No answers

Angry mothers are a force to be reckoned with and they won’t be backing down until Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Chuck Schumer take their concerns about radioactive waste found in a Town of Niagara neighborhood seriously.

So far, they have received verbal and written assurances but little else. They can’t even get access to data gathered in aerial surveys conducted over the last 2 to 3 years that discovered the elevated levels of radioactivity.

About 40 residents, activists and politicians gathered Friday for a media event in Neilson Park on Pomeroy Avenue in the Town of Niagara Friday to discuss the alleged lack of appropriate concern over radioactivity levels hundreds of times higher than acceptable levels found on some properties.

Lexi Hawk and Carolyn Johnson are neighbors who received letters from the DEC asking for permission to conduct more testing and also asking them to waive the right to any and all compensation from the state and DEC over the contamination.

Attorney Christen Civiletto was adamant in her opinion.

“The law does not support that sort of tactic,” she said. “We are going to shut that down right now.”

One major difference today from when the Love Canal crisis came to light is that New Yorkers now have an environmental bill of rights.

The State Department of Environmental Conservation has called contamination survey results incomplete and has declined to release them.

The radioactive material found is said to contain the element thorium which was typically left from refinement of material used in the Manhattan project and in metallurgical work.

Slag resulting from those processes was used to level residential and commercial land prior to construction and as a base for roadbeds.

Jeff Elder, minority leader of the Niagara County Legislature and current 4th district legislator served as MC for the press conference.

A trio of Republican candidates for office, Dennis Hannon, who is running against Rep. Tim Kennedy for Congress as well as County Legislature candidates Sean Mapp (Elder’s opponent) and Tim Huether were also present.

Huether is president of the Niagara Falls Steelworkers Union and expressed concern over his union’s workers being exposed to contamination while doing work on Cayuga Island and in other places.

Elder said he was there not only as a legislator, but as a child of Love Canal.

“We have Love Canals all over Niagara Falls,” Elder said. “We need to have this addressed.”

Matt Wrobel, regional director of Schumer was also in attendance but said the Senator was busy in Washington.

Notably absent were any representative of Town of Niagara Government as well as current County Legislator Chris Robbins, who is retiring, and the two people running to replace him, Russ Petrozzi and Johnny Parks. Parks lives about 4 doors from the park.

Mark Scheer’ coverage from the Gazette this morning was not blocked by a paywall. Here is a link. https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/private-test-results-ra…