Tag: Environment

Nov 21

2017

Sewage inundating Buffalo waterways

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Kevin Koone comes up empty at his favorite fishing hole on the Buffalo River whenever he catches a whiff of raw sewage. “When it’s real strong, the fish don’t bite. It just ruins the fishing down here,” he said in August, while fishing at Mutual Riverfront Park at the foot of Hamburg Street in South Buffalo. The source of the stench: The 255 million gallons of sewage and stormwater runoff that flow into the river upstream every year. Sewage discharges this summer that discolored the Niagara Gorge caused an outcry, but fouled waters are an even bigger problem in Buffalo.[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 20

2017

UB Foundation invests in fracking

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The University at Buffalo Foundation quietly invested in an offshore fund that finances fracking and oil companies, even as the university declares itself a leader on combating climate change, leaked documents reveal. The private foundation, whose assets top $1.1 billion, is technically separate from the public university and does not disclose information about specific investments – despite mounting pressure from a student-led campaign for divestment from fossil fuel companies. But, in data made public Friday through the so-called “Paradise Papers,” a massive leak of documents from an offshore law firm, the foundation is named as a shareholder in a fund[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 8

2017

Failing kids with lead poisoning

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Sherry Slaper was at wit’s end trying to help her lead poisoned daughter. She followed the orders of the Erie County Health Department by painting over the lead paint on her window sills and staircase, throwing away cheap Chinese toys that can contain traces of lead and obsessively cleaning her Kaisertown apartment. But her daughter’s lead levels did not drop. “It was a storm of emotions,” Slaper said. “You go from being angry to scared to sad.” Could it be the water, she thought? To be safe, she installed a water filter on her kitchen faucet. Then — and only[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Nov 7

2017

Testing to get the lead out

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The crisis in Flint, Mich., put a spotlight on the risks of lead in drinking water. The public water supplies in Buffalo and surrounding areas are not facing the same problems as Flint. Nonetheless, lead still poses a risk here because of our old infrastructure and housing stock. In fact, experts say there is always a risk of lead leaching into your tap water if you have a lead service line. Days after my story “Looking for lead (in all the wrong places)” in August 2016, I got calls from concerned Buffalo residents who wanted to know how they could[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 18

2017

Land owners sue over radioactive waste

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Twenty property owners in Niagara Falls, Lewiston and Grand Island have filed a lawsuit charging that three companies acted with gross recklessness by directly or indirectly disposing of radioactive wastes that they knew posed a danger to human health and the environment. The lawsuit was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on behalf of 28 plaintiffs who own or share homes, businesses and vacant land in the affected communities. Investigative Post reported in July 2016 that government documents show the federal Department of Energy and state health and environmental officials have known for[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 11

2017

Podcast: Environmentalist Bill McKibben

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For our latest Postcast, Dan Telvock interviewed Bill McKibben, an author and founder of 350.org, a grassroots climate change movement and news website. McKibben discusses a wide range of topics, including how climate change impacts the Great Lakes region and how the movement has evolved over the past decade.

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 9

2017

Schumer to EPA: finish radioactive cleanups

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U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to finish the $11 million clean up of radioactive hotspots in Niagara County. Investigative Post reported in August that the EPA abruptly left the county without finishing the work. That story caught the attention of Schumer, who was in Lewiston on Monday to urge the EPA to return to clean up the “invisible stain of radioactive waste.” “This is EPA’s job, they shouldn’t be backing away from it, they shouldn’t leave homeowners like Mr. Wade in the lurch,” Schumer said. Left in limbo are property owners in Niagara Falls[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Oct 5

2017

The DEC’s puzzling fixation on Falls overflows

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The Niagara Falls Water Board is once again in the crosshairs of the state Department of Environmental Conversation for sewer overflows – a problem that plagues communities across the state. The Water Board reported three separate sewer overflows to the DEC on Wednesday. A total of 23.8 million gallons of untreated sewage mixed with dirty stormwater gushed into the Lower Niagara Gorge following a rainstorm. “These continued violations are wholly unacceptable,” the DEC said in a press release. Water Board officials said the rain overtaxed its sewer system, spewing raw sewage and stormwater into the river. Problem is, this happens[...]

Posted 7 years ago
Investigative Post