Much has been made in recent weeks about elevated levels of radiation found on private properties and inside homes of residents living in one neighborhood in the Town of Niagara.
During a public meeting organized by a grassroots group of those town homeowners on Monday, local attorney and author Christen Civiletto described how deeply concerning it has been for residents on Chester and Fox avenues to have to leave their homes amid concerns about their health.
She also said it’s hardly the only environmental issue involving threats to public health facing the Niagara Falls area these days.
Radiological survey requests arrive in Niagara Falls neighborhood
The author of the book “Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara” told dozens of residents who gathered for the meeting at the Wyndham Garden hotel in downtown Niagara Falls that there are multiple areas of environmental concern currently percolating in the area today.
Her short list included testing tied to substances found at the Griffon Park boat ramp, a state review of contaminants found on the western end of Cayuga Island and steps taken to reduce pollutants linked to bladder cancer from being released at the Goodyear plant off 56th Street.
Without going into detail, she also referenced what she described as a relatively new concern that she said involves homeowners living in a neighborhood near the Love Canal landfill in LaSalle.
Add it all up, and Civiletto said she believes Falls area residents and homeowners impacted by the community’s high levels of toxicity may be entitled to “reparations,” a term used to cover official actions, such as public apologies and financial compensation, given by governments or groups as a way to address past wrongdoings or systemic harms.
“We have multi-billion-dollar companies who have earned their millions on the backs of the people of Niagara Falls,” Civiletto said. “They left town, most of them, but they left their mess behind.”
Monday’s meeting, organized by the group Save Our Backyards Niagara, offered residents from the town and the Falls the opportunity to express their concerns and offer ideas for follow-up actions. It followed a much more contentious meeting organized last week by representatives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the two agencies leading an ongoing investigation into radioactive hot spots in both Niagara and Erie counties.
In addition to Civiletto, the meeting featured Diane D’Arrigo, a representative from the national, non-profit organization Nuclear Information & Resource Service, and the four Town of Niagara homeowners — Lexi Hawk, Carolyn Johnson, Jackie Linkowski and Kelly Motyka — who were relocated last month amid high levels of radiation being detected on their properties and in their homes.
The homeowners’ group is strongly encouraging state officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, to declare their neighborhood in the Town of Niagara a state superfund site, which they say will help accelerate the relocation and cleanup process for residents.
Speakers also stressed the need for those in attendance to work together to continue pushing environmental regulators and public officials for full transparency where testing and test results are concerned.
“They want to reduce panic, but you as a homeowner deserve the truth,” Linkowski said, referring to representatives from the DEC and the EPA.
Town of Lewiston resident Anita Muzzi called on residents in the audience to do what she’s been doing in recent days — calling each of her elected local, state and federal officials and asking them to get involved and start taking real action on behalf of their constituents. She said she found some of her conversations with aides to her representatives “sickening.” She described the lack of response from her elected officials themselves as “deafening.”
“I told every one of them, look up the name John LaFalce, that’s what you should be doing right now,” Muzzi said, referring to the former congressman who was known for his work fighting for residents during the Love Canal era.
Several representatives from the two lead environmental agencies attended Monday’s session. Following the meeting, Stephen McBay, a public information officer for the EPA from New York City, said he appreciated the opportunity to attend the meeting and listen to the homeowners’ concerns.
“It was useful, very helpful,” he said.
As to Civiletto’s reference to potential “reparations” for aggrieved area residents and homeowners, McBay said he didn’t know anything about it, adding that agency officials were there, specifically, in a “listening capacity.”
“I think that was the benefit of us being here in the first place, was to be able to hear comments like that so we could take them back to people in the rooms and let them know what the expectations are and what people are talking about. That was the whole purpose,” McBay said.
Monday’s meeting followed the issuance of another round of property access forms delivered by the DEC and EPA to local homeowners, this time dozens living in a neighborhood off Hyde Park Boulevard near Hyde Park and the city golf course. As they did in the Town of Niagara previously, the agencies are now looking to gain access to private properties on Jerauld Avenue, 32nd and 35th streets and other areas of the Hyde Park neighborhood to perform additional, on-site radiological testing.
McBay said the latest round of letters is all part of the ongoing radiological assessment process.
“This is what we’ve been doing: sending out these access agreements and wanting to cast a wide net so we can start getting into these initial screenings,” he said.