By Joyce Kryszak
Lewiston, NY – Several environmental groups held a news conference Tuesday at Lewiston Porter Schools to spotlight national efforts to protect children from toxic exposure. The "Childproofing our Communities" campaign seeks legislation that would prevent schools, like Lewiston Porter, from being built near superfund sites.
The report, presented by the Citizens' Environmental Coalition, reveals that there are currently 235 schools in New York State alone located within a half mile of a state or federally identified toxic waste site. And the Lewiston Porter school district - a complex serving about 2,500 students - is just down the hill from possibly the worst one. Chemical Waste Management is the largest operating commercial hazardous waste landfill in the state.
"As a concerned citizen with a daughter and family in this district, I want to know is it safe today, in January 2002, to have our children and loved ones in Lewiston-Porter Schools," one mother asked school officials. "Somebody say yes. Somebody say no."
The answer to this Lewiston Porter mom's question is yes, according to school superintendent Walter Polka.
"We have done follow-up studies with the Niagara County Health Department and currently are in the process of awaiting the release of a report from the Army Corps of Engineers," Polka said. "But I can assure all of our parents that our campus is a safe campus for their youngsters."
The studies resulted from recent statistics that show the Niagara County community has rates of cancer and other serious health problems 50 to 100 above normal. Armed with that and other data, representatives from a handful of national and local environmental groups contested Polka's reassurances that the school is safe.
"From our point of view, having children attend schools within one mile of massive amounts of radioactive waste, the largest hazardous waste landfill in the northeast, I would say no," Mike Schade, Western New York Director of the Citizens' Environmental Coalition, said. "I would not feel comfortable having my children go to this school."
In addition to ongoing nearby dumping, activists point to the contaminated legacy of the land once owned by the federal defense department. War era leftovers, such as uranium from the Manhattan Project, have been found at sites surrounding the school. Lou Riccuiti is a Lewiston resident, and member of C-Cane, the Citizens' Campaign against Nuclear Exposure. With a lead brick remnant and geiger counter in hand, Riccuiti says these aren't the kind of souveniers residents can boast.
"When people think about sunshine and oranges, they think of Florida. When they think of milk and cheese, they think of Wisconsin. When they think of automobiles and assembly lines, they think of Detroit, Michigan. Normally when people think of the atomic bomb, they think of Las Alamos. Unfortunately, the beginnings of the atomic era began right here in our own backyard," Riccuiti said.
Colleen Wendell is a Lewsiston resident and mother of three children in the school district. Wendel says the area is plagued with health problems and that she wants a new school built - somewhere out of the path of contaminants.
"We're on the perimeter, we're on the buffer of the low site. We've got CWM there, we've got Modern Disposal, and the school, all within one country block - and I think it's disgusting," Wendell said.
Remarkably, according to environmentalists, there are no federal or state laws or guidelines that prohibit schools from being built near these or other toxic waste sites. And that "non-policy," say activists, has already put roughly 140,000 New York students at risk of exposure to a host of hazardous exposures. Roger Cook is director of the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety and Health, and a veteran of the Love Canal era. Cook says that history has taught people to demand more.
"We have a chance to do something right," Cook said, "to stop siting schools in the future, pass the legislation that we need to do that, around toxic waste dumps. And to start cleaning up the dumps that are next to the sites that we have. And for crying out loud, stop expanding them, because if there is anything that is counter-indicated here, in terms of health, it's not bringing more toxic waste near children and other people."
The national grassroots effort, "Childproofing Our Communities" has developed a legislative model for siting the thousands of schools expected to be built in the next few years. Representatives say they hope the model will be used as groundwork for protective laws in the near future.