Tag: Environment

May 29

2018

Scajaquada project gets $600,000 boost

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Crews are in the homestretch of a seven year project to restore the stretch of Scajaquada Creek that flows through Forest Lawn Cemetery. That work got a boost Tuesday with an announcement that the state, with the support of Senator Chris Jacobs and Assembly Member Sean Ryan, has committed $600,000 to restore nearly four acres of wetlands in the cemetery adjacent to the S curves on Delaware Avenue. Work on the entire $6.8 million project is scheduled to wrap up by the end of the year, provided the final $700,000 in necessary funding is secured. The work will modestly help[...]

Posted 6 years ago

May 10

2018

Heaney talks Pegula fracking on ‘Pressroom

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Susan Arbetter of The Capitol Pressroom interviews Investigative Post Editor Jim Heaney on his recent story about the repeated regulatory violations of JKLM Energy, a hydrofracking company in Pennsylvania founded by Buffalo Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula.  

Posted 6 years ago

May 8

2018

Pegula back fracking – and violating regulations

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COUDERSPORT – Terry Pegula cashed in when he sold the bulk of his hydrofracking business in 2010 for $4.7 billion. He used a chunk of the change to buy Buffalo’s two major league teams, and made it clear when he purchased the Sabres that he was in it for the sports, not the money. “If I want to make some money, I’ll go drill another well,” he quipped at a press conference. Pegula is, in fact, drilling other wells. He started another fracking company – JKLM Energy, drawing on the first letters of his children’s names – and has been[...]

Posted 6 years ago

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 6 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 6 years ago
Investigative Post

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