44 Search Results for landfill

Oct 18

2022

Bills stadium to be a paler shade of green

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The Buffalo Bills’ new $1.4 billion stadium won’t be as green or sustainable as it could be. That’s because the stadium will not seek LEED certification, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a globally used accreditation program from the U.S. Green Building Council that helps builders reduce their buildings’ impact on the environment via the energy they consume and how they operate. Of the six NFL stadiums built since 2010, three are LEED certified and a fourth follows LEED guidelines. But the new Bills stadium won’t be LEED[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Oct 12

2022

NFL stadiums go green. Will Buffalo’s?

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When it rains in Seattle — which it does just about every other day — the water landing on the roof of Climate Pledge Arena is collected and used by Zambonis to make ice for the hockey team. That ice is actually smoother to skate on than municipal water used in most hockey rinks. In Atlanta, when Falcons fans buy beer or pop and recycle the can, Mercedes-Benz Stadium cashes in the aluminum and uses the money to build new houses through Habitat for Humanity. And in Minneapolis, waste generated during Vikings games is reused, recycled or composted — and[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Feb 21

2022

Celebrating a decade of muckraking

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A billionaire is pouring money — $15 million the first year of operation alone — to launch a nonprofit news organization in Baltimore.  Five foundations are putting up $20 million to start a similar venture in Houston. Me? I started Investigative Post with my credit card and an understanding wife. It was the fall of 2011. I had just taken a buyout from The Buffalo News, where I had worked for 25 years. I’d had enough. The paper was in the early stages of a downward spiral that continues to this day. I figured I had 10 years left in[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Feb 20

2022

‘Completely stupid’ burning of toxins

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A Niagara Falls waste incineration plant burned almost 13 tons of firefighting foam over a three-year period, potentially releasing into the air and water insidious toxins linked in studies to infertility, birth defects, developmental disorders, compromised immune systems and cancer.  When questioned by state officials, Covanta Niagara at first denied it. Eventually, the company admitted burning “a small amount” of the material — aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF — but claimed it didn’t know what it was burning. “That is not a small amount,” said David Bond, a Bennington College professor who fought to stop a waste incinerator doing the[...]

Posted 2 years ago

Sep 1

2021

More danger lurking in the water

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A concrete pier juts hundreds of feet into the Niagara River from the northern tip of Unity Island. It’s isolated, quiet and where Antawyn Parker likes to fish. He makes dinner with his catch about once a month, Parker told Investigative Post. But unbeknownst to him the fish are contaminated with a toxin recently linked to a slate of disorders and illnesses, including cancer and immune system concerns. According to a study by the state Department of Health, Western New Yorkers who eat local fish have “substantially elevated” levels of the toxin PFOS in their bodies. Some of the readings[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Nov 6

2019

Toxins at Niagara Falls airbase

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The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station has landed on an ignoble list. The facility ranks seventh on a list of the 100 U.S. military sites most contaminated with PFAS, or per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances. That’s according to a report issued in early October by the Environmental Working Group, based on data procured from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense. PFAS is a family of chemicals linked in animal studies to infertility, birth defects, developmental disorders and cancer. PFAS compounds have been used commercially in a wide variety of products since the 1950s. They include the[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Oct 23

2019

Questionable data center assumptions

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An alliance of environmental, community organizations and local governments support a plan to build massive data centers in two upstate towns, including Somerset in Niagara County.  Project backers contend the data centers would help the environment, provide jobs to displaced workers and replenish the tax coffers of local governments.  “It really is a win-win-win for the community, the environment and for workers,” Lisa Dix, senior New York campaign manager for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, told Investigative Post. There is reason to question those assumptions, however. The project calls for new steel structures to be built on the near-defunct coal[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Dec 11

2018

Vote for iPost story of the year

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Investigative Post continued to produce hard-hitting investigations in 2018. We’ll leave it up to you readers to decide which was the best one. Editor Jim Heaney has selected what he considers our best enterprise stories. Links are below, followed by a poll. You’re permitted to vote just once. We’ll post the results the first week of January. Buffalo Billion project falls short of mark Buffalo not enforcing its fair housing law Safety ignored in police diver drowning OTB board members receive gold-plated perks High cost of teacher health insurance Neighbors oppose landfill expansion IBM’s dysfunctional call center Pegula’s back fracking[...]

Posted 5 years ago