Luella Kenny can relate to what Daniel and Jocelyn McKeirnan have been going through in recent weeks.
The 89-year-old retired research scientist said on Monday that she had similar issues decades ago when she was trying to convince state and federal officials that her family needed to be moved out of their home on 96th Street due to Love Canal contamination.
During a conference call with members of the local press, Kenny offered her full support for the McKiernans’ ongoing bid to compel state and federal officials to relocate them and their three children amid concerns about industrial and chemical materials found recently around and in their home on 99th Street, about 300 feet away from the Love Canal containment area in LaSalle.
“I’ve been through this and I can’t believe that no one has learned something more. I will tell you that everything you are saying today is the same thing that I experienced,” Kenny said during Monday’s call.
DEC, EPA officials: Relocation considerations driven by testing data
Kenny, who worked for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, lived in the now-notorious Love Canal neighborhood in the 1970s when hazardous waste buried in the area began coming to light. Along with Lois Gibbs and other vocal residents, she pushed for federal intervention at Love Canal and often pushed up against officials who — like those the McKiernans have encountered — were either reluctant to listen to the families’ concerns or suggesting they were wrong to be worried because there were no environmental concerns in the area.
Kenny’s story, as detailed in the book “Paradise Falls,” involved a deeply personal tragedy — the death of her youngest son, Jon Allen, who was repeatedly hospitalized before passing away at age 7 in October 1978. She continues to advocate for environmental justice and against the sort of stonewalling her family experienced.
Kenny said her son’s autopsy report showed he died due to an immune response disease brought on by chemical exposure.
She sympathized with the McKiernans whose children, including a 6-year-old son, Wyatt, who suffers from encephalitis, are dealing with various health concerns while continuing to live in a home where previous New York State Department of Environmental Conservation testing showed the presence of potentially hazardous heavy metals and chemicals described by the agency as “Love Canal constituents.”
“If you see a child standing by a curb, you are going to run and get that child out no matter what happens,” she said. “But, I mean, you don’t leave them to see if they run out in front of a car first. So this is exactly what they are doing now. Just waiting to see what could happen and I absolutely deplore that. I can’t understand this.”
A contractor performing excavation work as part of the installation of an above-ground swimming pool unearthed chunks of industrial waste on the McKiernans’ property on July 13. In the days that followed, the couple made numerous telephone calls to various agencies, including the DEC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and both the Niagara County and state health departments.
A DEC representative who visited the home performed tests and determined that the materials did not pose an immediate health threat while recommending the couple remove the dirt from their yard as soon as possible.
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.
Tests of material found in the couple’s basement sump pump 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 McKiernans have for weeks called on Gov. Kathy Hochul and other state officials to authorize their relocation while additional testing is performed and a long-term cleanup plan is created.
So far, the DEC continues to insist there’s no immediate threat to the family’s health and has taken the position that the McKiernans can stay put while testing and remediation work takes place.
Dr. David Carpenter, a professor of environmental sciences from the University at Albany, said during Monday’s call with reporters that the agency’s position may be technically correct, it is misleading considering the type of heavy metals and chemicals found on the McKiernans’ property may not pose an immediate threat but could lead to long-term ailments such as cancer if exposure takes place over the course of years.
“That means you are not going to die tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be accumulated on your body that won’t impact you later in life,” he said.
As an example, Carpenter noted lead levels at the McKiernans’ home have been shown to be 26 times higher than the U.S. standard, which is 10 times higher than the Canadian standard. He described lead as a “terrible toxin,” which can be especially impactful on children. He also noted that chromium, another material found on the McKiernans’ property, is a known carcinogen.
Like Kenny, he supports relocating the couple and their children as soon as possible.
“Of course your children are going to be playing in that soil and it’s inexcusable not to take action immediately,” he said.
The McKiernans purchased their house in 2020 as part of a first-time homebuyer’s program. Both Daniel, who was born and raised and Binghamton, and Jocelyn, who was born decades after the Love Canal evacuation, said they were unaware of the toxic legacy of the area when they bought the house. Dan said the couple purchased the property from a house “flipper” who marked “unknown” in reference to potential environmental concerns on the property in the couple’s sales agreement.
They insist state and federal officials knew about potential issues in their yard decades ago, pointing to the appendix from a 1993 DEC document that shows the agency documented the presence of mercury and black ask on the property in multiple locations and while 238 yards were listed as remediated, they said portions of the land were not. The McKiernans contend the document was “expunged” from the internet and they were only made aware of its existence following a recent request filed with the DEC under New York’s Freedom of Information Law.
“Our house is dangerous and no one will save us,” Jocelyn McKiernan said.
Christen Civiletto, a local attorney and author of the book “Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls,” was part of a team of lawyers who filed a lawsuit in 2011 on behalf of hundreds of Love Canal area residents whose test results showed the presence of chemicals similar to those now found on the McKiernans’ property. While the case was ultimately dismissed by the courts on a legal technicality, Civiletto said the McKiernans’ situation has conjured up what’s been a “recurring nightmare” for many Falls residents who have been “peddled” excuses by DEC and health department officials for decades.
Civiletto and other supporters of the McKiernans launched a telephone and email campaign on Monday, encouraging residents to contact Hochul and other officials to advocate for authorization of immediate relocation for the family.
“To me, this is a no-brainer,” Civiletto said.