Tag: Environment

Apr 7

2018

Pegula abandons controversial fracking project

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A hydrofracking company owned by Terry Pegula walked away Friday from a controversial project in Coudersport, PA, that has generated a lot of community opposition. A company called Epiphany Water Solutions has proposed building a plant to treat fracking wastewater, a portion of which would be released into the Allegheny River. Pegula’s fracking company, JKLM Energy, was going to be a major customer of the treatment plant. Pegula owns the Buffalo Sabres and Bills. Opponents argued that the plant’s treatment process is not proven and that the project ran the risk of releasing effluent into the Allegheny with unacceptably high[...]

Posted 4 years ago

Apr 5

2018

Neighbors contest bid to expand Niagara landfill

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A hazardous waste facility in the Town of Porter with a history of spills and regulatory violations is seeking state permission to construct a new landfill, which one nearby resident has decried as “insanity.” CWM Chemical Services is one of only a handful of hazardous waste facilities in the Rust Belt. Before CWM ran out of space in 2015, it accepted toxic materials such as PCBs, lead and asbestos, from industrial plants, brownfields and Superfund sites across the United States and Canada. The company has tried for over a decade to obtain a permit to construct another landfill on their[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 2

2018

Judge shutters a neighborhood nuisance

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A State Supreme Court judge has at least temporarily shut down Battaglia Demolition, long a plague on the Seneca Babcock neighborhood. The plant, located about one mile south of downtown, crushes and otherwise processes concrete, bricks, asphalt and other construction and demolition debris. Residents have long complained that the plant and trucks that service it are the source of dust, noise – even rats. Two years ago the state filed suit against the plant owner, Peter Battaglia, contending the facility was a “public nuisance” and lacked necessary permits. On Monday, Judge Deborah Chimes issued an injunction that ordered the plant closed until[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Mar 30

2018

UB students rally to demand divestment

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Dozens of University at Buffalo students rallied Thursday, calling for the university’s foundation to divest from fossil fuels. UB has positioned itself as a leader on green initiatives, even as the private and technically separate UB foundation has invested in funds that back fracking companies, according to documents leaked as part of the Paradise Papers, Investigative Post reported last year.  The Fossil Free UB campaign, which organized the protest, has earned support from the representative bodies for both both the faculty and professional staff, as well as student government. In response to the divestment campaign, the foundation has said it is “actively looking”[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 28

2018

Landfill expansion faces community opposition

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 CWM Chemical Services, the only commercial hazardous waste landfill in the northeast, wants to expand its operations in the Niagara County Town of Porter.  The new landfill would be large enough to fill 1,200 Olympic sized pools with toxic materials contaminated with PCBs, lead and asbestos and other hazardous waste. If a state panel approves the application, as many as 220 trucks a day would rumble past homes and the Lewiston-Porter Schools for up to three more decades. The application process is moving forward despite public dissent and CWM’s history of spills and environmental violations, an Investigative Post analysis of state and[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Feb 2

2018

Scajaquada among state’s unhealthiest creeks

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 The state Department of Environmental Conservation’s National Heritage Program released new data that shows Scajaquada Creek is part of a series of connecting streams and rivers that ranks 11th unhealthiest in the state. The designation might help bring additional funding for clean up. Both Cheektowaga and the Buffalo Sewer Authority will spend in total more than $140 million to upgrade sewer systems that pollute the creek. The sewer systems in these two localities spew a half-billion gallons of sewage into Scajaquada Creek each year. For Cheektowaga, it will take about a decade to complete the sewer repairs and a few[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jan 30

2018

Telvock discusses Wheatfield landfill on WBFO

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Investigative Post’s environmental reporter Dan Telvock joins Press Pass this week to discuss the latest developments in the state’s investigation of  a toxic landfill in Wheatfield.    

Posted 5 years ago

Jan 22

2018

State: Toxins in Wheatfield landfill contained

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 State environmental regulators concluded Monday that tests show a landfill in Wheatfield that once held Love Canal waste is not contaminating neighboring properties. The findings run counter to claims made by plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the Town of Wheatfield, which owns the landfill, and seven companies believed to have dumped there. The state Department of Environmental Conservation declared the landfill a Superfund site three years ago after the removal of  80 dump-truck loads of Love Canal waste buried there in 1968. The DEC had said the landfill remained contaminated from other dumping that occurred from 1955 to[...]

Posted 5 years ago