Tag: Environment

Mar 9

2016

Poloncarz leads on lead while Brown dithers

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There’s been chatter about the need for someone to step up and champion the cause of reducing lead hazards in the city. I wouldn’t say Erie County Mark Poloncarz seized the leadership mantle Wednesday, but he became the first local official to advance a meaningful proposal for addressing the issue. So, considering the political landscape, he has become a giant among midgets. Poloncarz announced an initiative that has several important components: The county Health Department would hire six additional inspectors to complement the 12½ already on staff to conduct housing inspections for lead and other health violations. A nurse and[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 22

2016

Action to fence off toxic Wheatfield landfill

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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[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 10

2016

Landfill with Love Canal legacy still poses danger

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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[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 10

2016

Our Wheatfield landfill report on WBFO

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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.

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 9

2016

Unlike mayor, Council poised to act on lead

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Three Buffalo Common Council members, responding to an Investigative Post story that aired Monday on WGRZ, said Tuesday they are willing to collaborate with Erie County health officials to address the city’s serious lead problem. Council President Darius Pridgen is among those who vowed action. Passing legislation and certifying city inspectors to detect hazards inside homes were mentioned as possible steps. The response of Council members contrasts with Mayor Mayor Brown, who said Monday he was satisfied with leaving the task of lead detection to the county. Although the mayor expressed a willingness last summer to discuss how the city[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Feb 8

2016

Mayor backtracks on lead pledge

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You don’t have to go as far as Flint, Michigan, to find a serious lead poisoning problem. There’s one right here in Buffalo, one that City Hall continues to downplay. New data obtained by Investigative Post shows there’s an increase, for the first time in four years, in the number of children in Erie County who tested positive for lead in their blood. In 2015, Erie County reported 295 children who tested positive for lead in their blood. That’s a 14 percent increase from the prior year. The real problem is in Buffalo, however, where 273 children – 93 percent[...]

Posted 9 years ago

Jan 18

2016

Quick Hit: Funding for Scajaquada cleanup

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State funds to restore the badly polluted Scajaquada Creek are beginning to trickle in. Will federal funds follow? Read Dan Telvock’s “Quick Hit” in The Public.

Posted 9 years ago
Investigative Post