Ms. Shumer and others – You are scaring people, damaging the value of very expensive homes…for what…to fuel a few ignorant “wanna-be” egos? That may come to be a VERY expensive mistake!!
I retired from the FBI as Supervisor, with a bachelor’s degree in Material Science (Metallurgist) and minor in Organic Chemistry. In the late 1970’s after the President signed into law the “Big 8 Laws” and created the EPA, I was assigned the task of creating the EPA Task Force to enforce and prosecute the new Environmental Laws. The FBI Director loaned all of us who had a science background (there were about 20 of us). Because Niagara Falls is my home …and the Love Canal was boiling over …I volunteered.
I was handed the Western District of NY…WDNY…all 17 counties and put together the Task Force while we all alternated, a week at a time, training on the new laws at different EPA sites. The Task Force was comprised of investigators/prosecutors from the DEC, EPA, and several PDs. Judge Sheila DiTullio representing the DA’s office and AUSA Marty Littlefield were our legal reps. We all had to attend school.
We served search warrants on a DOD Site in West Valley with a cast of many and gave them a clean bill of health …thank God!
We executed search warrants on Hooker/Olin, and a few others, for documents. It was a mess, and I brought in FBI personnel from as far as California! Allow me to digress for a minute…
LOVE CANAL…
The Love Canal is a completely different story that impacted the entire City of Niagara Falls …and just a few lowlights-not highlights! In 1985 I filed a Motion to Intervene to FERC to force the PASNY to “Remove” all +/- 62,000 TONS of Dioxin, PCBS and some 16 other chemicals from the Love Canal. Why the Power Authority? Because every time they jammed up the river during an ice run, they caused the river to completely “flood”102nd Street! That’s how they completely eroded THE FIRST the cap at 102nd and I convinced FERC to get PASNY/NY State to do SOMETHING …to at least mitigate the situation and they did…12 inches of clay, again, over the entire cap! They should have used a waterproof wall at the very least…but they didn’t!!! Instead, they used RIP-RAP (rocks) …unbelievable!
In 1985 PASNY really screwed up and jammed the entire East River for 30 days. This time, I formed a Homeowners Association and filed a 350 residents class action lawsuit! My goal was to force PASNY to follow their own ICE CONTROL MANUAL that their creator, George Barry, Chief Engineer, wrote the book and who told me …. they did NOT follow it …and it was preventable!!! They caused MILLIONS of dollars over everything …to stop the damage they caused and to open the door on their operation. Because they ignored the ICE Manual, they ripped out the entire river of boat docks, flooding homes and most marinas! After 15 years, we settled outside of the court, and FERC directed them to follow the Ice Control Manual …or else!
Regarding Cayuga Island…
Recently, my task force of one worked hand-in-hand with DEC and spoke to DEC regularly beginning on 6/25/26, and this is for the 22 homeowners. They advised me that there will be no more tests unless requested by homeowners. They did the six who requested and they have no intention of placing the Island on any lists whatsoever by DEC!
The best bet is to avoid talking to the press…not to hide anything…but to stop the know-nothing press from quoting residents and DEC incorrectly! Neither the Buffalo News nor the Niagara Falls Gazette nor any of the reporters are, in my opinion, knowledgeable, qualified to even talk about anything scientifically or physically tied to what is at issue! All they will do is to pick what you said apart and use what they want.
I’m used to that and told the “communication expert” Shuman, to report what I say completely, and she reported that I refused to allow DEC to sample my property …not true! …no explanation! That was not the truth, and I told her, DEC sampled my house three times. Those three previous tests showed clean … “Not enough to move the needle”!
That is what the DEC Director Michael J O’Toole, Jr. reported to me in a letter dated Dec. 9,1994 …about ALL of Cayuga Island!
From the Director, “I am pleased to inform you that after a thorough review by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York Department of Health staff, your petition has been approved (to delist Cayuga Island)”. HE HAS DELISTED Cayuga Island!
The things they are writing, Ms. Shumer, are flat out, lies and are exactly WRONG!
DEC did not represent that they, “found hazardous waste and industrial waste”, on West Rivershore Drive that are in concentrations that present a danger to residents! They did say they found natural elements that are NORMAL and do appear naturally in nature in varying concentrations that COULD be harmful…but are not currently a danger to any residents. However, if some idiots (my words) over fertilize, their peaches with potassium, it could kill them …
What these wannabe reporters, one with a degree in “communication” and the other, I believe, has no education beyond riding her motorcycle …are doing is digging a hole that they cannot climb out of…because the News is very careful how they word EVERYTHING… so it all falls on you two idiots! EVERY quote and other verbiage are all credited to you to their “REPORTERS” …
The DEC and I are in complete agreement …we have NOT discovered any hazardous waste…in any of the dirt (spoils), in any of the thousands of tons of dirt removed for the Water Board Project, dirt tested on site or removed…NO hazardous waste!
Ms. Shuman, the News “reporter’s” expertise is in the field of “communication” and for that …they all failed… they all get an “F”! The Buffalo News should know better. I’ll bet none of them even know what the Periodic Chart is. I asked Shuman to define what Climate and then Climate Change …and she couldn’t define one of them!
RADON…
The testing is done! I want you to know, the elements that they discovered are natural, appear in almost every chemical test …because THAT’S WHAT PLANET EARTH IS MADE OF … and I would be surprised if there were NOT elements from the periodic chart …we would be in trouble. Mercury, potassium, lead, NATURAL GAS (I wonder why we call them Natural Gases), Radon gas! The entire Country, starting with New York, are “contaminated” with Radon and other gases that are dangerous, if used improperly”!
Radon is natural and it comes from the decay of Uranium… all the” ium’s” …Cadmium, Radium, Uranium and on and on. It is measured in picocuries, anything more than 4 are not good…maybe… Radon is not listed…I wonder why. Could it be because…science does not know what concentration of Radon is safe…wow!?
I ran a computer program to see how Radon is doing … every Town-City -Township…was three times the norm in NY…WOW! In the 56 pages front and back, there was SIGNIFICANT … “dangerous levels” … across NEW York… NOT what it should be in almost every page! The HIGHEST DEC wants is 4.0 …front page of run Albany/Berne12.47; page 2 out of 21 listed, 17 are OVER 4.0; page 3, 17 out of 21 OVER; page 4, 17 OVER 21; page 5, 19 OUT OF 21!? And on and on. There is NOT one page that’s “CLEAN” … there are dozens of pages that overwhelm the 17 out of 21 that are over 4.0 by a factor of “a lot!?! So…
Why isn’t there a mass evacuation?! Man, and Mother Nature …puts into the soil to fertilize your food and other things…like heat your homes with Natural Gas (Methane)…
A scientist was summoned, “Dr. Anthony Nero, Jr., a PhD physicist and senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California.
As a leading authority on indoor radiation, Dr. Nero famously studied residential radon concentrations and challenged the EPA’s aggressive safety thresholds. He pointed out that the data regarding low-level residential exposure was highly uncertain, famously noting that “no one really knows what is a safe level of exposure” or exactly what lower concentrations cross into being genuinely dangerous. He argued that the EPA’s widespread warnings exaggerated the threat for most standard homes and advocated that public efforts should instead focus heavily on identifying the small percentage of geographic clusters with extreme radon levels. “
I agree with him 100%! In my opinion…the number of citizens who are killed by Radon gas is an uneducated guess. I say that, not just because of what Dr Nero said…we just don’t know. People find it hard to believe that there can be something…that is an unknown! So-called surveys report that 21,000 people, nationwide, die from Radon poisoning. Well, that “survey” was to see how many MINERS die from Radon poisoning, while they are 1000s of feet underground…IN A MINE! If you do a little math…21,000 divided by 50 states is 420…in each State…below ground? Let’s do what the left does and approximate…since 100% of those numbers are 1,000 ft underground…let us use say 1/4 of the 420. Remember that original number is for 100% underground…that reduces 420 to 101! Our imaginary study came down to 101 …101 people die from poisoning from a ROCK that emits a “gas that we cannot touch, see, smell, and have no idea, NONE… on what the safe concentration Radon exposure… is safe…? What’s the safe concentration …Ms. Shumer?
Radon gas comes from Uranium “rocks”, evaporating and putting those “Radon fumes” in the AIR? How many years does someone have to be exposed to several rocks of Uranium to be called exposed? NOBODY KNOWS! So how can you draw ANY conclusions?
Now as far as industrial waste and hazardous and toxic waste of any kinds… if you have a cleaning product under the kitchen sink and (God forbid) a child gets a hold and ingest some …it just became very toxic …. much more dangerous than any “hazardous waste” you could possibly have …in your kitchen waste! None of what they found buried would harm you or yours as bad as that cleaner…NEVER!
It’s like our environment in general…the unknowns are undefinable …you can’t tell anybody how old the planet earth is within about a few BILLION YEARS! Same with how long the Earth will be around…oops… I forgot, AOC predicted it will be 2012… I believe she is as accurate as she is smart… well…far as her knowledge of what’s a garbage disposal and what’s it does …duh!!
“We smelled something” … somebody shouted! Well, it wasn’t Radon gas! Because Radon gas is invisible, has no smell, no taste, and is the heaviest of all the gases…virtually, undetectable…now what? That smell came from drilling a 2-inch hole by 4 foot deep from a hole, filled with …get ready…sewer water!!!
How do I know, you ask? Because I’ve been on the Island 50 years and know what to look for. As a site contractor with heavy construction experience, I provided heavy equipment for many years after I retired from the FBI…site work in general. I drilled post holes from 6” to 3 ft … school football goal post! I drilled over 1000 holes in Niagara County alone for 15 years and dozens on Cayuga Island for decks and fences. All I ran into was some Carborundum wheels and cement caskets that homeowners utilized for break walls.
“The DEC environmental remediation, database notes that prior to 1930, the western end of the island was extended by about 250 yards into the Niagara River by the placement of fill and industrial materials” …Shumer!
LOOK AT WHAT THIS REPORTER AND PAPER GOT WRONG: “The DEC’s environmental remediation database notes that prior to 1930” … there was no DEC in 1930, and therefore there was no database that the DEC could refer to.
“The western end of the island was extended by about 250 yards”. NOT TRUE, it was extended 250 “acres” with the spoils (FILL) from the Erie Canal. Starting at 86 Street running west1 ¼ miles. Then two contractors purchased the remaining lands that were partly submerged and extended the steel wall on the North and South shores.
It was very recently confirmed, beyond any doubt, by the examination of the contractor’s extraction and complete “removal of spoils” from that trench, 1 ¼ miles long by 4 foot wide and between no less than 4ft – 6ft and deep… tests by several labs of the piles at different locations that there is no “hazardous waste” found on West Rivershore Dr!
The excavation of that trench of “dirt” and placement of the new water line was NOT in any way intended to be a huge “Hazardous Waste Gauge” …but it is! It was going to be on the north side…but…because the old line was on the north side, it allowed the installation of the entire NEW water main, hydrants and service lines, to allow the old service line to continue until the new line is finished…that’s what was done! The NEW one-inch service lines (laterals) on the south side with minimum interruptions was accomplished by the contractor with minimum problems.
Shumer wrote, “The DEC notes that the area is contaminated with mercury, high lead, BHCs and other organic chemicals…” All those chemicals are in the earth naturally! ALL THOSE “HAZARDOUS WASTE MATERIALS…ELEMENTS… ARE in the fertilizers and pesticides, that you put on your plants and peaches, etc.! The high lead reading came from the lead pipes you’re drinking by which your water was supplied…all those years…from all the old supply lines…that were all, LEAD…installed over 100 years ago by the City of Niagara Falls …just Like Flint Michigan!
So be grateful to the Contractor, Bob Malvestudo and his crew with help from Sean Costanso, Nick Forester, and Mike …the outside lead man and many others…without their input we would still be drinking lead water!
But here’s the proof……it’s in the dirt that we just excavated …now…I wanted to wait until we were done moving dirt…and testing …we are done excavating … there was no hazardous waste found……the dirt that was the spoils of the Erie Canal, mostly sandy loam! The NEW water line is something the Water Board will commit that I have been on their backs to replace as well as sewer lines…ever since I learned of the condition of same.
The contractors just finished the NEW waterline on West Rivershore Dr 1 ¼ miles long in a trench 6ft -8ft deep ,4 ft wide. Is done! At the circle they, excavated ¾ of the circle to 8Ft deep…no hazardous smells or observed or tested. Every home on the old water supply was LEAD PIPING!
They removed the spoils to sites the Water Board wanted, set the new water line complete with and refilled the entire trench with processed stone…clean stone …no dirt at all. Spot testing, various labs did NOT reveal any hazardous waste … no industrial waste and no drums of poisons…only FERTILIZERS AND PESTICIDES that we can TURN and do turn into hazardous waste, by discarding what you pour on your food!
By the way…SPOILS…does not refer to hazardous waste…it’s a contractor way of identifying dirt that has been removed and side cast to be used elsewhere! Nothing more…nothing less!