A family is speaking out after being denied emergency relocation from their contaminated property in Niagara Falls.
Jocelyn and Dan McKiernan are calling for state assistance moving to a new location after they say the same hazardous materials found at the original Love Canal site were identified at their property on 99th Street.
Health concerns they’ve experienced include five miscarriages in three years, nosebleeds and rectal bleeding, Jocelyn McKeirnan said.
“This should be eye-opening to anybody who has spent time on any of these properties and in any of these areas,” she said. “Our children didn't ask to live on poisoned ground. We didn't ask for this, and we are not living the American dream. It's an American nightmare. This is time for history to stop repeating itself.”
The family has received private testing, yielding results including mercury, chloroform, and toxic aromatic chemicals. There’s nearly a 90% match for materials found at the original Love Canal site, Dan McKeirnan said.
“We should not have had to provide those, based on the expert weigh-in by Dr. David Carpenter, by retired EPA scientists, by retired or retired former DEC and Department of Health members,” Dan McKeirnan said. “But yeah, we did hear two minutes before our deadline that they wanted to see the results, and that the testimony of accredited experts in this field was not good enough for them.”
In addition to the DEC asking to see test results, the DOH reached out to do their own testing on Tuesday, he said.
Governor Kathy Hochul's office contends that the third-party consultant agrees that the McKeirnans should work with DEC and doesn't "specifically" recommend relocation. DEC and DOH have been denied access to the property on multiple occasions, said Ken Lovett, Hochul's senior communications advisor on Energy and Environment.
"Governor Hochul has made it clear in words and actions that her first priority is the health and safety of this family," he said in a written statement.
DEC is reviewing testing data provided by the McKeirnans, DEC Director of Communications Cecilia Walsh said in a written statement.
"DEC remains ready to conduct a full investigation and cleanup," she said. "We will implement any measures needed to safeguard the family during the investigation and remediation."
Dr. David Carpenter, a State University at Albany public health professor who has experience as a physician, expresses special concern for children living in and around Love Canal.
“If they are exposed to carcinogens, neurotoxins, chemicals that suppress the immune system that can cause immediate disease and even death," he said. "But it can cause harmful effects that last for the whole duration of their lifespan.”
For about 40 years, safety measures at Love Canal have been to cover the site with a clay cap, then a high-density polyethylene liner on top, all buried underground.
The federal recommendation is that those materials have a lifespan of 20 years. The EPA and DEC have never replaced either set of materials.
Now, residents are finding what they believe are pieces of the high-density liner surfacing in their homes, environmental attorney Christen Civiletto said.
“The commonsense solution here is to get this family out today, not Tuesday when the DOH meets with the family, not after further testing and test results are validated," she said. "It is today, so we are calling on the governor to make that call to (EPA Administrator) Lee Zeldin, to President (Donald) Trump, to whomever she needs to, so that today this family is safely evacuated to suitable housing.”
