Advocates are calling on state and federal officials to relocate a Niagara Falls family whose property was recently found to have toxic contamination. Additionally, they’re accusing the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation of knowing the land was contaminated as far back as 1988 and confirmed it in a 1993 report. (A link to the report is available at the end of this article.)
“Recently, the McKiernans and attorney Christen Civiletto discovered a 1993 report by the Departments of Environmental Conservation and Health, which confirmed that the agencies concealed information about the grossly inadequate limited remediation of their property, which left behind large amounts of toxic waste,” said Renae Kimble, president of the Niagara Falls branch of the NAACP, one of the many groups urging Governor Kathy Hochul and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin to move the McKiernan family from their 99th Street home as soon as possible.
Daniel McKiernan bought his house on 99th Street in 2020, and moved his family in the following year. Earlier this summer, after digging in their yard to build a pool, they discovered the presence of carbon rods and several toxic chemicals, found to be above the state’s acceptable levels. So he called the DEC.
“The gentleman that they sent was or is a petroleum and gas specialist, not a Superfund employee, with us being 100 yards or 300 feet away from the Love Canal Superfund landfill,” McKiernan explained. “When he came out here, he had a PID meter testing in parts per million. The piles themselves were reading between anywhere from high twos to low or low fives, so 2.8 to 5.3 ppm. He also went to an untouched, unbothered section of the yard and found as much as 13 ppm before he left.
“He concluded to me that visually he did not see anything too alarming, that the PID did not exceed 50, where he would be concerned and required testing. He stated at that time that the DEC would not be taking the case on, would not be doing further testing, and that if we wanted the pile moved or removed, that would be on us as the homeowners to do so.”
BTPM News contacted the Buffalo regional office of the DEC for comment but had not received a reply as of late Monday afternoon.
McKiernan said he began moving the pile himself, but became sickened while working to do so.
His wife, Jocelyn, has had several miscarriages while two of their sons have serious medical problems. She says neighbors are concerned about contamination on their own properties but many are afraid to speak up.
“Many of our neighbors have found some of those rods we were describing earlier on in their yards, not in as abundance as ours. But yes, they have expressed concern,” Jocelyn McKiernan said. “They've asked us how to get their yard tested. A lot of them have issues arising with their health. We have several dogs on the street now experiencing seizures, new neurologic symptoms from many neighbors.”
The known presence of toxic contaminants is nothing new, advocates say. There is the Love Canal environmental crisis in the late 1970s, in which entire neighborhoods were abandoned and people relocated after chemical waste buried more than two decades before had seeped into basements, backyards and playgrounds.
Civiletto points to a nearly 40-year-old report that maps and identifies properties near Love Canal deemed hazardous.
“In 1988, part of the Love Canal habitability study is what originally identified at least three properties in the emergency declaration area four, which is where the McKiernans’ house is,” Civiletto said. “So they knew back in 1988 that their lot, and the half lot that they own next door to where they are, were all contaminated.”
Civiletto continued that the state was aware of the presence of benzene hexachloride, a pesticide, and also mercury. But she added that testing was not requested for numerous other chemicals.
“They didn't want to know what else was there. They only tested for mercury and BHC. This is inexcusable,” she said. “The fact that we couldn't get our hands on Appendix J until making a formal request for it is inexcusable, and the failure of the governor and Department of Health to get this family to a place of safety and act with precaution is inexcusable.”
Appendix J refers to part of a 1993 report that identified the current McKiernan property has one of those in need of remediation.
Daniel McKiernan says the DEC did send a Superfund engineer who sought to cap the waste with 17 tons of soil and sand but during excavation, dust rose up that found its way into their house. The family does not want further work as long as they are living there, to prevent more dust.
When asked about his decision to buy a house so close to Love Canal, Daniel McKiernan, who is originally from Binghamton, explained he was unaware of the history of the nearby site. Furthermore, little information was available on his property. The information, he said, was prepared by a house flipper.
“All the folks around us have comprehensive binders about where and what they moved into. I have six pieces of paper that say unknown, and ‘never occupied by seller, therefore history is unknown,’” he said.
(Click the link below to view the 1993 report referenced in this story.)
