A local attorney’s recent round of research on Love Canal in Niagara Falls revealed something disturbing — nearly two dozen state records containing 2,480 previously available pages had disappeared from where they were found online two months ago.
Attorney Christen Civiletto told the Niagara Gazette that a researcher she’s working with downloaded 177 documents from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on July 17. During subsequent searches conducted on Sept. 11 and Sept. 15, Civiletto said 21 documents located as part of her researcher’s original online search came back as “not found.”
The documents dated from 1982 to 1994 and included aspects of the technical record of how Love Canal was investigated and remediated, including consultants’ field studies, information on groundwater science and the quality control plan and the DEC’s own chronology.
The documents, which did not include press releases or summaries, were being sought as part of research tied to contamination concerns raised in recent weeks by Daniel and Jocelyn McKiernan, owners of a home on 99th Street near the Love Canal containment area in the LaSalle section of the city.
“I am extremely concerned that twenty-one key documents have been removed from state online repositories,” Civiletto said. “Those documents are critically important for piecing together what is happening at the McKiernans’ home and in the Love Canal neighborhood generally.”
In response to questions from the Niagara Gazette, a spokesperson for the DEC acknowledged the documents in question were recently removed from DECinfo Locator, an interactive map that provides access to state environmental documents and public data about the state.
DEC spokesperson Cecilia Walsh said her agency was reposting the documents and any other documents recently removed from the locator in their entirety.
She said they were removed after a review earlier this summer found that historic documents related to Love Canal and Cayuga Island investigations included instances where “identifying information about private properties was included.”
“The documents predate DEC’s current privacy policy to protect the release of identifiable private property information and staff determined additional review to protect private information was necessary,” she said in a statement provided in response to questions. “Upon completion of this review, it is DEC’s determination that, to prevent any ambiguity about our commitment to transparency, especially about documents that predate our current policy, the documents will be reposted without redactions.”
Walsh said the DEC is “expeditiously” completing the reposting and will provide an update once completed.
“Going forward, DEC will continue to uphold our policy of protecting the release of identifying personal information, as well as other records access laws as appropriate, but historical documents already made available online will remain in their entirety,” she said.
Civiletto said documents removed from the online repository include:
• 928 pages from a sewer and creek investigation that a private consultant performed in 1983 on the storm and sanitary sewers north, south and west of Love Canal, Black and Bergholtz creeks and the 102nd Street outfall.
• 295 pages from 1983 hydrogeologic evaluations that included groundwater study work for the Niagara River Steering Committee and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, as well as a review version and a table of well results.
• 686 pages of remedial planning and evaluation from 1982 to 1985 that included information about a draft remedial action program, evaluation of sewer and creek alternatives with risk assessment and plans for perimeter surveying and long-term monitoring.
• 198 pages from status reports and chronology addressing interim monitoring status, remedial activities and a history of the remediation by operable unit.
• 321 pages of environmental monitoring materials from 1982 related to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental monitoring at Love Canal.
• 13 pages of property records from 1984 that included a certified map and metes-and-bounds description of land taken by eminent domain for the Love Canal site containment system and
• 42 pages from a May 1987 groundwater flow study related to a U.S. Geological Survey concerning the effect of the Niagara Power Project on groundwater flow in the Lockport Dolomite.
Civiletto has been working for months with the McKiernans, who found industrial waste buried in their backyard during what they thought would be a routine above-ground swimming pool installation project earlier this summer. The couple has called on Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state and federal officials to authorize relocation from their property amid ongoing testing for potentially hazardous materials and chemicals. So far, the state has insisted conditions at the house, which is located 300 feet from the Love Canal containment site, do not pose any “immediate” threat to their family’s health or public safety.
Civiletto said she worked with an experienced researcher to find answers about the missing Love Canal papers, adding that it is not the first time she’s encountered this type of situation while attempting to locate records related to the long history of environmental concerns in and around Niagara Falls.
“I worked with an experienced data researcher to find answers about the missing papers,” Civiletto said. “Our consensus is that the documents were intentionally removed. We’ve seen this a few times this year. Documents disappear, are re-filed under unrelated projects on the other side of the state, or the appendices containing sampling or engineer notes are ‘unavailable.’ New Yorkers should be alarmed. I know I am.”