54 Search Results for air peace bridge

Nov 15

2012

DEC idling on enforcement

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Diesel fumes permeate the air near the gate to the Peace Bridge Duty Free store as nearby trucks idle in traffic and parking lots. The idling trucks are a sore spot for residents of the West Side that borders the bridge and its plaza on the American side. Diesel fumes contribute to air pollution believed to be partly responsible for health problems – including asthma rates nearly four times higher than the national average – among residents on the city’s lower West Side, according to Dr. Jamson S. Lwebuga-Mukasa, a leading researcher of air quality in the neighborhood. The World Health[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 15

2012

Transparency is the best policy

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Note: This post was written in November 2012 and has been amended to reflect a change in the presidency of Investigative Post. Dan Telvock, our environmental reporter, has a new report about the failure of the Department of Environmental Conservation to aggressively act on requests to enforce state law at the Peace Bridge that prohibits trucks from idling. It is the first in a series of stories that Dan intends to produce regarding the Peace Bridge. In many ways, covering the Peace Bridge makes perfect sense for Investigative Post, although it is not without complications, for reasons I’ll explain in[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 26

2012

The 800 pound gorilla: ultrafine particles

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Al Carlacci, the regional air pollutant control engineer for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said he doesn’t need a meter or an air quality monitor to tell him that there’s some dirty air in the West Side near the Peace Bridge, where studies have shown high levels of asthma. “The more cars you have the more ultrafine particles you have,” he said during a presentation Wednesday night at the Niagara Street Library hosted by the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York. “The problem is what’s enough? “Any health person would tell you, and I am the same way, if[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Oct 24

2012

“A distinct lack of science”

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Two University at Buffalo professors, including one who heads the city’s Environmental Management Commission, take issue with a state report that downplays the air quality concerns of residents living near the Peace Bridge. A report from Artvoice.

Posted 11 years ago

Jun 21

2012

Democracy and demagoguery

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Kevin Gaughan is challenging Sean Ryan for the 149th Assembly seat. Good. I mean this as no disrespect towards Ryan. Rather, he was essentially handed the seat last year when Sam Hoyt stepped down to head up Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic development and political operations for Western New York. There were no party primaries for the vacant seat and Ryan cruised over a weak Republican opponent in the September special election. Sorry, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Folks other than a handful of Democratic Party insiders ought to have a say in who holds elected office,[...]

Posted 12 years ago

May 27

2012

Interview: Brian Higgins

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Investigative Post editor Jim Heaney interviewed Congressman Brian Higgins about a series of issues. Higgins in the interview, which aired on WGRZ’s Daybreak Sunday: Explains his advocacy of developing the Outer Harbor into a park, but in a departure from previous comments, sounds receptive to some commercial development. “There clearly is an opportunity for mixed-use development,” he said. Maintains the construction of a new Peace Bridge plaza will help reduce exhaust that is causing respiratory health problems on the lower West Side and that a scientific study to determine the impacts, if not done already, should be conducted. “There clearly[...]

Posted 12 years ago