Daniel and Jocelyn McKiernan are still waiting for their call.
Not a call from representatives of the state Department of Environmental Conservation or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
They’ve had plenty of those in recent weeks.
The 99th Street homeowners are still hoping to hear from Gov. Kathy Hochul herself.
They’re happy to hear the governor contacted several Town of Niagara homeowners over the weekend to offer support amid concerns about high levels of radioactivity found on their properties.
The McKiernans would like the governor to offer similar assurances to them.
They also have a lot they’d like to discuss with Hochul about their situation, the medical needs of their 6-year-old son, Wyatt, and what it was like for the two of them to endure five miscarriages in three years in a house where potentially hazardous industrial waste was recently found in the backyard and where tests are being performed on liquid from a basement sump pump for “Love Canal indicator compounds.”
“Despite the exceedances that have been identified at our property, we are still here,” the McKiernans wrote in a letter sent to Hochul’s office on Tuesday. “We are still living at the home. We are still trying to raise our children in an environment that we have been told contains alarming levels of contamination.”
The McKiernans and their three children have become the main characters in what’s evolved into the “other” contamination story receiving a lot of attention, except from Hochul, in the Niagara Falls area in recent weeks.
Their story started with a pool excavation project in July and the discovery by a private contractor of dirt containing carbon rods and other industrial remnants, including one piece of metal with markings suggesting it came from Airco-Speer, a company formerly located at Packard Road and 47th Street that, decades ago, produced graphite electrodes used in electric arc furnaces to manufacture steel and chemicals.
Subsequent testing by the DEC found DDT and other contaminants, including lead levels that were 154 times higher than New York’s safe limits of 63 parts per million.
Sump pump tests revealed the presence of a wide range of heavy metals, organics related to Love Canal and other chemicals, including alpha-BHC, a byproduct of the insecticide Lindane.
The couple has now been informed by four health care providers that, due to concerns about potentially hazardous materials found on their property, they will no longer perform in-home treatment for Wyatt, who suffers from a rare chromosomal disorder and encephalitis, a serious medical condition involving inflammation of the brain. The McKiernans also recently received a letter from their son’s pediatrician supporting their position that, under the circumstances, the family requires relocation.
The McKiernans said doctors have told them Jocelyn’s miscarriages are not the result of “parent-carried chromosomal abnormality and more likely have an “environmental” cause. They’re highly alarmed by the presence of Alpha BHC, which has been tied to recurrent pregnancy loss in females.
“We are being forced to confront the reality that our home is no longer a safe place for our family to live,” the McKiernans wrote in their letter to Hochul this week. “How can a family with young children, including a medically complex, special-needs child who can no longer safely receive essential services inside the home, be expected to simply remain there while government agencies determine what should happen next? As you may know, we cannot simply go to a hotel. Our medically fragile child requires numerous accommodations to get through daily life.”
The DEC and EPA have both consistently held that none of the materials found in and around the family’s home pose an “immediate” or “acute” public health threat requiring relocation.
DEC officials said earlier this month that the agency intended to test the indoor air quality of the McKiernans’ home and perform additional testing of the couple’s sump pump and backyard.
In a letter to the McKiernans this week, the DEC noted that levels of alpha-BHC and dieldrin were detected above standard in sump pump tests, but said since the sump is not used for drinking, there is no “direct ingestion pathway.” The DEC also told the McKiernans that while the compounds could “volatilize,” or evaporate or disperse in vapor, it does not mean they would represent a source of significant air contamination.
The Department of Health has requested the DEC take additional samples of sub-slab soil vapor and indoor air for “Love Canal indicator compounds” beyond the agency’s “normal list.”
The use of multiple air sampling methods and additional lab work will result in the “logistics of planning” taking longer than normal, adding that the sampling would include analysis for Benzene hexachloride, or BHCs, and dioxins.
“The work plan for investigating your property further is still being developed by our contractor,” the DEC wrote in its latest letter to the McKiernans. “It should be submitted to DEC for review by the end of next week.”
In the meantime, the McKiernans still want Hochul to meet them, not for a press conference or photo opportunity but to come to their house, get to know their children and, hopefully, gain a better understanding of their situation.
Earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, accepted the couple’s invitation and announced his public support for the family’s relocation.
The McKiernans hope Hochul will soon follow.
“Since that meeting, Congressman Kennedy has become an advocate for our family and for the well-being and safety of our community,” the McKiernans wrote in their letter to Hochul. “He listened. He cared. And he recognized that what we are experiencing deserves attention and action.”
“This is what we are asking of you,” they added.
Ken Lovett, Senior Communications Advisor on Energy and Environment for Hochul’s office, said in a statement that, as a western New York native who grew up near Love Canal, Hochul understands the fear and concerns of the residents, which is why she has directed the DEC and health department to survey and test potentially contaminated sites and take followup action based on the results.
“These problems began decades ago, and the governor’s concerns lie first and foremost with the health and well being of the communities,” Lovett said.