EPA, DEC offer local residents a chance to be heard

Rob Creenan, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Updated ·3 min read

Apr. 16—One message was made clear on Monday night in the auditorium of the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center. The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Conversation have not been listening to residents' concerns.

That was the tenor of discussion as representatives from both government agencies took part in an Environmental Justice listening session. It drew at least 70 attendees with some coming from as far as Seneca and Orleans counties.

It was the first such session the EPA and DEC are holding jointly across New York state, soliciting comments from residents on what they can do better in addressing environmental concerns.

"Despite attempts to deny, conceal, or gloss over the issue, the signs of climate change are increasingly evident," said Sister Eileen O'Connor, reading a Pope Francis statement on climate change during her address.

Specifically for Niagara County, residents addressed how there are still many toxic and hazardous waste sites, from the Waste Management landfill in Lewiston to the Love Canal site among 89 superfund sites in Niagara Falls.

Residents Christen Civiletto and Sherry Rook shared their health experiences living in the Falls, Civiletto said she spent years looking into various illnesses prevalent in the Falls after her father's soft tissue sarcoma cancer diagnosis and Rook's son developing cancer nine years ago due to his 92nd street home being near Love Canal.

Mayor Robert Restaino even took the time to acknowledge these issues, wondering why Love Canal waste and other such substances along the Niagara River shoreline, near some boat docks, are not removed.

"I am just one voice," Restaino said to the crowd. "All your voices matter more than mine."

Attendees from outside Niagara County spoke about how some proposed projects would have a detrimental impact on the environment, such as covering the Kensington Expressway in Buffalo and the STAMP manufacturing site in Genesee County. Speakers against the Kensington project argue its proposed $1 billion price tag would be better spent on alternative transit options and that the DEC and EPA did not meet their legal obligations for the project.

Common complaints on the STAMP site were that it will ruin the nearby Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, Tonawanda Wildlife Management Area, and Tonawanda Reservation, harm native wildlife, and that its only tenant so far, hydrogen-fuel producer Plug Power, has received $270 million in subsidies as reported in Investigative Post.

"We wrote this letter (about STAMP) and now it's up to 30 people at the U.S. level, to the state, and to the county," said Margaret Wooster of the WNY Environmental Alliance. "And we did not receive a single reply."

Other attendees talked about being forced to be part of some environmental programs without being consulted first.

Yates Town Supervisor Jim Simon spoke about how large-scale wind and solar projects must be subjected to permissive referendums. Yates resident Kate Kremer said when some projects are streamlining processes, it means local input is being minimized.

"What we want is the state to help with us and not to us," Kremer said.

Mark Pitifer, who works for the wine bottle distributor Waterloo Container near Seneca Falls, spoke on the Seneca Meadows landfill across the street from that business. He addressed how leachate from the landfill ends up in Cayuga Lake, creates an indescribable odor over the area, and that Seneca County has among the highest rates of lung cancer in the state.

"Is it within the purview and mission of the EPA to come to Seneca Falls and at the very least verify the air we breath and water I drink is healthy?" Pitifer asked.

Both the EPA and DEC plan on taking these comments and determing what they can address. Garcia said if something is not an EPA issue, she would refer it to an agency better suited for the task.