TOWN OF NIAGARA — Carolyn Johnson has lived in her home on Fox Avenue for 36 years.
It’s the place where she’s helped raise her children and grandchildren, with some of her fondest family memories involving stay-at-home camping adventures enjoyed in tents pitched right in the backyard.
In May, she received a jarring notice from a pair of environmental regulatory agencies that made her start to think differently about the decades of family memories and fun times connected to her home and her property.
As part of an ongoing joint investigation into local radioactive hotspots, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency advised Johnson of their interest in conducting additional testing on her property.
“I’m in a daze,” Johnson said in an interview with the Niagara Gazette this week. “Even getting the letter a few months ago, I’m thinking, ‘OK, maybe it’s in a small spot,’ but I’m heavily concerned, worried I guess.”
The DEC and EPA are now into the third phase of what’s formally known as the Niagara and Erie County Radiological Assessment, a years-long examination of potential areas of concern in both counties that has so far involved both aerial and truck-based survey work.
The Niagara Gazette has learned that “Property Owner Access Forms” have been delivered to dozens of local households, including the Johnson family home on Fox Avenue.
A copy of the form obtained by the Niagara 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.”
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.
Johnson said on her property the process is currently “at a standstill” because she’s not comfortable with the terminology of the consent form. She said she has asked the DEC to do the testing they feel is necessary without requiring her to waive her rights first. She said she feels the wording on the form is “too vague” and is concerned signing it may prevent her from taking potentially important steps once testing is done and results have been determined.
“Residents shouldn’t have to give up any of their rights with anything pertaining to the property as far as remediation,” she said.
“I’ve been trying to get them to come back without having to sign the waiver,” she added.
Johnson, who grew up in the Love Canal area of the City of Niagara Falls, researched her home’s history using town records before she purchased the property in 1990. While she did not find what she was most worried about at the time — any records related to chemical dumping on the site or nearby — she is now concerned about a prominent local concern, industrial fill used during construction that has historically been found to contain radioactive materials.
Testing performed by a private company Johnson said, has revealed high levels of radioactivity in both the front and back yards of her home. So far, she said neither the DEC nor the EPA have been willing to share any findings from prior survey work.
“They said they couldn’t show me and they couldn’t tell me,” she said. “If I sign the waiver and they come on the property and walk around with a detector, they said I can walk with them and they will show me the results.”
The current assessment by the DEC and EPA comes decades after aerial radiological survey work was performed in the region in 1984 to assess the extent of potential use and distribution of by-products and waste containing radiological material. Included in the mix is the substance commonly referred to as “slag,” a hazardous industrial by-product resembling standard gravel that was historically sold at a low price or given away as fill material for driveways, parking lots and foundations.
The DEC and EPA launched the current assessment in 2023. The process began with an aerial survey completed in the summer of 2024. Last summer, the two agencies followed up with a roadway survey, which covered about 1,000 miles in Niagara and Erie counties.
The DEC said information obtained during the two earlier surveys was modeled with “locations of interest” on private properties identified based on radiological “variations” from adjacent areas. The agency cautioned that such variations could be the result of natural features such as glacial deposits or bedrock, man-made features, including brick buildings or granite curb stones, or radiological materials from industrial processes.
As part of the ongoing Phase Three of the investigation, the DEC and EPA have been in contact with potentially impacted property owners through mailings, phone calls and on-site outreach. As to the property owner’s access forms request for a waiver, the DEC described it as language “typically used” in such access agreements.
Data collected from private properties as part of the current investigation phase will be analyzed by the EPA, with properties deemed to be of radiological concern undergoing further evaluation, including surface scans, sampling and evaluation of data by an agency risk assessor. The DEC said the next steps will be determined once the findings have been reviewed by the state environmental regulatory agency and the New York State Department of Health.
“This project is being performed out of an abundance of caution to provide the most current and scientific information about the historical use and distribution of by-products and waste material containing radiological material,” the DEC said in a statement issued in response to questions by spokesperson T.J. Pignataro.
The Gazette’s media partner, Investigative Post, reported in 2016 that radioactive materials were prevalent in Niagara and Erie counties, with government documents showing state health and environmental officials have known for almost four decades that at least 60 properties throughout Niagara County and on Grand Island are contaminated with radioactive material that resembles gravel.
Investigative Post reported, based on its review of state and federal documents, that radioactivity at these properties ranged from three to more than 70 times what people are naturally exposed to in the local environment.
Authorities initiated cleanup work and the removal of contaminated waste on a pair of local properties, including a parking lot shared by a bowling alley and building supply store on Niagara Falls Boulevard. The EPA also examined a part of a cemetery property located off Roberts Avenue in Lewiston.