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.

Sep 29

2016

Podcast: County legislator Burke on water quality

In this week’s episode of Investigative Postcast, Dan Telvock talks water quality with Erie County Legislator Pat Burke. Burke says the region has a history of bad environmental decisions. “Before we can even fix the obvious problems that exist now, we just have to stop doing dumb things,” said Burke, who introduced legislation that recently banned in Erie County the sale of products containing microbeads. “A lot of people would debate how influential the legislature can be in general, and I think me and some others have proven that it can be, and it can make a difference,” he said.[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Sep 22

2016

Podcast: Assemblyman Ryan on lead poisoning

In this episode of Investigative Postcast, environmental reporter Dan Telvock talks to Assemblyman Sean Ryan about lead poisoning, which remains a serious problem in Buffalo. Ryan recently convened a roundtable in Rochester where experts and lawmakers discussed obstacles to eliminating childhood lead poisoning in the state. He said the group had a notable discussion about how insurance companies exclude lead paint injury coverage in homeowner’s policies, which is allowed by the Department of Insurance. “There is an exclusion saying ‘we won’t cover any damages as a result of lead poisoning,’ ” Ryan said. Ryan said he hopes to convene a similar[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Sep 20

2016

DEC: Peace Bridge air quality meets standards

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said Tuesday that its latest air monitoring program near the Peace Bridge shows the air people breathe in adjacent neighborhoods beset by high asthma rates is comparable to other similarly sized cities and high-traffic urban areas. In fact, state environmental regulators said during the community meeting at the Porter Street Library in Buffalo that some of the air toxins they measured near the Peace Bridge were similar to what one might find near Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks. Nonetheless, the DEC called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to adopt stronger emission standards for[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Sep 15

2016

State’s strategy riles Peace Bridge neighbors

The state Department of Environmental Conservation’s long-awaited air quality study at the Peace Bridge is finished, but the agency is refusing to release the report until after a community meeting next week. A chain of emails obtained by Investigative Post reveals a growing frustration among West Side residents over what they consider the DEC’s lack of transparency and the short notice given to the public about the upcoming meeting. Some residents complained that the DEC provided them less than a week’s notice of next Tuesday’s meeting. Nadejda Petrova, who lives off Prospect Avenue, had emailed DEC officials asking that the study[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Aug 22

2016

Looking for lead (in all the wrong places)

Neighborhoods on the city’s East and Lower West Sides are “ground zero” for the worst lead poisoning problems in all of Upstate New York. Lead paint is considered the culprit, but the crisis in Flint, Michigan, has raised questions about the safety of the drinking water in cities like Buffalo. The testing program used by Buffalo to determine whether drinking water is safe does not target the minority neighborhoods where the lead poisoning problem is concentrated, an analysis by Investigative Post has found. Instead, the city has focused on predominantly white neighborhoods in North and South Buffalo that report few,[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Aug 4

2016

Untested waters at two Erie County beach bars

Authorities steered swimmers away from a Southtowns beach more than 30 days last summer because of unhealthy levels of bacteria in the water. But adjacent beaches owned by two popular waterfront bars remained open to patrons because the businesses lack permits that require testing of the water and closure when fecal matter and other bacteria are detected at dangerous levels. One of the bars, Turtle Joe’s Sand Bar, appears to be in violation of the state beach code. Whether Mickey Rats Beach Club is in violation is open to interpretation. Owner Richie Alberts obtained what he maintains is a waiver[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Jul 20

2016

500 gallons of waste oil pollute Cayuga Creek

Add another blemish to the long history of environmental degradation of Cayuga Creek. An estimated 500 gallons of presumed waste oil contaminated the creek between Sunday and Monday mid-afternoon, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation. That’s equivalent to dumping a dozen normal-sized barrels of waste oil into the creek. “Cayuga Creek is an already impaired system, and this waste oil spill is one more assault to a creek that has been struggling to recover for decades,” said Jill Jedlicka, executive director of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, whose nonprofit had reported the spill to the DEC on Monday. The DEC said in a statement[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Jul 13

2016

Schumer to EPA: assess radioactive hotspots

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Wednesday called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to “move into a higher gear” and conduct a comprehensive assessment of radioactive hotspots in Niagara County and Grand Island. Schumer was responding to an Investigative Post story last week that reported the government has failed to address some 60 properties previously determined to contain elevated levels of radiation. “What I hope will happen next is the EPA will investigate, they’ll find out how many hotspots there are, what their level of radioactivity is, if they present a danger and then we’ll ask them if they do[...]

Posted 8 years ago