Speaking during a press event in Buffalo on Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed recent concerns about radioactive contamination across Niagara and Erie counties.
On Saturday, during a meeting with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and the Hochul administration, residents of four homes in the Town of Niagara 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.
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.
On Monday, Hochul said she didn’t want history to repeat itself, referring to Love Canal.
“That’s why I’m working closely with the EPA, and we are proactively beginning survey — we began surveying and testing,” she said. “And our — my priority is very clear: do the testing, get people the answers as soon as possible, as soon as we know them, as soon as the analysis has been done. And families deserve that information, they deserve that transparency and they deserve to have confidence that their governor is on their side — their governor and their government.”
Hochul said the EPA, supported by the state DEC, has stepped up testing and accelerated the delivery of resources in potentially impacted communities.
“So since Friday, they’ve gone into every home where property owners signed a needed access agreement to allow for testing. And as a result, the EPA has offered to relocate four families thus far out of an abundance of caution. And I strongly encourage anyone who’s received one of these letters to sign the access agreement, so state and federal officials can have access to the property, which otherwise we do not have, cannot legally go on the property without this letter being signed so they can conduct the testing they need,” she said.
As reported by the Gazette, the “Property Owner Access Forms” were delivered to dozens of local households by the state DEC and EPA as part of the third phase of an ongoing investigation known as the Niagara and Erie County Radiological Assessment. A copy of the form obtained by the Gazette shows both agencies are seeking permission from recipients to enter their properties to perform “initial radiological investigation.” The notice indicates the work could include the “use of hand-held detection equipment, sample collection and photographic documentation.”
In addition, by signing the access form, affected property owners agree to waive “any and all claims” they may have “now or in the future to seek or receive reimbursement” from the DEC, the EPA or the state of New York.
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.