May
17

City Hall progress on recycling

Two recent developments appear to signal that Buffalo officials are getting more serious about recycling after a series of reports by Investigative Post documenting serious shortcomings in the city’s efforts. One is a symbolic measure: The Buffalo Common Council on Tuesday passed a resolution calling on the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority to gets its recycling [...]

May
16

New York’s energy-related CO2 emissions lowest per capita

Whether levels of carbon dioxide did or did not reach the grim milestone of 400 parts per million at a Hawaiian observatory this month doesn’t take away from the fact that we are still very dependent on fossil fuels. Rising above the mark is inevitable. A host of scientific studies show there could be catastrophic [...]

May
14

Buffalo finally hires recycling coordinator

Buffalo has its first recycling coordinator in four years. Commissioner of Public Works Steven Stepniak has selected Susan Attridge for the job that has been vacant since 2009. Attridge was hired May 2 at an annual salary of $54,500. She lives in Hamburg and will have to move to the city as a requirement for all Civil [...]

Apr
30

Shining light on sewer overflows

Update: The DEC released a statement today that sewage discharges will be reported on its website. You can visit the page here. “DEC is developing regulations for a second part of the law that requires publicly owned treatment works and publicly owned sewer systems to notify the public directly of discharges.  DEC plans to release the draft [...]

Apr
18

NY’s toxic disposal of mercury thermostats

New York has a dismal record when it comes to collecting thermostats that contain mercury and legislation that might help hasn’t passed both chambers for years. The result is that these toxic thermostats end up in landfills and leach into land and water—nearly a ton of mercury annually in New York alone.  Keeping mercury out [...]

Apr
11

Buffalo School Board president: ‘We have to do something to fix it’

Mary Ruth Kapsiak responds to questions from Dan Telvock of Investigative Post about the district’s failure to comply with state regulations regarding health and physical education.

Apr
10

Schools fail on health and physical education

If Buffalo Board of Education members want to pinpoint two reasons why almost half of city schools are failing they can look at the district’s physical and health education programs. The problem is they’ve been turning a blind eye. The youngest students aren’t getting enough exercise and about 45 percent of Buffalo’s seventh graders are [...]

Apr
09

Vehicle pollution linked to some childhood cancers

UCLA research found a possible link in California between high exposure to vehicle emission pollution and three rare types of childhood cancers.