excavation-at-tonawanda-landfill.jpg

First and foremost the excavating and digging at the Tonawanda landfill must cease and desist immediately. With out absolute proof that there is no danger to the community, the people that live right there on Hackett and the workers driving the trucks and operating the equipment, they are all in danger of air borne contamination.

Problem we have here is the Army Corp of Engineers has made a decision and I do no see them changing their mind no matter how long the comment period is extended. What is needed to back up the DEC’s decision is evidence, how do we get this evidence? A simple blood test to check for radiation in the kids blood, this is a simple test and if there is evidence of contamination simple remedies are out there if caught early enough. We just need someone to step up and get the funding or the Medical community to volunteer to do this work. There are 22 children on Hackett in the City of Tonawanda, we need to do this. Second is testing the ground water in the sump pump pits and a check for Radon gas which is a by product of uranium.

Getting signatures is one thing, getting concrete evidence that there is or is not a health problem will push this project in the right direction.

Below is just a small sample of the information in the source site and I have many, many more documents to show, I will create a web page to show it all.

OK, first of all what is in the landfill? Ashland 1, Ashland 2, Seaway and the Town of Tonawanda landfill. These properties, as well as area ground and surface waters, were contaminated with radioactive wastes resulting from the uranium ore refinery operations conducted in Tonawanda by the U.S. Army’s top secret Manhattan Engineer District (MED), (commonly known as “the Manhattan Project” which produced uranium for the world’s first uranium atomic bombs, including the Hiroshima bomb), and after the war by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

FACTORS THAT MUST BE CONSIDERED IN DEVISING AN EFFECTIVE LONG-TERM WASTE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY:

* hazardous life of wastes more than 500,000 years;
* high potential for water-borne dispersal in Tonawanda;
* current and expected future proximity to dense human population and intensive construction and re-construction activities;
* wind erosion dispersal;
* radon gas emanation;
* gamma radiation shielding;
* other geologic factors: earthquake or volcanic activity.

Public understanding of the need to prevent any further increase in the waste volume and the need for indefinite environmental monitoring are essential if waste isolation is to be successful in the long term.

SOURCE

CITY OF TONAWANDA: Residents send strong message to Army Corps

Sylvia Fritz wanted so badly to make sure that the federal government knows her opinion on the Tonawanda landfill that she tracked down the people who were asking for residents’ signatures Sunday afternoon.

As City of Tonawanda Council President Carl Zeisz, Councilman Rick Davis and Erie County 10th District Legislator Michele Iannello were walking Hackett Street collecting signatures on a letter that will be sent to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fritz drove to them to make sure she wasn’t missed on their rounds.

Fritz and dozens of other neighbors on Hackett Drive and Wadsworth Court gladly signed the letter, which states that the Army Corps’ decision to take no further action on the landfill, contaminated with radioactive waste, is “not only immoral but down right criminal.” The letter also accuses the Army Corps of eluding responsibility.

It’s the latest effort by local elected officials to make sure the Army Corps knows exactly how residents feel before the comment period on the federal government’s proposed plan for the landfill closes Oct. 15. The Corps has determined that there is no evidence that the contaminants in the Town of Tonawanda landfill were illegally dumped by the Linde Air Products Division of Union Carbide, which processed uranium ores at its ceramics plant in Tonawanda from 1942 to 1946 as part of the “Manhattan Project.” As a result, the Corps says it is not responsible for the cleanup.

Last month, the state Department of Environmental Conservation issued a rebuttal to the Corps’ proposal, stating that the federal government is responsible for cleaning up the site.

Leo McQueen, of 76 Hackett, summed up the sentiments of many of his neighbors. “I’d like to see something done with it,” he said. “If there is (contamination) over there, then it should be gotten rid of.”

Robert Gadt, who lives at 50 Hackett, has similar concerns. “I would like to see it cleared out. It’s been going on too long,” he said.

Joseph Rybak agrees. He’s lived on Wadsworth for almost four decades and wants the issue resolved.

“It should be a combined effort (between the DEC and Army Corps). One group cannot handle it all,” Rybak said, adding “it should be cleaned up once and for all so the land could be reused in the near future.”

“I’d like to see them remove the contaminants — get rid of it once and for all. People are dying out there and there has to be a cause,” Rybak said.

Donna Wythe said her sister moved to the neighborhood 40 years ago and never suffered seizures until she came here. “That is odd to me,” Wythe said. “I think this is another Love Canal, if you ask me,” she said, referring to the Niagara Falls neighborhood that sat atop 21,000 tons of toxic waste.

Davis said the group collected between 50 and 60 signatures, and he plans to obtain more throughout the week before sending the letters off to the Corps’ Buffalo District Office by week’s end. Additional letters will be sent to Rep. Louise Slaughter and Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton.

“They are the ones who can really persuade the Army Corps to change their course,” he said.

Iannello said the main concern residents shared was in regards to their health, especially “not knowing whether they’ve been affected or will be affected in the future if the uranium stays there,” she said.

She also said it’s important for the local elected officials to keep the issue at the forefront for higher office-holders for the sake of the residents who live near the landfill.

The Corps needs to clean out the landfill “so we don’t have to wonder,” Iannello said. “They’ve cleaned up other landfills that don’t have residents living nearby and to me this is more important because there are residents living near there. Get it cleaned out.”