TOWN OF NIAGARA — Gov. Kathy Hochul and her top environmental appointee reached out to several local homeowners over the weekend, days after she said she had no plans to meet with them in person to discuss their concerns about high levels of radioactivity on their properties.
Multiple homeowners living on Fox and Chester avenues in the town confirmed receiving calls from New York Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Amanda Lefton on Saturday.
One, Kellie Moytka, said the governor herself took part in her call with Lefton.
Moytka told WIVB News Channel 4 in Buffalo she was surprised and “caught off guard” by the phone call she received Saturday night that included Hochul, who told her she cares about the families dealing with radiological concerns in the town and would want to give them a hug if she was there.
Moytka also told WIVB she pushed the governor to consider permanent relocation for her and her husband, Mike, and other families in her neighborhood, to which she said Hochul indicated her office is deferring to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take the lead in handling the matter.
“She didn’t want this being used for any political thing, but I’m like, ‘But you’re our governor. You’re our political leader. We would like to have a face-to-face meeting with you, live-streamed so people can talk to you, we would like to be permanently relocated because who wants to come back to this,’” Motyka told WIVB.
Lexi Hawk, a Chester Avenue resident who helped form the grassroots group Save Our Backyards Niagara, was at the Erie County Fair with her 3-year-old daughter on Saturday when she missed a call from Lefton.
Hawk said she has since been in contact with Lefton, who left her cell phone number and she is still hoping to be able to talk to her, or possibly even the governor, at some point this week.
“I’m hopeful she will listen to me and about what we are experiencing,” Hawk said.
During a press event on Thursday in Chautauqua County, Hochul described requests from town homeowners for an in-person meeting with her as unnecessary, saying she did not want to politicize residents’ “cries for help.” Hochul said she is instead allowing experts from both the DEC and the EPA to guide the testing process and any remediation work that may be needed in the future.
Hawk said she hopes she hasn’t missed her opportunity to talk with Hochul and believes she should still visit her neighborhood and meet with impacted homeowners personally.
“I really hope they do the right thing and I actually get to have the conversation I’ve been asking for. I feel like she’s finally realized she can’t escape this. All we really need is her support, which is all we’ve been asking her for.”
Earlier this month, Bruce Blakeman, Hochul’s Republican challenger in this year’s gubernatorial race, joined state senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, R-North Tonawanda, in a press conference with Hawk and other members of the Save Our Backyards Niagara group.
Both Blakeman and Ortt are supporting a bill sponsored by the senator that would amend New York’s superfund law to allow properties impacted by high levels of radioactivity to be covered. The current standards do not apply in such cases.
Hochul’s office has consistently pushed back on the idea, suggesting it would take months to promulgate regulations and to hire a full team to perform Superfund-related radioactive contamination work. Representatives from the governor’s office also contend the federal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is already equipped through its own Superfund program to deal with the issues currently faced by some Town of Niagara homeowners. Hochul has insisted that once abnormalities were found on some properties related to decades-old contamination, her office immediately directed a surge of resources into the area from the DEC and the state’s incident management team to perform surveys and conduct additional work in coordination with the EPA.
“The governor understands the fears and concerns of the residents of Niagara County, which is why she has led by directing DEC and (the Department of Health) to coordinate with the federal EPA, to act aggressively and proactively to get these families the answers they deserve,” Ken Lovett, Hochul’s senior communications advisor for energy, said in a statement issued by his office on Monday. “As a result, the state and federal agencies have been working to test, survey and analyze hundreds of properties and have provided numerous outreach opportunities to keep residents updated and informed. These efforts have also led to the EPA taking the step of offering to voluntarily relocate several families out of an abundance of caution while testing is ongoing. The governor remains committed to ensuring that the state is doing everything in its power to expedite this and has reached out to homeowners in the area to reiterate that commitment directly.”
One local family has not yet heard from the governor or DEC commissioner regarding their request for relocation.
Jocelyn and Daniel McKiernan, the parents of three young children who discovered potentially hazardous materials in the yard of their 99th Street home while installing an above-ground pool in their yard, told the Gazette on Monday they did not receive any calls from DEC officials or Hochul over the weekend.
They said on Monday that they received a letter from the EPA last week, indicating that the federal agency will only get involved with their property if they receive a request for assistance from the state DEC first.