Dan Telvock

Dan Telvock is Investigate Post's environmental reporter. A native of the Finger Lakes region, he was an award-winning newspaper reporter in Virginia for 13 years, including stints at The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg and The Winchester Star, before joining Investigative Post. He founded and operated The Landry Hat, a blog that covered the Dallas Cowboys, from 2005 to 2008, while also working as a reporter.

Feb 20

2013

Peace Bridge duty free operators big political donors

The Florida-based owners of the duty free store on the Buffalo side of the Peace Bridge are big-time operators with more than 100 stores here and abroad. They’re also big-time donors to politicians in both the United States and Israel with contributions approaching $1.8 million, although none of the money has funneled into Western New York. Their company, Duty Free Americas, stands to potentially profit by an expansion of the Peace Bridge plaza on the Buffalo side. The expansion would likely require the duty free store to relocate, presumably into bigger, better and more profitable quarters on the Episcopal Church Home campus[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 14

2013

Health department coy on further study of Tonawanda’s high cancer rates

After several back-and-forth emails and a refusal to return phone calls, it appears the state Health Department won’t commit to conducting further studies to determine why so many people living near Tonawanda’s industrial corridor have cancer. The Health Department thus far will only commit to a public forum on Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Sheridan Parkside Community Center. At this meeting, health officials will provide an overview of its health review and answer questions. Here is the Investigative Post story about the review. The department took almost four years to conduct its review, prompted by a 2009 air[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 14

2013

Tonawanda has a polluted history

Investigative Post introduces a new feature that uses Storify, a publishing platform that enables the curation of online content, including stories, video and social media. Our first Storify post, prepared by Jeremy Izzio, our intern this semester from Fredonia State University, focuses on pollution in the Town of Tonawanda. Take a look and let us know what you think. [View the story “Tonawanda: A History of Pollution” on Storify]

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 13

2013

Pinpointing high cancer rates in Tonawanda

The state Health Department’s review of cancer rates and birth defects for the Town of Tonawanda that were released Tuesday can be a bit confusing because the author used a complicated method to come up with the elevation rates. I reported on the review Tuesday and WGRZ aired a version of the story during its 11 p.m. newscast. You can read and view the story here. Basically what the health department found was elevated cancer rates in neighborhoods surrounding the industrial corridor. The review does not make any cause-and-effect conclusions. In other words, it doesn’t place any blame on any[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 12

2013

A “cancer crisis” in Tonawanda?

Residents living near the Town of Tonawanda’s industrial corridor have higher cancer rates than others in the state and region. The state Health Department revealed the concerning data Tuesday in a health review that has been in the works for almost four years. The review also noted that two of the cancer types are associated with chemical compounds the state Department of Environmental Conservation detected in its 2009 air monitoring program of Tonawanda, which has one of the highest concentrations of industrial polluters in the state. “There are definitely health issues of concern in Tonawanda that could be related to the pollution,”[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 7

2013

Locals chime in on Peace Bridge story

Last week’s story on Investigative Post that reviewed the Public Bridge Authority’s revenue streams along with its U.S. plaza expansion plans sparked some interesting feedback from readers. The story was shared with our media partners —Artvoice and WGRZ — and here are a few of the comments from those two sites: The following comments come from reddit.com’s Buffalo page:

Posted 11 years ago

Feb 5

2013

Environmental commissioner grilled on fracking

Monday morning’s joint state legislative meeting on the environmental conservation budget turned into a question and answer session with state Department of Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens on hydrofracking. The Albany Times-Union has a good report of the meeting. One topic that caught my attention was during Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton’s peppering of Martens on the controversial natural gas drilling process. The Ithaca Democrat said 400 families in Washington County, Pa., have had water delivered to them because of contamination. She wasn’t happy about Pennsylvania’s Act 13, either. She called it “corruption,” and asked Martens what he thought about Act 13, specifically the[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jan 31

2013

Is traffic—or money—driving Peace Bridge plan?

Public Bridge Authority officials say they’re focused on expanding the Peace Bridge Plaza on the American side because it will improve traffic flow. But a look at the authority’s books reveals another possible motive: Money. While passenger vehicles account for almost 80 percent of bridge traffic, car tolls account for only 21 percent of authority revenue. Truck tolls, on the other hand, generate 48 percent of the authority’s revenues, almost $16 million a year. Duty Free stores at the base of the bridge in Buffalo and Fort Erie account for another 22 percent, or $7.2 million projected for this fiscal[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dan Telvock

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