Investigative Post

Editor’s note: Phil Gambini is working on a story about sewage and stormwater runoff that flows into local creeks and rivers. Municipalities are required under state law to track the volume of these pollutants, but data reported by the Buffalo Sewer Authority does not identify discharge points or, in many cases, the amount of wastewater […]

 There are 3,006 counties in the United States. Only one has had more of its residents arrested for storming Capitol Hill than Erie County. Six residents of Erie have been federally charged in connection with the Jan. 6 siege, according to data from George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. That’s one fewer than Franklin […]

Contractors are in the homestretch of clearing the West Valley Demonstration Project of buildings.  Fifty-one of 55 structures have been taken down, and the most contaminated of them all — the Main Plant Processing Building — is scheduled for demolition this fall. How hot are its five stories of reinforced concrete? A trio of activists […]

A state Supreme Court judge is preparing to decide the penalty for Peter J. Battaglia Jr., three years after his illegal concrete crushing business in South Buffalo was shut down.  Judge Deborah Chimes has ruled Battaglia could be held personally liable for the damages requested in a lawsuit filed by the New York State Attorney […]

Phil Gambini reported earlier this week about $20.3 million in settlements paid by the federal government to 59 former employees at the West Valley Demonstration Project. The workers had documented cases of cancer or other serious illnesses related to their work at the facility. Other claims are pending and many former employees apparently are unaware […]

David Pyles says he lives on painkillers and moves with the help of a cane and walker. He worked for five years at the West Valley Demonstration Project, a failed experiment to process spent nuclear fuel. “What we were doing was insane. We were dealing with so much radiation,” he told Investigative Post from his […]

A COVID-19 outbreak has infected 22 immigrants held at the ICE detention facility in Batavia and prompted the testing of all others being held there. The first positive test result was reported Feb. 11. Half of the 26 people held in that section of the facility subsequently tested positive. Testing confirmed nine more cases in […]

For years, City Hall dallied in the face of  a lead poisoning epidemic among children in Buffalo’s poorest neighborhoods. City officials have finally put in place a plan being praised as a “huge step forward.” Most importantly, ordinance updates approved by the Common Council in November give inspectors, for the first time, the right to […]