Apr 4
2014
Wheatfield residents are concerned about Quasar’s proposal for a 5-million-gallon sludge storage tank at its Liberty Drive plant. The sludge is used as farm fertilizer and to produce methane for electricity. The tank would be close to a creek that connects to the Niagara River. A report from WGRZ.
Apr 4
2014
Not everyone is against Peter Battaglia’s effort to expand his construction and demolition processing business in the Seneca Babcock neighborhood southeast of downtown. His advocates, however, all have skin in the game—from his children to companies that dump at his facility. I wasn’t kidding when I said I pored through hundreds of state and city documents for Thursday’s story about a decade-long battle between Battaglia and residents who live near his business. Now is a good time to share some of the specific documents. So stay tuned because I will post more documents and videos throughout the coming week. For example,[...]
Apr 4
2014
Apr 3
2014
The Weaver family and their neighbors on Peabody Street may be the only people in Buffalo who don’t look forward to warm weather. That’s when concrete crushing kicks into full gear at Battaglia Demolition, a construction and demolition processing facility that abuts their homes in the gritty Seneca Babcock neighborhood about a mile southeast of downtown. “I can’t open my windows because of all the dust from the rock crushing,” Jan Weaver wrote to the state Department of Environmental Conservation last fall. Between 80 to 200 diesel trucks a day rumble down Peabody Street loaded with concrete, scrap metal and[...]
Apr 1
2014
Tom Toles was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist when he left Buffalo nearly 12 yeas ago to succeed the legendary Herblock at The Washington Post. Then a funny thing happened: He picked up the drum sticks and became a drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Two of them, eventually. His one band, “Suspicious Package,” plays mostly covers. “Lethal Bark” plays all originals. He also is developing a musical comedy with a creative team based in New York City. Toles, who still has his “day job” at The Post, has played in Washington D.C., the past seven years, but never in his hometown,[...]
Apr 1
2014
Mar 28
2014
Many of us complained about this winter’s freezing cold. But we survived. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for a lot of birds. Thousands of ducks along the shores of Lake Erie and Niagara River died from starvation due to the brutal winter this year, the state Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed today. The widespread ice cover prevented the fowl from eating food in the water. State wildlife experts called the number of deaths “unprecedented.” DEC tests did not reveal any infectious diseases in the waterfowl, the agency said. Eastern Lake Erie and the Niagara River are habitats for 150,000 to[...]
Mar 27
2014
Ever wonder how fast invasive species can spread throughout the Great Lakes? Look no further. The Nature Conservancy developed a series of time lapse maps that show the shocking, rapid spread of the different types of invasive species. Zebra and quagga mussels, round goby and sea lamprey are the chief invaders in Western New York. “A 2012 report by Anderson Economic Group commissioned by The Nature Conservancy revealed that it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to control aquatic invasive species,” The Nature Conservancy states on its website. “Industries like sport and commercial fishing, water treatment, power generation and tourism are all affected by[...]