For 40 years, the Tonawanda Coke Corp. (TCC) stacks spewed out toxic air into our community. Carrying tons of benzene and particulate laden air into our communities’ environment and into all of our lungs, our health, environment and our community’s reputation as “a good place to live , work and play” suffered immensely. TCC was found guilty of egregious crimes against our community. When Tonawanda Coke finally closed its doors last October, we all sighed in relief. Our communities fought 16 long years to get back what was rightfully ours: clean air. We hoped that we were turning over a new leaf.
Today our hope has faded.
A few years ago, a federal jury found Tonawanda Coke guilty of breaking many environmental laws in federal court. Judge William Skretny ordered the company to pay over $12 million in fines and $12.2 million towards community services. This $12.2 million was allocated for two studies that were supposed to benefit the victims of TCC’s crimes. When this happened, our communities believed we would finally understand how TCC’s pollution impacted our health and our environment. We hoped for answers. Our communities also believed that we would have an Environmental Health Center where we could come together, heal, become healthier and move forward putting research into action. The money for these studies went to SUNY Research Foundation (RF) on behalf of University at Buffalo (UB), which was conducting the studies.
We believed this would happen because it was ordered in federal court. The proposals were supposed to help protect our community from further illness and injury. Initially when the project monies were released, we did work with UB; however, that partnership failed. It failed because we trusted UB would treat our communities with equity and fairness. When we brought our concerns to UB, an official told us that our partnership wasn’t a collaboration, that “it was a dictatorship”. We trusted and hoped that UB would eventually understand that we all needed to work together so that the communities would benefit from their research. We tried and were shut out. Three years later, we know that this hope was in vain. There is no partnership and our communities have seen very little, if any, benefit from the millions of dollars intended to benefit the communities.
Our communities feel victimized once again.
However, we will not remain silent, and we demand to be treated fairly. Our communities have outlined three issues and our requirements moving forward with both studies.
Issue 1 – SUNY RF on behalf of UB has failed to translate research into a benefit for the communities (victims), which was the judge’s intent in ordering the funding of the studies.
Our requirement – UB must release the soil testing data and plans for Phase 2 of the study and fund the promised Environmental Health Center as directed by the Judge in order to turn their research into action and benefit our communities (victims of TCC’s crimes).
Issue 2– SUNY RF on behalf of UB has provided minimal transparency in how the money is spent.
Our requirement – SUNY RF and UB must release the data to the Department of Justice or neutral third party that can verify that the money is being spent in a manner consistent with the goals of the studies and the proposal.
Issue 3 – UB has distanced themselves from elected officials, ignored community members, and has not collaborated with our communities as a whole. We believe that these actions reflect a study that has shifted away from Judge Skretny’s intent and turned to focus on the University’s own academic pursuits, with limited regard for the impacted communities.
Our requirement – UB must be inclusive, responsive, and authentic in their collaborations with our communities (victims) in order to put their research into action and benefit the victims of TCC’s crimes. UB must involve the community (not just a few UB selected members), and especially elected officials, in the planning and implementation of their studies; UB should work with community organizations on community outreach; UB should hold public forums at times that are convenient for community members and should listen to the communities’ concerns and suggestions.
Through all these roadblocks, our communities continue to move forward with limited funding. We also continue to collaborate together: Erie County, elected officials, community groups, residents and the local school district to keep the doors open to our Environmental Health Center (located in Tonawanda) to bring programs and services to our residents. We are calling on the University at Buffalo and SUNY RF to meet with our group along with our local elected officials to resolve this matter so we can move forward in a productive relationship, restoring the health of our community.
In service,
Citizen Science Community Resources, Inc.