TOWN OF NIAGARA — There’s at least one bit of good news for homeowners living in a neighborhood off Witmer Road where high levels of radioactivity were found on some private properties earlier this year.
Relocation plans have now been finalized for the four homeowners living on Chester and Fox avenues whose properties have been targeted for additional testing and remediation by state and federal environmental regulators.
Fox Avenue homeowner and Save Our Backyards Niagara co-founder Lexi Hawk said Tuesday relocation for her family has been authorized. She said her three neighbors who were among the initial batch of radioactive properties have now done the same.
Hawk said she’s anticipating moving into her new temporary home in the next few weeks, adding that she’s satisfied with the accommodations made by state and federal officials who “went above and beyond” for her and her family.
While it’s a positive step forward, Hawk said she and her neighbors still have lingering concerns and are now awaiting results from soil samples taken from their properties to test for an array of chemicals.
Hawk said she originally anticipated, based on what she was told by an EPA official, that the results from the soil samples would be available this month.
Instead, as was confirmed in a press release issued on Monday evening, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office reported it could take two to three months for the testing analyses to be completed and made available.
“I’m pretty upset about having to wait that long to get those results,” Hawke said. “I was under the impression I was going to get them a lot sooner.”
In a release touting Hochul’s visit on Monday to a radiological survey command center in Niagara Falls, Hochul’s office said soil samples taken at the properties are required to undergo a mandatory 21-day stabilization/curing period in laboratories before analysis, risk assessments, and quality control can occur. Officials said the process could take two to three months per site.
Under the governor’s timeframe, test results from the soil samples wouldn’t be made available until after the Nov. 3 general election, where Hochul is facing a challenge from Republican Bruce Blakeman.
Ken Lovett, Hochul’s senior communications advisor on energy and environment, said the timeframe has been consistently cited publicly since the surveying began. He said it did not have anything to do with politics while saying Hochul has, from the start of the radiological survey work, taken a proactive approach to finding out the extent of the problem. He said she has also consistently urged the process be expedited wherever possible, with full transparency.
“She has made it clear in words and actions that her first priority is the health and safety of these communities,” Lovett said.