31-01-2025
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.
