Aug 21
2014
On second thought …
Posted 11 years ago
Aug 21
2014
Aug 13
2014
About that five feet of sewer sludge in sections of Scajaquada Creek. Yeah, I know, it’s gross, but I did find someone who has walked in it. However, the details didn’t get into the main story about the badly polluted creek. Enter Frank Poincelot, a former Buffalo animal control officer. I tracked him down and here is what was cut from the final edit of the main story: Poincelot and his former colleagues were led on a wild four-day hunt for Scajaquada Jack, a four-foot caiman released into the creek in the summer of 2001. The caiman hunt garnered a ton[...]
Aug 8
2014
The toxic algae blooms in western Lake Erie that led to a shut down of the public water supply in Toledo, Ohio for a weekend have not reached the Buffalo area. That’s according to the Erie County Health Department, which this week tested a dozen spots, including four samples at two public water intakes. The health department says that microcystin, the toxin released from some algae blooms, was not detected at any of the 12 spots. Sites tested were: Sturgeon Point intakes (2), Buffalo intakes (2), Hamburg Beach, Woodlawn Beach, Evans (Lake Erie Beach, Evans Town Park, Bennett Beach, Wendt Beach), Brant[...]
Aug 7
2014
The decade-long conflict between Peabody Street residents and an adjacent construction and demolition recycling facility continues despite recent enforcement actions by state environmental regulators. The Department of Environmental Conservation on May 1 cited Battaglia Demolition, owned by Peter Battaglia, with five notice of violations. Two of the alleged violations deal with failing to control dust that the DEC say drifts off the property from his concrete crusher as well as from the 80 to 200 trucks that rumble down Peabody Street most days of the week to get to and from his facility, located a mile southeast of downtown in[...]
Aug 7
2014
Aug 6
2014
Jul 31
2014
Tonawanda Coke faces $161,100 in fines for “disturbing” violations investigators said they discovered after a Jan. 31 explosion at the plant that rattled homes and businesses up to a mile away. In total, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the plant and Kirchner LLC, which supplies temporary workers, with 17 serious violations, including two repeat ones, plus three minor infractions. Some of the alleged violations put employees at risk of falls, amputations and crushing injuries, according to the agency’s press release. OSHA defines a serious violation as “when death or serious physical harm could result from hazards[...]
Jul 31
2014