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Nov 28

2016

Telvock’s ECWA report on Shredd and Ragan

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Investigative Post reporter Dan Telvock was on the Shredd and Ragan show Monday morning to discuss his reporting on the Erie County Water Authority’s flawed testing program for lead in drinking water from the homes of its customers. The water authority responded to Investigative Post’s reporting with a campaign that included misleading statements and unsubstantiated claims. Authority officials are also refusing interview requests.

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 22

2016

Erie County Water Authority blows a gasket

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It’s been awhile since I saw a bunch of government types become as unhinged as the gang at the Erie County Water Authority. Dan Telvock reported on Nov. 7 that the authority cut corners in its program to test the drinking water it supplies to some 550,000 customers in Western New York, primarily those in Buffalo’s immediate suburbs. In a nutshell, the authority didn’t always heed a federal requirement that they test water in the houses deemed most at risk because of the presence of a lead service line or lead solder in interior plumbing, and used the houses of[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 22

2016

Water authority’s disinformation campaign

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Investigative Post’s report two weeks ago showed how the Erie County Water Authority cut corners in its sampling program for lead in drinking water. The water authority responded to our report with a campaign that included an email to customers, posts to Twitter and paid advertising on Facebook. The authority’s underlying message: The water is more pure than many brands of bottled water. Therefore, there is nothing to be concerned about. We fact checked the authority’s campaign and found numerous misleading statements and unsubstantiated claims, some of which we discuss in this report aired Tuesday with our partners at WGRZ.  “They’re trying[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 15

2016

Second Buffalo Billion deal benefits Ciminelli

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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara says the way LPCiminelli won the contract to build the SolarCity factory in Buffalo was criminal. The deal-making behind another Buffalo Billion project that LPCiminelli had previously landed, to build space for biotech company Albany Molecular Research Inc., bears some striking similarities to the way the company won the SolarCity work, Investigative Post has found. In both cases, for example, lobbyist Todd Howe worked for LPCiminelli and the state-affiliated economic development agency that managed Buffalo Billion projects and chose which companies would win contracts. Howe has pled guilty to federal corruption charges and is cooperating with[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 10

2016

Podcast: Telvock talks lead with Marc Edwards

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In the latest episode of Investigative Postcast, environmental reporter Dan Telvock talks to Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards about the risks posed by lead in drinking water, and why it’s a bigger problem than local governments want to acknowledge.   Keeping drinking water safe, Edwards said, is primarily about following existing laws: “Trying to make sure that the environmental policemen do their job.” That’s made harder by the fact that there’s a “culture of complacency” towards lead in drinking water, Edwards said. “They’re trying to defend the indefensible,” Edwards said, discussing Investigative Post’s recent story about how the Erie County Water Authority[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 9

2016

Tainted contract nets LPCiminelli $20 million

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Federal prosecutors say top executives at LPCiminelli went to great lengths to ensure they would win the lucrative contract to build a factory for SolarCity at Riverbend. Just how lucrative? State officials refuse to say how much the company is being paid. But Investigative Post has calculated, based on interviews and public records, that LPCiminelli’s fee for the project works out to between $20 million and $22 million. That’s one of the largest developer fees paid out in the region in recent years, because of the sheer size of the project, according to construction industry sources. Three LPCiminelli executives, including[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 7

2016

Water Authority cut corners in lead program

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The Erie County Water Authority is cutting corners in its testing program for lead in the drinking water supplied to most local suburbs. The authority has historically made little effort to meet a federal mandate to test homes deemed most at risk for lead contamination. In fact, Investigative Post found several examples where the authority tested houses that clearly do not meet the criteria. “If this monitoring is flawed, if this monitoring it not actually targeting the highest risk homes, then consumers may be receiving erroneous information and false assurances about how safe the water is,” said Yanna Lambrinidou, a[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Nov 1

2016

Heaney talks police training with ‘Pressroom

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Jim Heaney talks with Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom about a story published Monday by Investigative Post on the Buffalo Police Department’s failure to update its “use of force” training for officers. The interview runs from 36:53 to 49:13

Posted 8 years ago
Investigative Post