proposed in the state’s version last month. Congressman Brian Higgins and Assemblyman Sean Ryan both said at a press conference Friday at Gallagher Beach that the state’s proposal does not have broad public support. “The current plan put forth by the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation would not create an Outer Harbor that Buffalo and Western New York had been longing for,” Ryan said. As a result, they both backed Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper’s plan that focuses the residential[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Oct 1

2014

Schumer calls for end to Buffalo’s dust bowl

Federal, state and local authorities are intensifying their efforts to force an embattled construction and demolition debris plant in South Buffalo to clean up its operation. Senator Chuck Schumer visited the Seneca Babcock neighborhood Wednesday to urge the Environmental Protection Agency to send a message to Battaglia Demolition that “we will not stand by and allow this company to pollute our community without any consequences whatsoever.” The business, owned by Peter Battaglia, has been the target of neighborhood complaints about the dust, truck traffic spewing diesel fumes and health problems for a decade. Schumer called on the EPA to require[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Sep 25

2014

EPA’s new Great Lakes plan helps Buffalo River

By 2019, enough toxic pollutants should be removed from the Buffalo River to thrust its rebound toward a level of health that would allow people to once again safely eat the fish and possibly even enjoy a swim. That’s one of the chief goals of the Environmental Protection Agency’s second phase of its Great Lakes restoration initiative. But Jill Jedlicka, the executive director of the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, cautioned that there won’t be instant gratification for fishermen and swimmers. “It doesn’t mean that by 2019 that you will be able to eat the fish or swim in the water,” said Jedlicka, whose nonprofit group[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Sep 4

2014

Progress on Scajaquada Creek pollution

After years of inaction, local and state officials are acting to stem the flow of sewage overflows into the badly polluted Scajaquada Creek. Following a series of stories by Investigative Post last month that aired on WGRZ and published in Artvoice: The Buffalo Sewer Authority, which treats Cheektowaga’s sewage, proposed several options to reduce the flow of untreated sewage into the creek after heavy and moderate rains. The most promising option could cut the volume of overflows by about half, according to town Supervisor Mary Holtz. Town of Cheektowaga has retained an engineering firm to develop a new blueprint to[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Aug 13

2014

Scajaquada Jack revisited

About that five feet of sewer sludge in sections of Scajaquada Creek. Yeah, I know, it’s gross, but I did find someone who has walked in it. However, the details didn’t get into the main story about the badly polluted creek. Enter Frank Poincelot, a former Buffalo animal control officer. I tracked him down and here is what was cut from the final edit of the main story: Poincelot and his former colleagues were led on a wild four-day hunt for Scajaquada Jack, a four-foot caiman released into the creek in the summer of 2001. The caiman hunt garnered a ton[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Aug 8

2014

Toxic algae blooms not in eastern Lake Erie

The toxic algae blooms in western Lake Erie that led to a shut down of the public water supply in Toledo, Ohio for a weekend have not reached the Buffalo area. That’s according to the Erie County Health Department, which this week tested a dozen spots, including four samples at two public water intakes. The health department says that microcystin, the toxin released from some algae blooms, was not detected at any of the 12 spots. Sites tested were: Sturgeon Point intakes (2), Buffalo intakes (2), Hamburg Beach, Woodlawn Beach, Evans (Lake Erie Beach, Evans Town Park, Bennett Beach, Wendt Beach), Brant[...]

Posted 10 years ago

Aug 7

2014

DEC’s dustup with Battaglia Demolition

The decade-long conflict between Peabody Street residents and an adjacent construction and demolition recycling facility continues despite recent enforcement actions by state environmental regulators. The Department of Environmental Conservation on May 1 cited Battaglia Demolition, owned by Peter Battaglia, with five notice of violations. Two of the alleged violations deal with failing to control dust that the DEC say drifts off the property from his concrete crusher as well as from the 80 to 200 trucks that rumble down Peabody Street most days of the week to get to and from his facility, located a mile southeast of downtown in[...]

Posted 10 years ago