A new, online infographic is now offering Niagara County residents something many of them have been clamoring for in recent weeks — a more comprehensive look at local hazardous waste sites, areas of contamination, impact on rivers and waterways and potential cancer risk.
The project is an extension of research conducted over the course of decades by local attorney Christen Civiletto, author of the recently released book “Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls.”
While it covers the entire county, the series of maps connected to the infographic also highlights the core of Civiletto’s work, reflecting on the impact decades of manufacturing, chemical production and waste disposal have had on the environment, health and quality of life in her hometown, the City of Niagara Falls.
“It’s the first time that all of the destruction is visible in one spot,” Civiletto said. “There’s a focus on Niagara County, but you’ve got to look at the Niagara Falls portion of Niagara County and you will see site after site after site.”
Civiletto worked with Dr. Caitlin McShane, a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder who specializes in GIS spatial analysis, predictive modeling and urban vulnerability, over a period of more than two months to complete the project.
McShane described the infographic as a “living map,” with data curation and statistical derivation still ongoing. She also said it was the “single most intensive” data finding, organization and consolidation work she’s ever done.
Researchers pulled information for the project from a variety of state and federal sources, including:
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Superfund, brownfield cleanup, environmental restoration, voluntary cleanup, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act programs;
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Priorities List, CERCLA Non-NPL sites, and RCRA Corrective Action facilities;
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Formerly Used Defense Sites and FUSRAP-LM (formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program — Long-Term Management), which include radioactive legacy sites from the Manhattan Project and Cold War era;
• New York State Cancer Registry and NYS Department of Health and
• U.S. Census Bureau census tract and block groups.
Additionally, the researchers referenced old news articles and community chat boards for any information regarding sites not listed on state DEC or federal EPA databases. Each site is plotted as a single point (its reported coordinates) and carries a recorded acreage where available.
The infographic presents five interconnected maps and statistics, with a center map focusing on a defined “Impact Zone,” which includes U.S. census tracts in Niagara Falls in the southwestern corner of the county.
The center map displays information covering 17 census tracts in the Falls, with contaminated hazardous waste sites in each tract colored by percentage of land area and with individual site locations shown as symbols, coded by designation type. The color scale runs from pale yellow (low contamination) through orange to deep red (highest).
The project’s dataset contains 262 hazardous waste sites across Niagara County, compiled by cross-referencing NYSDEC and EPA databases, resolving duplicates, and standardizing site records. The Falls Impact Zone, where more than 47,000 residents live, documents a total of 156 hazardous sites, the highest concentration of hazardous waste sites locally.
Of the 262 sites countywide, 214 have a recorded acreage. The remaining 48 sites have no acreage on file in any source database. Sites without acreage data are excluded from the calculation. As a result, the researchers who developed the map suggest the area’s “true contamination footprint” is likely larger. The project’s researchers said the data shows, in the Falls, 1 in 5 acres have “recorded acreage” containing contamination.
Cancer statistics available on the map cover the entire county and are offered in “block groups,” smaller geographic units within census tracts that typically account for between 600 and 3,000 residents. Block groups are colored to indicate whether cancer rates have been flagged by the state health department as “statistically significantly elevated” above what would be expected given the local population.
Researchers calculated cancer rates using a Standardized Incidence Ratio, which compares the number of cancer cases actually observed in a block group to the number that would be expected if that population experienced the same age-adjusted cancer rates as New York state as a whole.
Researchers said their work shows 102 of 149 block groups, or 70%, were flagged by the state health department for “statistically significantly elevated” incidences of lung cancer between 2011 and 2015, which places Niagara County at 37.5% above the statewide average. For bladder cancer, the researchers found 94 of 149 block groups, or 64%, were flagged by the state, representing an SIR that is 40% higher than the statewide average.
According to the researchers, SIR ranges among 13 block groups flagged by the state health department for mesothelioma ranged from six to 31 times above the state rate. They said the most affected block groups had a rate 48 times higher than the national rate. Of the 13 block groups, researchers said the highest geographic cluster is located in North Tonawanda, which they said points to a “distinct asbestos exposure pathway” in that area.
The infographic’s release follows heightened concerns raised in recent months about a variety of local environmental issues, including ongoing state and federal investigations into the presence of potentially harmful radioactive materials on Cayuga Island in the Falls and on private properties in the Town of Niagara as well as an ongoing Superfund cleanup effort in the Lowertown section of Lockport.
Like her book, Civiletto hopes the infographic will help raise residents’ understanding and awareness about the impact decades of manufacturing, chemical production and hazardous waste disposal has had on local communities, including the Falls where potentially harmful remnants of the city’s industrial past are still present in some neighborhoods today.
“It makes everything visible and you can’t ignore it,” Civiletto said. “This will give people what my book is doing. My book is the big picture of what’s happened in Niagara Falls and here it is now graphically.”
Released on June 30, “Thundering Waters” chronicles the role the City of Niagara Falls played as the birthplace of the commercial electro-chemical industry. It recounts the impact decades of dumping, burying and incinerating millions of tons of toxic and radioactive waste has had on city residents, neighborhoods, land and waterways. It also highlights the community’s significant and lingering health problems, which, in some cases, far exceed state and national averages.
Civiletto argues the harm is not only generational but ongoing, impacting primarily the poorest and most marginalized residents still living the Falls. She also strongly believes local, state and federal officials, including those representing environmental regulatory agencies, should be doing more to address lingering contamination issues currently impacting local homeowners, residents, families and children.
“This is the time for accountability,” she said.
Civiletto will discuss her research during a book signing scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at Hallwell’s Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Copies of her book are available online and through Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo.