FREE JUNE 23 - JUNE 29, 2016 VOL. 17, NO. 25 FREE Nuclear Waste Site Lies Open and Exposed on North Ave. in Falls 2 NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER JUNE 23 - JUNE 29, 2016 Abandoned Nuclear Spoils Pile in Niagara Falls Presents Danger to Public, Despite Radioactive Warning Signs, and Niagara County are an indicator. The By Louis Ricciuti & possibility exists that the exposed site may also contain plutonium, called by some Frank Parlato scientists as “one of the most toxic substances known to mankind.” NIAGARA FALLS, NY – A spoils pile – All of these radiological materials were which has signs posted around it warning that handled, enhanced, manipulated or otherwise it is radioactive -- at 915 North Ave. -- the past produced in Niagara Falls in the chemistry site of a Niagara University bar once known labs and metallurgical furnaces powered by as McQ’s, has been left abandoned and open Niagara’s abundant electricity. Many of these to public access. elements were subsequently buried locally, The security gate on the chain link including direct-to-soils burials. fence around the site has been bowled-over Nearly all recently discovered waste allowing unrestricted access by the public sites around Niagara Falls have been dubbed, and the sheet-plastic covering has blown off “filled with slag,” which is a catch-All term in places and is ripped in others allowing for waste material which contains radioactive the hazardous materials in this waste to be materials. carried away by rain and blown by winds into Without laboratory analysis, public the open windows of the densely populated oversight and split laboratory sampling, it neighborhood which includes The Colt Block may be impossible to know the true danger of Apartments and Wrobel Towers at the corners the pile on North Ave. since not every metallic of Main Street and Ontario Avenue. smelting operation produced the same kind of The brand new $44 million train station waste materials or waste-stream. sits about 75 feet from the radioactive pile The source of the pile is also unclear. which has several yellow lawn-style signs With the train station being next door and around its perimeter which read “Caution Another Atomic Age Spoils Pile -- this one having signs posted around it because at least one contractor at the train warning that it’s radioactive - on North Ave., at the past site of the Niagara Radioactive Materials Area.” station (Resetarits Construction) reported How Long? University bar and hangout once known as McQ’s, has evidently been left they were confronted with radiological abandoned, exposed and open to public access. How long the radioactive pile has been problems during construction, it is possible located at this site is unclear as of press time that this North Ave. radioactive pile came but it is evident that it has been neglected for from atomic waste buried during the 1940’s licensed landfill where they are to be stored have been permitted to lie haphazardly and months, if not years. or 1950’s at the train station site which was radioactively “hot” for 100’s of generations. unprotected on North Ave. if there had been Google street-view maps from 2007 unearthed during recent construction. The location for this pile of radioactive a city engineer? show waste roll-off containers on this weed- A large quantity of atomic age, nuclear waste raises additional questions. Skurka is suing the City of Niagara Falls strewn property, which lies only 100 feet from slag was also buried underground along Niagara Falls has been without a city for unjust termination. the sidewalks of Main Street and Ontario nearby Lewiston Road and was unearthed engineer for years. The last one, Jeffrey How Radioactive material came to be Avenue. during the road reconstruction project Skurka, was fired while the Lewiston Road buried A 2011 satellite image of the area shows completed in August 2013. project was ongoing and just prior the Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, Niagara a large white splotch, presumably the white According to city officials and state commencement of the train station project. Falls was the premier city for experimentation, plastic covering that was earlier intact, now records, all radioactive slag from the Lewiston What, if any environmental laws have research, development and production of sitting in tatters. Road reconstruction project (2009-2013) -- been broken since Skurka’s firing? atomic bomb materials (i.e. radioactive) The radioactive pile may contain where a lawsuit emerged over the quantity of Skurka was fired because he raised throughout the Manhattan Project and into uranium, radium, and/or thorium -- if radioactive materials buried under the road -- safety concerns on Lewiston Road and The Atomic Energy Commission (predecessor records of similar sites around Niagara Falls were removed and sent to an out-of-state and elsewhere. Would this radioactive material of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) eras. NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER “The Truth is Always Fair” CHAIRMAN & EDITOR IN CHIEF Frank Parlato Managing Editor Senior Editor Dr. Chitra Selvaraj Tony Farina phone: (716) 284-5595 PO Box 3083, Niagara Falls, NY 14304 email: [email protected] www.niagarafallsreporter.com . 3 NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER JUNE 23 - JUNE 29, 2016 Broken Fence and Tattered Plastic Cover Allows Unrestricted Access and Possible Spread of Contaminants licensing, handling and disposal. Regulations and, that there’s “no such thing as a “safe were lax then. Consequently, Niagara’s dose,” however small. nuclear waste was disposed of in a variety of Regardless of the depth of danger, this ways including burying it under roads under exposed radioactive pile should be removed the theory that submerged under gravel and to a state and federally licensed radioactive blacktop the radioactive wastes would be waste storage facility as soon as possible. harmless to residents For now this “biologically hazardous” That theory has been proven over time pile, most likely made radioactive as part of to be flawed. Radioactive waste emanations the atomic age and Niagara Falls’ role in it, have been demonstrated to penetrate through then buried underground, sits amid the people road materials and some believe that for of Niagara Falls. decades people took a dose of radiation right Residents are advised to stay clear of the through the bottom of their cars every time pile. they drove down Lewiston Road. In the meantime, the spoils pile on North Ave. – which was probably buried for decades - under either Lewiston Rd. or at the train station site - is now no longer buried. A Geiger counter reading taken by the Reporter at the exposed site showed the pile exceeded natural background radiation rates by orders of magnitude, or by at least 1000 times what should be considered natural for Warning signs which read “Caution, radioactive materials area” are posted any area. around the hazardous pile on North Ave. While how serious a health hazard it If the whole world stands represents to nearby residents will not be against you sword in hand, According to U.S. Department of Energy uranium metal-from-ore in the nation. known without testing, the U.S.E.P.A. warns would you still dare to do what that “all exposures to ionizing radiation carry records, Niagara Falls industry during that The production of these materials you think is right? period was the largest production center for created nuclear wastes which needed special a risk for inducing an associated disease,” 4 NIAGARA FALLS REPORTER JUNE 23 - JUNE 29, 2016 NBC News Story Bringing Niagara Falls to Millions Ignored by State Parks, NTCC, Dyster James Hufnagel On the occasions that Niagara Falls is featured on Good Morning America or Entertainment Tonight, profiled in People magazine or plugged on a travel website like TripAdvisor, the collective public relations apparatus of the city, State Parks and the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation (NTCC) usually takes notice. Whether it’s a Wallenda walk, an episode of “The Office”, visit by some royal or other celebrity to the falls or yet another Nightly News anchor Lester Holt introduced a meaningless tourism award for Maid of segment entitled, “Meet the Man Responsible the Mist and its twenty-minute boat ride - for How Much Water Comes from Niagara the media coverage is invariably deemed Falls”. desirable and momentous, and guaranteed to “If you’ve been to Niagara Falls, then be touted by the local professional tourism you know first-hand the sheer power of the bureaucracy as greatly promoting Niagara spectacular force of nature,” intones Holt. Falls as a vacation destination, enhancing the “Niagara Falls, one of the great fortunes of the local tourist industry. Often, natural wonders of the world” continues the NTCC takes credit for helping engineer correspondent Harry Smith, narrating over the publicity, as if the millions of tourists who breathtaking footage of the falls. “Every day visit the world-famous attraction every year hordes of plastic-ponchoed tourists purposely It’s not hard to figure out why NBC chose to film their report on the spa- do so significantly because of the labors of get as close as they can get. Spoiler alert... cious Hornblower boat, rather than the cramped Maid of the Mist, on which John Percy and his crack media relations staff. they get really wet!” most have to stand on their tiptoes to get a decent view. Therefore, it would seem something While the two-minute segment focuses of a mystery why the tourism powers-at-be, primarily on water diversion as it impacts in conjunction with local dailies and other hydropower production on both sides of the news outlets, utterly failed to hype the fact border, the entire first thirty seconds of the clip that Niagara Falls figured prominently on prominently show tourists clad in ponchos a national network news show a couple getting drenched by the invigorating spray on of weeks ago.