73° and Mist
(Editor's note: Shared here from Yahoo because it escaped the CNHI paywall.)
By Mark Scheer
Niagara Gazette
There was a period of time, decades ago now, when state and federal environmental regulators were paying attention to contamination found beneath the ground on the western end of Cayuga Island in the City of Niagara Falls.
Until the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation resumed testing in the area last fall, the attention waned for roughly two decades.
As has now been widely reported, DEC investigators returned to the island's western end in October after an engineering company hired to perform water line work on West Rivershore Drive reported encountering foul odors while taking soil borings in the right-of-way. Test results returned in December showed several contaminants exceeding the agency's screening levels for residential settings.
The DEC confirmed, in response to questions from the Niagara Gazette, that, before it started its latest sampling efforts, the last time the stage agency completed an investigation on the island was 1995, the same year it designated the island's western end as a "Class N" site.
By the agency's own definition, "Class N" sites are deemed to require "no further action" at the time of their designation. As with any such designation, the DEC cautions that the amount of information provided for Class N sites is "highly variable, not necessarily based on any DEC investigation, sometimes of unknown origin, and sometimes is many years old."
"Due to the preliminary nature of this information, significant conclusions or decisions should not be based solely upon this summary," the DEC's description for Class N sites notes.
When asked why no further testing was done on Cayuga Island between 1995 and this past October, the DEC said, as a "matter of standard practice," the agency does not further investigate sites designated as Class N.
TESTING HISTORY
The Cayuga Island page on the DEC's environmental remediation database notes that, prior to 1930, the island's western end was extended by about 250 yards into the Niagara River through the placement of fill containing industrial materials. The database also notes that from 1958 to 1962, the western end was widened again by the placement of fill and industrial material reportedly sourced from several private companies, including Carborundum, Union Carbide, Hooker Chemical Corp., Olin, and Pittsburgh Metallurgical. According to the DEC database, the site is contaminated with mercury, lead, BHCs and other organic chemicals, with most of the materials found in the subsurface soil.
Records compiled by the DEC itself or in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection show state and federal environmental regulators were alerted to the potential presence of chemical contaminants on the island's western end as far back as the late 1970s.
In a 1978 questionnaire issued amid heightened national attention over Love Canal, several companies with a history of chemical production and manufacturing in the Falls, including Olin, Hooker and Carborundum, identified Cayuga Island as a place where they sent industrial and hazardous wastes.
Following the island's placement on a federal list of hazardous waste sites, additional investigation of potential contamination took place in the early 1980s through soil borings, soil samples and the installation of wells.
In 1985, the DEC, EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey issued a joint report, confirming the presence of toxic chemicals on the island while identifying the site as "probably" having "major potential for contaminant migration" into the nearby Niagara River.
While the report concluded contaminants were present in the groundwater in "significant concentrations," regulators decided to continue monitoring the site to confirm the "extent and rate" of the potential contaminant migration. The report deemed the potential contaminant migration for the Niagara River as "indeterminable."
Following additional testing in the area in the 1990s, residents whose yards were found to have subsurface soil contamination were advised against disturbing the contaminated soil by digging or excavating. The site remediation page notes that, in a few instances, contaminants were found in surface soil and garden soil at concentrations that might pose a concern if the residents were repeatedly exposed to them.
"In these instances, the residents were advised on how they might minimize their exposures to surface or garden soils," the DEC noted.
In response to questions from the newspaper last week, the state agency acknowledged the issuance of the advisory in light of previous sampling. The agency referred all health-related questions to the New York State Department of Health.
CURRENT TESTING
The DEC is now engaged in a sampling plan involving the collection and testing of surface soil samples at up to four locations on private properties on the island. The agency's investigation will also include the collection and testing of sub-slab soil vapor and indoor air samples to determine if chemicals underground are entering the indoor air of a building through basements, crawlspaces, or slab – a process called soil vapor intrusion. Water samples will also be taken from homes with sump pumps. The DEC anticipates completion of the tests and release of the results in the spring.
Local and state officials, including Falls Mayor Robert Restaino and state Assemblyman Angelo Morinello, R-Niagara Falls, are urging residents to be patient while the testing process plays out.
"The New York State DEC is on this project, and I am sure they will do all they can to attend to what is there and have remediation of what is there," Restaino told the newspaper.
Local environmental attorney Christen Civiletto, author of "Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls," described the decades-long delayed response from state and federal environmental regulatory agencies to the Cayuga Island situation as "alarming" and "inexcusable."
"The state and federal agencies claimed they did not have enough information. But they knew enough. And what they did know was alarming," Civiletto said. "Instead of remediating or evacuating families, NYSDEC and the state of New York allowed people to either build homes or continue living in these homes. Those families had no idea that some of the most toxic substances ever invented by mankind were in the soil or groundwater below their homes. It is inexcusable. This type of wrongful conduct is repeated over and over in Niagara Falls."
Civiletto said the Cayuga Island situation follows a troubling, historical trend in the Falls where people and pets have often received secondary considerations while polluters were "given a pass."
"Even when polluters were forced to address their poisons, it took decades, and usually only after the federal and state government filed a lawsuit to force them to pay for remedial efforts," she said. "The people of Niagara Falls are still paying the price for the widespread destruction of this city by the chemical industry."
