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 18

2012

Long draws laughter on hydrofracking comments

U.S. Senate hopeful Wendy Long didn’t shy away from her strong support of hydrofracking during Wednesday night’s debate hosted by YNN at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. In fact, she was quite bold about her opinions. The hydrofracking portion of the debate begins at about the 50:30 mark of the video on YNN’s website. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said drilling for natural gas presents a significant economic opportunity and can be a potential clean source of energy. However, she wants more study of the chemical concentrations used in hydrofracking and what, if any, health impacts they have. The senator said there[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 18

2012

Man O’ Trouble

The snail’s pace construction of a linear park up the spine of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is a standing joke between the owner and patrons of Ulrich’s Tavern on Ellicott Street. “We have an over and under if it would get done before the 2016 Olympics,” said owner Jim Daley, whose tavern provides a front-row seat to the construction. It’s a simple enough project: The federal government earmarked $5.1 million of the $6.4 million project to landscape, resurface and otherwise improve about a half-mile stretch of Ellicott Street street through the medical campus. The idea was to improve traffic[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 16

2012

Protecting the Great Lakes becomes university project

The University at Buffalo announced yesterday that it is teaming up with 20 other universities to create a series of white papers on policy and research priorities to protect the Great Lakes basin. The team will address how the watershed can be better managed and what the environmental, social, economic and political impacts would be if those management plans were put into effect, according to a release from UB. Kathryn Friedman, director of cross-border and international research and research professor of law and policy at the UB Regional Institute in the UB School of Architecture and Planning, is the U.S. lead[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 15

2012

EPA reports fire is out at Hillcrest Industries

The EPA reports there are no detectable levels of volatile organic compounds near Hillcrest Industries in Attica, where a huge pile of unprocessed recyclable glass and plastic caught fire. The fire was officially extinguished Sunday, according to an EPA press release. Now, the EPA is reducing the size of the 40-foot, 50,000-ton pile into more manageable piles. The EPA will monitor the temperature of the pile until the material is either used or removed from the property. The fire was discovered in May after residents started reporting an odor coming from the property. The state Department of Environmental Conservation and the EPA have been working[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 11

2012

Godzilla of invasive species strikes local creek

Local biologists said yesterday that one of the most invasive aquatic plants in North America has spread over portions of a 13.5-mile stretch of Tonawanda Creek, which could pose serious problems for native plants, animals and recreation. U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Michael Goehle first discovered the Hydrilla plant on Sept. 7 in North Tonawanda by the boat ramp on Sweeney Street. Since then, Goehle’s coworker, biologist Denise Clay, has been working with six other agencies to inspect 46 miles of waterways, including the Niagara River, to see how far the Hydrilla has spread. Hydrilla, a native plant of Southeast Asia, grows[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 10

2012

4 billion gallons of sewage goes where?

Buffalo is one of the few Great Lakes cities that doesn’t have an EPA-approved long-term control plan that takes advantage of green technologies for its wastewater. And mayors across the nation—minus Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown and a bunch of others—were in the nation’s capital last week to discuss how the federal regulations will cost municipalities billions to improve their wastewater treatment systems. Mike DeGeorge, the mayor’s spokesman, did not return messages seeking comment. Buffalo Sewer Authority dumps 4 billion gallons of untreated wastewater into local waterways each year, typically after heavy rainstorms overburden the system. Yes, that’s 4 BILLION GALLONS. According to EPA Regional Administrator[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 4

2012

Theater District station removal concerns transit group

One of Mayor Byron Brown’s top goals is to return vehicular traffic to downtown’s Main Street, but his plan for the newest phase that will remove the Theater District Station is drawing flak from the Citizens for Regional Transit. The Cars Sharing Main Street program violates its own mission of increasing transit ridership by eliminating the station, said Citizens for Regional Transit President Gladys Gifford. The average weekday ridership of the station is about 2,100. “How are you increasing transit ridership when you remove a station?” Gifford said this week. Gifford said the elimination of a station on the light rail line “constitutes[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Oct 1

2012

Hillcrest fire could take week to extinguish

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the lead in responding to a fire at Hillcrest Industries in Attica and the agency reports progress is being made in extinguishing the fire and controlling the odors that led neighbors to complain for several months. The source of the fire is a 40-foot, 50,000-ton pile of plastic, glass and other materials. The pile, which has been smoldering and steaming since May, is 1-acre in circumference, said EPA spokesman Mike Basile today. The company uses the glass to make road-stripping beads, Basile said. “The number one priority for the EPA is to put this fire out,”[...]

Posted 12 years ago