EPA targets TAM

Editor’s note: Tracey Palmeri died of breast cancer a few years ago. Her disease was likely caused by radioactive sand used as fill under her Town of Lewiston home. Her husband sued but found no success because the shadowy entity known as TAM ceramics, which has been staining the community and providing good jobs for more than a century, has changed owners and names and by the time the paper trail was unraveled the statute of limitations had expired. WIVB’s Dan Telvock explains in a story that the federal Environmental Protection Agency believes it has identified the responsible party and brought suit. The EPA is seeking to recover $8 million in cleanup costs.

By Dan Telvock

WIVB

EPA says evidence points to Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Co., also known as TAM, as the source of the contamination. NLI Holdings is the corporate successor of TAM. The lawsuit seeks to recoup millions of dollars in cleanup costs.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — For at least six years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has searched for the company responsible for radioactive waste found at two residential properties in the Town of Lewiston.

That search might finally be over.

On Thursday, the EPA filed a federal lawsuit against NLI Holdings, the parent company of National Lead and Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Co., known as TAM.

The companies in some form have operated in Niagara Falls for more than a century.

The EPA is seeking to recover clean-up costs, which includes $8 million spent remediating the two properties on Upper Mountain Road. One homeowner was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018, and her doctors later suggested the disease could have been caused by exposure to the radioactive waste.

“I think this is a really important milestone,” said Amanda Lefton, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The lawsuit alleges that from 1938 to 1951, TAM operated a manufacturing facility at 4511 Hyde Park Blvd., where TAM Ceramics continues to operate today. The facility is about three miles from the Upper Mountain Road properties.

TAM produced zirconium products used in ceramics, electronics and other applications. Part of the manufacturing process involved mineral beach sand imported from Florida and Australia.

According to the lawsuit, that sand contained elevated concentrations of radioactive thorium and uranium.

The EPA alleges TAM was the only company in the United States that processed the mineral sand to increase the purity of the materials it extracted.

Calls and emails seeking comment from TAM and NLI holdings were not returned.

U.S. EPA Regional Administrator Mike Martucci said the agency does not wait to identify a responsible party before beginning cleanup work.

“What we first do is utilize resources from the Superfund program to clean up those properties,” Martucci said.

Legal Battles

The lawsuit alleges the radioactive sand was used as fill material beneath the ground and under one of the homes owned by Philip and Tracey Palmeri.

“Despite knowing the inherent risks, defendant participated in and/or sanctioned the disposal of this radioactive waste throughout Niagara County, including at the Palmeri property,” government attorneys wrote in court filings.

Before the EPA became involved, the Palmeris were among 28 property owners and businesses that filed a 2017 lawsuit seeking damages from Union Carbide, Bayer CropScience, Occidental Chemical Corp. and several other companies.

But they would eventually learn they were suing the wrong companies.

On Jan. 23, 2018, Tracey Palmeri was diagnosed with breast cancer while that lawsuit was still pending.

Seeking to understand the extent of radiation exposure on their property, the Palmeris hired an environmental consultant to conduct a survey. The consultant found elevated radiation levels throughout the property, including inside the home, prompting the family to contact the state Department of Health.

By October 2020, the Department of Health had referred the case to the EPA, which concluded the contamination posed an unacceptable risk to residents, with radiation levels as high as 100 times its soil cleanup standards.

The Palmeris left the property in 2021 after the EPA began removal activities and never returned. That same year, Tracey Palmeri’s doctors suggested her cancer could have been caused by the radioactive contamination at the property.

Tracey Palmeri died of breast cancer on April 25, 2022. She was 44.

Sources told News 4 Investigates that her death elevated the case’s priority within the EPA.

In April 2023, the EPA conducted what it described as a mineralogical fingerprint analysis and concluded the sandy fill material was consistent with material used in TAM’s manufacturing process.

According to court documents, excavated material from the site contained radioactive gray, black and maroon sands, as well as a white chalk-like substance known as barium titanate, which was used in capacitors and other electronic devices.

The EPA said the picture became clearer in August 2023, when workers discovered small steel plates mixed with radioactive waste in a crawl space beneath the Palmeris’ home. The plates were marked “Titanium Alloy Manufacturing Co., Niagara Falls, N.Y.” and referenced products historically produced at the facility, according to court records.

The EPA then engaged with TAM and sought company records related to waste generation and disposal practices.

Philip Palmeri later withdrew from the 2017 lawsuit and filed a wrongful death case against NL Industries, TAM’s corporate successor, in 2024.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer recommended in March 2025 that the case be dismissed because the three-year statute of limitations had expired. In a footnote, however, Roemer wrote that the court did “not find it to be a fair result.”

“The facts of this case involve a tragic death of a 44-year-old woman, allegedly caused by toxic materials buried underneath her home decades before she moved there,” Roemer wrote. “While it has not been proven that the defendant was responsible for the radioactive waste that caused Tracey’s cancer, the complaint alleges that defendant’s connection to the contamination was not discovered by the plaintiff until September 2023.”

Lefton said protecting the health of residents is why the DEC and EPA agreed three years ago to conduct radiological surveys across Niagara and Erie counties – the first in 40 years.

“That is why we started proactively looking for this waste, so that we didn’t find out years from now that somebody got sick, that somebody died,” Lefton said.

NECRA Project

The agencies finished an aerial survey in 2024. But residents with contaminated property did not find out for two years, while the agencies checked for radiation on the ground from public rights-of-way to further confirm the results.

Lexi Hawk, who lives by Gill Creek in the Town of Niagara with her fiancé and toddler, learned this summer that chunks of her yard are contaminated with radioactive waste. She remembers seeing workers walking up and down streets with Geiger counters.

“I had a feeling then that something could be wrong,” she said.

Since March, the EPA and DEC have screened more than 1,000 properties. About 90% required no further investigation, Lefton said.

As of Friday, the DEC has referred 40 properties to the EPA for soil and indoor air sampling in the Town of Niagara, Niagara Falls, and Grand Island.

Among those properties are four homes in a neighborhood west of the intersection of Route 31 and Military Road in the Town of Niagara. The government temporarily relocated the four families late this summer, including Hawk.

Martucci said cleanup work at some NECRA properties will begin soon, while more heavily contaminated sites will likely be addressed in spring 2027.

More radioactive sand

On July 16, News 4 Investigates and environmental engineer Jason Brydges, owner of BE3 Environment, identified elevated levels of radiation inside two of the four Town of Niagara homes whose occupants had been relocated. The EPA confirmed those findings the next morning.

One of those homes belongs to Jackie and Jeremy Linkowski.

Earlier this year, the EPA provided the family with a report showing radiation levels ranging from roughly twice natural background levels to more than 25 times background radiation. Elevated readings were found on all three floors, including in a closet, bathroom and kitchen.

About two weeks ago, the Linkowskis learned radioactive sand was used to build the foundation of their home constructed in the 1940s. That sand is now seeping through their basement walls. They said the discovery cemented their decision never to return and they plan to seek compensation and permanent housing assistance.

Both Martucci and Lefton said Friday they have not identified the polluter responsible for the radioactive waste found in the Linkowskis’ neighborhood or at other NECRA-related properties in Niagara County. They emphasized that the lawsuit against NLI Holdings is not connected to the NECRA investigation.

There will be a separate investigation to determine who is responsible for the radioactive waste found on properties this summer, they said.

“We are really committed, with the EPA as the lead agency, to gathering strong evidence as we move forward,” Lefton said. “We don’t want to jump to any conclusions today. We want to make sure we have the right evidence and factual basis before providing answers to the community.”

Martucci added: “The burden that the United States government has in these cases is significant when it comes to tracing material back to its source, particularly material that may have been placed somewhere before the EPA even existed.”

https://www.wivb.com/news/epa-sues-nli-holdings-over-radioactive-waste-…?

If Gov. Kathy Hochul wins reelection, after the state budget passes (It is due in April and took until June this year) the mayor is going to be able to launch a campaign that says.

1. I didn’t raise taxes when every surrounding community did.
2. Our bond rating has been increased twice (probably 3x by then.)
3. Look at the streetscape being constructed on Main Street. (Please don’t question why it took 6 years to achieve what North Tonawanda could do in two).
4. Check out the construction at the city market.

We need a candidate to come from either party and offer something better than thar