64 Search Results for scajaquada creek

Dec 19

2017

Vote for best Investigative Post story of 2017

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Investigative Post produced another bumper crop of hard-hitting stories in 2017. The best ones? We’ll leave that up to you readers to decide. Dan Telvock continued his relentless coverage of lead poisoning in Buffalo’s inner-city, radioactive contamination in Niagara County and pollution along Scajaquada Creek. Charlotte Keith exposed yet more wrongdoing and broken promises involving the Buffalo Billion. Daniela Porat documented abuse and other shortcomings in the Buffalo Police Department. Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney selected 10 stories for consideration as the best of 2017. They include, in no particular order: Entrepreneurs take state grants and flee WNY (43North) Buffalo[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Nov 21

2017

Sewage inundating Buffalo waterways

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Kevin Koone comes up empty at his favorite fishing hole on the Buffalo River whenever he catches a whiff of raw sewage. “When it’s real strong, the fish don’t bite. It just ruins the fishing down here,” he said in August, while fishing at Mutual Riverfront Park at the foot of Hamburg Street in South Buffalo. The source of the stench: The 255 million gallons of sewage and stormwater runoff that flow into the river upstream every year. Sewage discharges this summer that discolored the Niagara Gorge caused an outcry, but fouled waters are an even bigger problem in Buffalo.[...]

Posted 6 years ago

Oct 5

2017

The DEC’s puzzling fixation on Falls overflows

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The Niagara Falls Water Board is once again in the crosshairs of the state Department of Environmental Conversation for sewer overflows – a problem that plagues communities across the state. The Water Board reported three separate sewer overflows to the DEC on Wednesday. A total of 23.8 million gallons of untreated sewage mixed with dirty stormwater gushed into the Lower Niagara Gorge following a rainstorm. “These continued violations are wholly unacceptable,” the DEC said in a press release. Water Board officials said the rain overtaxed its sewer system, spewing raw sewage and stormwater into the river. Problem is, this happens[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Aug 31

2017

More honors for Telvock, Investigative Post

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The environmental reporting of Dan Telvock has been cited for excellence in two national journalism contests. His reporting that documented the disparity in Buffalo’s testing program for lead in drinking water won first place for interactive news by the National Association of Black Journalists. One of the chief findings of his report was that the testing did not target minority neighborhoods where the lead poisoning problem is concentrated. Instead, the city tested more often in predominantly white neighborhoods that report few, if any, lead poisoning cases. The other finalists were entries from Bloomberg News and The Chicago Reader. Winners in other[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Feb 22

2017

Five years on for Investigative Post

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Today marks a milestone for Investigative Post: We celebrate our fifth year in business. We launched with what turned out to be a prophetic story: an analysis of what was then a fledgling program known as the Buffalo Billion. I quoted experts offering advice on how to make smart use of the money and cautioning against the temptation of spending tax dollars to secure on trophy projects. I re-read the story a couple of months ago and it seems as though Gov. Andrew Cuomo has done the opposite of what the experts recommended. Investigative Post has built its reputation for[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jan 18

2017

Cuomo’s clean water proposal lacks details

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Update 11:14 a.m Jan. 18.: The governor did release some – not all – details Tuesday night about his proposal to spend $2 billion statewide on water quality and clean drinking water projects. First, the money is spread out over five years. So, that’s $400 million a year for five years. What remains unclear is how the money will be distributed. There are numerous programs this money could go to and the governor was short on those details Tuesday night. According to his capital plan, “The Executive Budget includes $2 billion to finance water quality capital projects to ensure continued access[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Jan 1

2017

Lead poisoning probe tops reader poll

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Dan Telvock’s reporting on Buffalo’s slipshod methods for testing drinking water for lead was voted by readers as Investigative Post’s top story of 2016. Looking for lead (in all the wrong places) edged out an investigation by Charlotte Keith into the awarding of a Buffalo Billion contract whose dynamics that bore a striking resemblance to the SolarCity factory deal that resulted in the filing of federal corruption charges. Between them, the two stories garnered 60 percent of the votes cast by readers. The best of the rest, according to voters, was Daniela Porat’s story about the inadequate training of Buffalo police[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Sep 30

2016

A new low point for Buffalo’s Hoyt Lake

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Most people familiar with water quality problems in Buffalo were not surprised Thursday night when city officials issued a warning that a “harmful blue-green algae bloom” surfaced in Hoyt Lake at Delaware Park. Instead, they were surprised that it took this long for one of these blooms to appear in Buffalo. “Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time until we started to see harmful algal blooms in Western New York’s waters,” said Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper Executive Director Jill Jedlicka. After all, Hoyt Lake and its neighbor Scajaquada Creek for decades have been cesspools of disease and fecal bacteria that[...]

Posted 8 years ago