Latest news with #Ortho-Toluidine
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Residents concerned about Goodyear plant urged to get active
Jan. 30—Niagara Falls residents with concerns about the release of a known chemical carcinogen from the Goodyear Rubber & Tire Co. plant off 56th Street were urged Thursday to get organized, get active and get vocal. Representatives from six environmental and community advocacy groups held an informational meeting at New Hope Baptist Church where they encouraged about 50 attendees to contact their elected officials to tell them to take action to protect public health in the neighborhood where Goodyear operates. "It is time for us to set up a coalition and that coalition is each and every one of you that are here," said Renae Kimble, president of the Niagara Falls Chapter of the NAACP. The primary concern remains the plant's emission of Ortho-Toluidine, a chemical used in the production of tires that has been linked to incidences of bladder cancer among workers in the past. While the state changed its guidelines to reduce the allowable output of the chemical in 2021, the facility has for years operated under earlier, less stringent standards. DEC officials contend, based on existing data, that the situation does not pose an "imminent" health risk to neighboring home and business owners. Advocates for changes inside the plant aren't buying it. "We call on our government agencies and officials to protect our community now before it is too late," Kimble said. "It should not be about dollars and cents. Our health is paramount, more than anything else." The World Health Organization classified O-T as a known human carcinogen in 2008. The state's 2021 release requirements for the chemical classified it as a "high toxicity contaminant." According to the federal Center for Disease Control, O-T exposure can cause bladder cancer, anemia, dizziness, headaches, confusion, eye, skin and breathing irritation as well as skin lesions. Under previous O-T limits, Goodyear was allowed to emit up to 5,000 pounds of the material into the air per year. Under the 2021 limits, the company's output should have been reduced to no more than 100 pounds per year. In 2022 and 2023, the company reported that it released 1,244 pounds and 1,263 pounds of O-T, respectively. In September, the DEC released a plume map showing a roughly half-mile area around the plant where the chemical is being released into the air. Critics argue that the data used by the agency to generate the map is flawed as it is based on results from just two of 13 stacks on-site. They also maintain that the DEC failed to take into account so-called "fugitive" emissions, which include leaks from pipes and other equipment and ventilation systems. Kelly Cloyd, a retired DEC geologist who attended Thursday's meeting, said the most recent tests done by Goodyear in 2022 were rejected by the DEC because they were not performed in keeping with guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As a result, he said, the DEC is working with inaccurate information and that the true impact on the community may prove to be much higher following updated testing and a more accurate accounting of "fugitive" emissions. "One of the big problems with where we are is we really don't know what the community's been exposed to," Cloyd said. Earlier this month, the DEC entered into a consent order with Goodyear that will require the company to install temporary pollution control devices next month and permanent control measures by October 2026. The agreement allows Goodyear to perform additional stack testing only after the controls have been implemented. "One of the things we've asked for that DEC has not demanded from Goodyear is stack testing prior to the installation of the equipment so we have some idea of what people have been exposed to," Cloyd said. "That seems kind of critical to me." Organizers of Thursday's meeting urged residents in attendance to follow their lead and contact Gov. Kathy Hochul's office to encourage her to direct the DEC to amend the consent order. They want the DEC to require Goodyear to immediately install temporary pollution controls and to commit to the installation of permanent equipment to reduce O-T emissions by 90% as soon as possible. They also want state regulators to mandate new stack testing in keeping with EPA guidelines before any new pollution control measures come online. "We're asking that the equipment be installed in two months, not in the two years that the DEC has recently given Goodyear," said Matteo Anello, who has lived in his family home on 56th Street just east of the plant for decades. A trio of local elected officials attended Thursday's meeting, including Falls lawmakers Donta Myles and Brian Archie and Niagara County Legislator Jeffrey Elder. All three expressed willingness to join residents in pushing state officials to address local concerns about the plant's operation. "It's going to take a collective effort from all of our local governing bodies," Myles said. Elder said he intends to bring the issue up for consideration at a future county legislature meeting. "When we are collectively together, we can make things happen," Elder said.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
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.
