MONDAY, SEPT. 14 UPDATE: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent the following statement to BTPM News in response to references in this interview to the Griffon Park boat launch:
"For more than two decades, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has responded to public inquiries and complaints of discoloration at Griffon Park in the City of Niagara Falls, Erie County. Recent samples from June 2026 confirm there is no contamination of concern to public health or the environment. DEC remains committed to keeping the community informed about sampling results associated with the property and is coordinating with local officials on distribution of this information to local residents."
ORIGINAL STORY
The toxic legacy of Niagara Falls may be less a history lesson and more of an emerging horror story. That’s the view of attorney Christen Civiletto who continues to sound the alarm regarding the city's environmental troubles that many had hoped were in the past.
Earlier this summer, BTPM News and other media outlets reported on the McKiernan family. After digging to install a backyard pool, toxic chemicals were exposed. Their 99th Street home, Civiletto said, is just a few hundred feet from Love Canal.
It’s only one of many concerning sites in and around Niagara Falls. Civiletto has an online map that displays hazardous sites and associated research.
“People are coming out with pictures of their basements of an orange leachate-looking material. People are pumping it out into the road,” Civiletto said.
Author of the recently released book “Thundering Waters: The Toxic Legacy of Niagara Falls,” Civiletto says she has interviewed over 2,000 families, many of them sharing histories of cancer and other medical issues.
“There’s a pretty significant amount of something that is surfacing on the LaSalle Docks, right at Griffon Park. There was so much concern publicly the DEC did go out and test it,” Civiletto said.
“Now, they put out to the news that it was bacteria, this ionizing bacteria. It looks mostly orange, but with rainbow-colored, thick, sludgy material.”
Civiletto’s own testing of the public space found phenol. She says other citizens did their own research, a trend that gives her optimism moving forward.
“It’s fascinating to see how this is really changing the shape of an apathetic population that is now fully engaged.”
Residents are doing their own interviews and research “and putting all this on social media.”
Attitudes are shifting. For too long, Civiletto says, homeowners have learned to live with troubling sights and smells. Black sludge emerging from sump pumps was considered common.
“We have a good idea from a technical side of the 89-plus hazardous waste sites that we’ve been contending with for decades. Mind you, these sites are places where chemicals are barricaded, being pumped and treated, we’re trying to corral them. So, they still migrate. And they still pose a danger.”
