Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - The last several months for Jocelyn McKiernan and her family have been, to say the least, a living nightmare. The family has been dealing with dangerous levels of toxic waste at their 99th Street home near the Love Canal Superfund site, and efforts to have them relocated by state officials have been futile.
The latest chapter to the nightmare for the McKiernan family now comes with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials conducting more radiological tests at the Catholic Academy of Niagara Falls - the school in which one of Jocelyn's three sons attends.
"It's been known for 42 years that there are hotspots on this property, and it's rather alarming that nothing has been done in these 42 years," said McKiernan in an interview with WBEN. "Some documents do show that the background levels are up to nine times where they should be. So to find this out, not only are we dealing with contamination at our home, but now our son is also being contaminated when he goes to school. It's heartbreaking. How do we keep our families safe when this is at school, at home, in other places throughout the Falls?"
With the radiological testing at her son's school, McKiernan feels the transparency from EPA officials has been lackluster.
"From where I stand as a parent, we didn't know that the school was even being tested," she said. "From what I understand, from what I've been told, they haven't gone inside the school to even know if it's safe for the children to be there attending classes. I know they're there today, and that's wonderful. We obviously want these results, we want to know how much contamination is there? But there hasn't been transparency. The parents, the staff, we don't have the map that shows where these hotspots are. We don't know if the inside of the school is safe, and there's been assurances that they are safe, but it just doesn't come off that way."
She feels if the communication was there from federal officials, there would be a better overall understanding as to why they are conducting further testing, and what they were looking for.
"My husband and I know enough that if they're doing soil samples, they're usually looking for chemicals or radioactive debris. So there's a reason that they're testing there, and they haven't given us the full explanation. Why are they testing there? What are they looking for? How bad could this really be?" McKiernan said.
McKiernan's frustrations have also been with the school, and even admits to contemplating whether to pull her son from the school going forward.
"I went into my son's school [this past Friday], I had asked for a meeting with the principal who wasn't there the day after this newsletter went out. The front desk greeted me, we had a nice conversation. We exchanged change for the snack sale that was more important than the radiological testing that had occurred at the school, it was just a hidden blurb in a newsletter underneath the snack sale," McKiernan said sarcastically. "And then I was walking my son to his classroom when the security guard met me and escorted me out of the school. He told me I wasn't permitted to be there, the principal wouldn't be meeting with me. And if I had questions, I could go to the news outlets - who I had spoken to - and looked at their page to find out information."
In terms of the family's continued efforts to be relocated from their Love Canal neighborhood home, McKiernan says she and her husband, Daniel, just sent comments back on DEC's updated work plan that includes books-worth of health and safety risks for all of the chemicals and heavy metals that have been detected on their property. But still, they have not been given any opportunity to be relocated, at this time.
"We're still fighting for that. We we still want to be relocated. We should not have to live in a home that is so heavily contaminated," McKiernan said. "It's everywhere on our property. It's in the home, our robot vacuum picked up on lead and aluminum and all sorts of heavy metals, and our sump pump was contaminated. But the DEC and the Department of Health are pushing back heavily on us. They do not want us to be relocated, they are not willing to work with us on that. And, frankly, the Department of Health has been completely absent with us again. We're just going to continue fighting the fight."
The McKiernans also continue to plead with state officials like New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, but they have yet to receive a phone call from her, even though she has chatted with other concerned Niagara Falls residents.
"She has not given us the time of day," McKiernan said. "We did file a civil rights complaint because we believe the EPA needs to step in and take over on this. And at the end of the day, the EPA used their funds to relocate those four families who have radiation. They should be doing that for our family. So we're going to keep spreading the message. We're going to keep reaching out to the agencies. We're going to have this testing done that shows just how bad the contamination is, and hope that one thing or another will lead to them doing the right thing, finally."
When all is said and done, McKiernan is only hoping for transparency from every agency and public official, whether it relates to radiological issues in the neighborhood or at local schools and other public facilities.
"As parents, we deserve to know the truth. And as things progress, we just want everyone to be aware of what's there," she said. "We should never have to fight this hard to get information regarding our properties, regarding where our children are going to school, or just in general. If there's contamination there, it needs to be addressed, and these agencies need to do a better job at working for the people. That is their job."
