Members of the Save Our Backyards Western New York initiative gathered with homeowners affected by radioactive and toxic contamination in Niagara Falls on Tuesday evening for a community meeting at the Frontier Fire Hall.
They're looking for more transparency from the state and federal governments, and looking to move.
Among those on hand was Jacqueline Linkowski, a Niagara Falls resident who was forced to move 45 minutes away to live with relatives after finding radiation contamination in and around her home.
Linkowski is now looking to support the rest of her community by fighting to get more transparency from the Environmental Protection Agency.
"They don't tell you when you have high readings," said Jacqueline. "They don't tell you that you need to leave your home. It's not safe to stay here. We had to fight for our results. We had to fight for relocation, and this is just kind of like what they've done. Like if you go all the way back to Love Canal, if you look at many other hazardous waste sites in different situations like this, they hide, they stall, they cover it up, they pass the buck, and we're just so tired of it," she said.
Jacqueline described living in a radioactive home as chaotic and traumatic. She reported severe physical health issues stemming from exposure, including extreme fatigue, exhaustion, and grand mal seizures occurring inside the house.
Residents are demanding that Governor Kathy Hochul act immediately to investigate what they call a deeply flawed Niagara and Erie County Radiological Assessment program. They want to add the area to the state Superfund and, under the state Superfund, order timely relocation assessments while also immediately ordering an enforcement investigation of potential polluters.
"We need to be added to the state Superfund because the cleanup process is very different than what it is under the EPA right now. We're working with very experienced people who have been doing this for a very long time, over 40 years. And if we get on state Superfund, all the protocol changes for cleanup, and that's very important to us," said Linkowski.
Niagara County has the second-highest cancer rate in New York State. When asked by a show of hands how many people knew of someone close to them who has been affected by cancer, in a room of dozens of community members, nearly every single hand went up.
"I mean, all you have to do is ask one person, and we all know somebody who has died or has cancer or just recovered from cancer," said Ronnie Rowles, a community activist with Save Our Backyards. "But it's so frequent in this area. Not only that, but mental health is a big deal. And so when you look into these chemicals, the radiation, and the long-term effects on the human brain, if you live in Niagara Falls, you understand it's in your face," said Rowles.
The demand for urgent change was on display as the community says there is no time to wait.
"Contamination has been found all over our community: toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactivity. Yet we are told to wait. We are told to be patient. But we live here. We watch our children play outside. We watch our loved ones get sick, and we are left to see our friends dying. We are the ones who are left to wonder what went wrong here. We are fighting to get basic information just about our homes, and that's not acceptable," said Lexi Hawk of SOB WNY.
Hawk wants justice for the community, but also for residents not to have to investigate how this all came about on their own.
"This is an entire community wondering, how did we get here? And perhaps more importantly, who knew? We demand accountability from the agencies and the officials who knew for decades. The people who swore to protect us in their job descriptions are the very ones who turned a blind eye until we found them for ourselves. We should not have to be detectives and scientists just to get an idea of what we're exposed to and what that could mean." Hawk added, "We've had to organize press conferences, meetings, make repeated calls, and we have had to beg politicians to pay attention. We shouldn't have to do all that, but we did."
