The residents of four homes in the Town of Niagara are being relocated after high levels of radiation were found on their properties, according to a local environmental group.
On Saturday, during a recorded Webex meeting with EPA and the Hochul Administration, homeowners were told they would be relocated due to high levels of radioactive contamination found in their homes and yards in the town, according to Anne Rabe, a spokesperson for the group Don’t Waste New York.
The decision to move the residents, Rabe said, was based on test results from the past few weeks, including Geiger counter readings as high as 900,000 counts per second found in Lexi Hawk and Trevor Bradley’s backyard where their 3-year-old daughter plays. The testing was done by the EPA and DEC.
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Among those the group said are being relocated are Carolyn and John Johnson, who have said private testing performed in the yard of their Fox Avenue home showed radioactivity levels more than 120 times higher than federal public exposure standards and 1,200 times greater than New York state soil cleanup guidelines.
Rabe said Sunday afternoon that families were still waiting for relocation details. Rabe said all four homeowners told the agencies they need a rented house for temporary relocation that is clean and safe, allows pets and is 30 minutes from where they currently live so they can get to work.
The DEC and EPA launched the Niagara and Erie County Radiological Assessment in Niagara and Erie counties several years ago. The process started with aerial survey work in 2023 and progressed to additional surveying using truck-based equipment. In March, 120 property owners receiving requests to perform additional on-site testing were identified based on the findings of those earlier surveys, the results of which have, so far, not been made public or released to impacted property owners like Johnson and Hawk who have requested them.
Rabe said the relocation will likely affect more homeowners, citing the 120 homeowners who received letters on radiological testing.