Tag: Peace Bridge

Jan 16

2014

Distrust in the air at Peace Bridge

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State environmental officials have been mum for two months about their plans for a second round of air monitoring at the Peace Bridge after they misrepresented the flawed first round of testing. In the face of that silence, community activists and a key lawmaker who represents the neighborhood near the Peace Bridge agree that the Department of Environmental Conservation needs to take a different approach. “There’s a lot of distrust here,” said Assemblyman Sean Ryan. “We need to bridge the distrust. I think we bridge it by having more honest and open communication and less gamesmanship.” The DEC should let[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Jan 15

2014

Another call for probe of Peace Bridge project

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Tuesday’s Buffalo Common Council meeting could be an interesting one when it comes to Peace Bridge matters. That’s when Council is scheduled to vote on North District Common Council Member Joe Golombek’s resolution that calls for a federal investigation of the environmental review process undertaken by the state Department of Transportation for its proposed project at the Peace Bridge. The $28.5 million project would reconfigure roads and ramps leading to and from the Peace Bridge plaza. Perhaps more noteworthy is the review concluded the project would not improve air quality, countering claims made months earlier by proponents of the work. The[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 17

2013

Peace Bridge project won’t improve air quality

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State officials proclaimed in March that their plan to reconfigure roads leading to and from the American side of the Peace Bridge would improve air quality in adjoining neighborhoods where residents in one-third of the households suffer from asthma and other respiratory illnesses. “We are moving the traffic further away from the neighborhood where the residents are and where the people in the park are and believe just instinctively that that is going to improve air quality,” Sam Hoyt, regional president of Empire State Development and vice chairman of the Peace Bridge Authority, said when the project was announced. “The[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Dec 10

2013

Politics in the air at the Peace Bridge?

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Although there’s a lack of bulletproof evidence that political influence spoiled the Department of Environmental Conversation’s air monitoring testing at the Peace Bridge, there are anecdotal references worth mentioning. We reported last month several flaws in the Department of Environmental Conservation’s air monitoring program, one of which was the agency concluding that air quality at the Peace Bridge was no worse than anywhere else in the city. That conclusion flies in the face of an overwhelming amount of independent research. Two days after our story aired, the DEC agreed to expand the air monitoring program. The DEC, however, has yet to answer any questions since[...]

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 16

2013

Expanded air monitoring at Peace Bridge

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Responding to an Investigative Post report, state environmental officials announced Friday they will resume air quality testing near the Peace Bridge. Unlike the last round of testing, the monitoring will include the summer, when pollution levels are higher.

Posted 11 years ago

Nov 13

2013

A smell surrounding Peace Bridge air study

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State officials proclaimed a month ago that air monitoring results near the Peace Bridge showed no serious pollution problem in the adjacent neighborhood plagued by high asthma rates that studies have linked to bridge traffic. In fact, officials went so far as to declare: “the data suggest that there are no significant differences between air quality in the plaza neighborhood and in the City of Buffalo overall.” However, an Investigative Post analysis has determined that conclusion is “not scientifically valid,” in the words of Sherri Mason, associate professor of chemistry at SUNY Fredonia, one of nine experts interviewed for this[...]

Posted 12 years ago

Jul 11

2013

Air pollution linked to lung cancer, heart failure

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Air pollution can cause lung cancer and increase the risk of heart failure, according to two studies published Tuesday in The Lancet Journal. The first study found that extended exposure to particulate air pollution commonly called soot can increase the risk of lung cancer even at concentrations below European Union limits, which are stricter than U.S. limits in some instances. The research led the authors to question whether there are safe levels of air pollution. The second study found that heart failure or death was associated with increases in a number of air pollutants. These studies have some meaning locally[...]

Posted 12 years ago
Investigative Post