30-01-2025
Goodyear public info meeting tonight in the Falls
Jan. 30—"When the people lead, the leaders follow."
That's the mantra being followed by environmental and community advocates who believe more action is needed to protect the public from a potentially harmful chemical being released into the air by the Goodyear Rubber & Tire Co. plant off 56th Street in the City of Niagara Falls.
Representatives from a collection of groups, including the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York and the Niagara Falls chapter of the NAACP, will hold a public information meeting today to discuss their efforts to force further reductions in the plant's output of Ortho-Toluidine, a chemical used in tire production that has been linked to bladder cancer among the facility's workers in the past.
While state regulators announced earlier this month that they reached a deal that will require Goodyear to install new emissions reduction equipment by October 2026, environmental advocates say the "very weak" consent order gives the company too much time to fix a problem that represents a serious public health threat.
"They are putting off for two years reduction of a cancer-causing chemical by 90 percent. That's unacceptable," said Anne Rabe, a spokesperson for the statewide environmental advocacy group Don't Waste New York.
Under the consent order with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, Goodyear has agreed to install interim controls and to reduce production limits within two months of the company's plan of action being approved by the agency. In addition, the company will be required to submit an air pollution control engineering study that includes a plan for installing pollution controls.
While representatives from the DEC and Goodyear have consistently held, based on "available data," that the plant's O-T emissions do not pose a "significant or immediate" public health risk to residents living in the surrounding neighborhood, critics note that the agency is still not requiring the facility to operate in keeping with emissions standards that were lowered in 2021.
An air pollution model produced by the DEC in September showed O-T levels being released in a roughly half-mile area around the plant at levels up to seven times higher than current state guidelines.
Rabe said the consent order also fails the community in two key areas because it will allow Goodyear to perform on-site stack testing only after new emission control equipment has been installed and because there are no provisions for the company to obtain a new air permit through the state.
"That's the key enforcement document," Rabe said. "The permit has been punted until after 2027. That's unacceptable."
While the DEC continues to insist available emissions data suggests the public is not at risk due to Goodyear's operation, Rabe said an attorney working with her coalition has determined that the data is based on testing from only 2 of 13 stacks on the property. She also said the DEC aerial map does not take into account another aspect of the operation and that is so-called "fugitive" emissions from spills and leaks.
"It's basically been a major cover-up for over five years of how much highly toxic air pollution is being released into the Niagara Falls community," she said. "The state agencies have failed to enforce their own state and federal clean air laws."
Rabe said the goal of Thursday's meeting is to help residents understand what they can do to push for what's needed to address the problem and that's a revised consent order that will require Goodyear to immediately install new pollution control equipment, to obtain a new air permit and to perform stack testing before new emissions controls are brought online.
"Our six organizations, with help from some of the residents, have succeeded in getting attention," Rabe said. "In less than six months, we have pressured the government so that Goodyear does have to install temporary reduction equipment in March of this year. That's a major victory. It's a first big step."
"When communities organize, they win," she added.
Tonight's information meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at New Hope Baptist Church, 1122 Buffalo Ave., Niagara Falls. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
