02-05-2025
Attorney's analysis: 'fugitive emissions' heighten Goodyear cancer risk
An analysis conducted by an attorney who formerly represented plant workers suggests emissions of a known chemical carcinogen from the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. facility in Niagara Falls may be much worse than state regulators have previously suggested.
The analysis by attorney Steve Wodka, as first reported by the Buffalo News on Sunday, takes into account so-called 'fugitive emissions,' which include leaks and other points of exit that result in the organic chemical ortho-toluidine escaping from the site while bypassing smokestacks.
Wodka's analysis, which relied on data Goodyear provided to the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, suggests total pollution, including chemicals released from smokestacks and fugitive emissions, could be 400 times higher than the state's acceptable limits.
Wodka outlined his findings while expressing serious concerns about the potential impact of the chemical's release on the surrounding neighborhood in an April 8 letter sent to Julie Barrett O'Neil, regional director of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
'The State of New York has a moral obligation, if not a legal duty, to inform the hundreds of families that live within the areas impacted by the real world current combination of both stack and fugitive emissions, and the parents of the children who attend the Cataract Elementary School, that their health is at risk from the emissions from the nearby Goodyear plant,' Wodka wrote to O'Neil.
Studies have shown O-T contributed to cases of bladder cancer among the workers at the Goodyear plant in the Falls. Emissions standards for the chemical's release in New York are supposed to follow the state's Annual Guideline Concentration, which is .02 micrograms per cubic meter.
Last September, WBFO, in collaboration with Public Health Watch and Inside Climate News, first reported that the plant, located off 56th Street in the LaSalle section of the city, has been emitting ortho-toluidine and another pollutant, diphenylamine, known as DPA, at levels 1,000% higher than what state regulators deem safe.
WBFO and its reporting partners cited a July 2023 notice of violation issued to Goodyear by the DEC that informed the company of its failure to control the emissions. The notice focused on two pollution-control devices that failed to properly control the emission of the pollutants. The news outlet reported estimates that the site has been releasing pollutants at higher levels than allowed by the state for at least 15 years.
Earlier this year, the DEC entered into a consent order with Goodyear in which the company agreed to install temporary pollution control measures to reduce stack emissions by April 10. Under the order, Goodyear is required to have permanent pollution controls installed by Oct. 31, 2026.
The DEC and Goodyear continue to insist emissions from the plant pose 'no imminent public health risk to the community.'
'At Goodyear, the health and safety of our associates and the communities in which we work is our top priority,' Goodyear said in a statement released by a spokesperson. 'The DEC and New York State health authorities have publicly stated that historical emission limits are 'currently protective of the surrounding community's air quality' and 'there is no risk to the community' based on their modeling.'
In his letter to O'Neil, Wodka pointed to modeling done as part of Goodyear's 2018 air permit application and its proposed 2023 protocol for plant operations. He noted that the company identified 13 emissions sources, which he described as stacks, that were emitting O-T into the air from the Falls plant. He also noted last year's DEC modeling that showed the extent of the plume from the 13 sources. He said neither Goodyear nor the DEC has ever modeled or even proposed to model the 'real-world combination' of both the 13 O-T emission sources and the plant's fugitive emissions.
In his letter, Wodka noted that the most recent data available from the EPA's toxic release inventory indicated that Goodyear reported in 2023 emissions totaling 1,344 pounds of O-T into the air in the Falls. Of that, he said, 133 pounds, or 10% resulted from stack emissions, with the remainder, 1,211 pounds, or 90%, representing fugitive emissions.
A plume map generated by the DEC showed the extent of the cloud of emissions coming from the plant and its impact on the surrounding neighborhood.
When fugitive emissions are added to develop a similar air dispersion model, Wodka said the results show a wider area of impact that extends as far as '71st Street and Niagara Falls Boulevard, to Buffalo Avenue on the south, west more than a mile past the intersection of Packard Road and Hyde Park Boulevard, and to the north beyond Niagara Falls Boulevard.'
Wodka described Cataract Elementary School, located on Girard Avenue, as being 'well within' the plume that is above the state safety limit of .02 micrograms per cubic meter.
'After more than 35 years of studies and testing, the workers in the plant know, or should know, of the risk to their health from their exposure at the plant. However, the residents have never been told,' Wodka wrote.
