Crusade to clear the Tonawanda air

TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) - It's not only foul smelling, it could also be lethal. Thursday night, Tonawanda residents spoke out about a potential health-hazard in their own backyards.

The State Health Department is now stepping up it's efforts to resolve the health problem. But at the public meeting, residents, many of them with some form of an illness, say they're fed up with all the talk and no action.

Mary Moore is convinced her breast disease was caused by some kind of pollution in the Town of Tonawanda.

And everyone there thinks the air and ground quality are responsible for the unusual health pattern in the town and in the city.

Moore said, "No, is there someone who doesn't know of someone with cancer, one person who doesn't know someone with cancer?

Now residents are demanding to be tested.

The State Department of Health does plan to conduct a health study once the Department of Environmental Conservation releases it's final study.

Aura Weinstein of the State Health Department said, "We're gonna talk about the different kinds of health studies that are available and what they can do and what they can't do."

One thing the study won't be to determine is a cause and effect. But residents think they already know the cause based on the DEC's latest findings.

Jackie James-Creedon of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York said, "What they concluded is air toxins must be reduced in Tonawanda and also in particular, the Tonawanda Coke Corporation."

United States Senator Charles Schumer wrote a letter to the owner urging his corporation to reduce it's levels of benzene emissions.

Schumer said, "We are putting a lot of pressure on the company and on the various environmental agencies to stop this from happening."

So far, no one from the Tonawanda Coke Plant has attended any of the public meetings.

Once the DEC releases it's final study on air quality, state health officials say their study may take two years.