Eighteen Mile Creek Superfund remediation expanded
Clinton Street resident Cindy Bucolo was recently informed that her property was one of 50 recently added to the Eighteen Mile Creek Superfund project.
A letter from the Environmental Protection Agency dated July 11 explains that her property was among those that showed high levels of lead and a soil cleanup was necessary.
"(My husband) was born and raised in this house," she said of her now-deceased husband. "I'm not sure that any of the five cancers he's had have come from this lead because it is one of the things that they say you get from it."
In the letter, Bucolo was told to take "preventative measures" which included washing hands after coming into contact with soil, taking shoes off at the door to reduce dirt in the house, cleaning the house of dust and tracked-in soil, bathing pets to reduce dirt in the house from their paws and avoiding activities that could disturb soil, including gardening.
Bucolo said she asked an EPA representative when work would be completed and was given a timeline of three to five years.
Currently, work is being done at Upson Park, as well as properties along Porter Street. These properties were formerly selected by the EPA in January of 2017. The soils in the area were heavily contaminated by lead and PCBs, according to the EPA and rested on the sites of the former Flintkote plant's property and White Transportation's property.
"When the EPA proposed the plan four years ago, we had identified only 22 properties that were contaminated. When we wrote the Record of Decision, we wrote it so it only includes those parcels," Mike Basile, EPA's community involvement coordinator, said.
From there construction contracts were bid on and work was started, but since that time the scope of the EPA's focus has widened to 70 properties which will "eventually be remediated," Basile said.
As for when work will commence on Clinton Street, Basile said that the timeline was difficult to ascertain and that the remediation could be done in two to three years, as likely as it could be in three to five years.
"It all depends on when the contractors start jobs and if we have a good construction year. If we have a winter that's non-existent, we can still do a lot of work. So, it's like throwing a dart against a wall," he said. "So maybe three to five years, it could be two to three years. You never know."
Basile also noted that air quality monitors are a part of the project, as well as "misting" the streets when soil is trucked out of the area, as is planned.
"We've done hundreds of properties in Western New York like the properties we'll be doing in Lockport," he said.
At Wednesday's Common Council meeting, Bucolo brought her complaints to Mayor John Lombardi III and council members.
"I get in my car every morning, get my coffee in hand, drive up Clinton Street turn onto Mill Street. Go down to the construction zone. See everything happening that I was told was not going to happen," she said. "'There's going to be misting going on, there's not going to be any dust, there's not going to be (expletive) flying,' and it's all flying."
Lombardi said he and the council would look into this. First Ward Alderman John Craig also spoke, saying that Basile and the EPA will be at the council meeting on Oct. 9 for questions from the public.
"I would strongly encourage the community to come out and ask questions. The EPA is going to be here and they better have some answers," Craig said.
Bucolo said she has also been at the city assessor's office about her property's assessment and its value in the face of being contaminated with high lead but was told to come back in March for informal grievances. She's since told neighbors who also received a letter to go to the assessor's office to grieve their assessments as well.
"I don't know," she said when asked if she thought the city would lower her taxes. "But I'm not going to be quiet."
