Community groups, environmentalists and politicians work together to bring an end to high levels of deadly benzene at Tonawanda Coke.
Last
week we brought you this story from members of the Clean Air Coalition of
Western New York (CACWNY) concerning Tonawanda Coke. This week CACWNY has teamed up with the Coalition for
Economic Justice (CEJ) to call to call the Erie County Industrial Development
Agency (ECIDA) to account for subsidies provided to a subsidiary of Tonawanda
Coke.
Specifically,
the groups have expressed outrage against the ECIDA’s decision to subsidize
Braxner, LLC, a subsidiary of the Tonawanda Coke Corporation.
Sunday,
The Buffalo News confirmed that in 2006 Braxner LLC, a real estate holding
company related to Tonawanda Coke, received $130,000 in property sales and
mortgage tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency. The
money was part of a project that allowed Vanocur Refractories, a company that
makes cast blocks used in refurbishing coke ovens, to renovate and move into a
building down the road from Tonawanda Coke.
In
addition, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer demanded that J.D. Crane, owner and CEO
of the Tonawanda Coke Corporation meet with community groups and listen to
their complaints about the pollution coming from the Tonawanda facility and to
explore potential solutions. Crane has blamed the plant’s benzene
emissions, which are up to 75 times higher than NYS Department of Environmental
Conservation recommended guidelines, on nearby automobile traffic.
Schumer
doesn’t believe a word of it and says, “The time has come for Mr. Crane to sit
down with the community groups who have raised very serious concerns about
Tonawanda Coke. I have long championed manufacturing in Western New York and I
value Tonawanda Coke’s importance as an employer in the region, but Mr. Crane
must now end his stonewalling and meet with community members, hear their
stories, and produce whatever evidence he has to back his claims that his plant
is not the cause of the elevated benzene and ammonia levels in Tonawanda.
The source of the pollution must be identified and mitigated, and a more
concerted effort must be made to prevent these toxic chemicals from making
their way into our air to ensure the health and safety of residents and
workers.”
According
to Erin Heaney, director of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, “The
community is outraged that the ECIDA supported one of JD Crane’s companies
despite his long history of disregard for the environment and his neighbors. In
the future, the ECIDA should fully investigate the environmental and labor
records of businesses they intend to support with tax-payer money.”
The
Coalition for Economic Justice partnered with the Clean Air Coalition as part
of their multi-year fight against IDA abuses. CEJ has been working with labor,
community and environmental groups across the state to advance legislation that
would reform how NYS’s 115 Industrial Development Agencies operate. As part of
a state reform package they are championing, businesses seeking tax breaks
would have to disclose – in a community impact report, how their operation
affects environmental quality. Further, no financial assistance would be
allowed if a business has committed a substantial violation of a state or local
law or regulation relating to environmental protection, taxation, financial
assistance, worker protection or minority or women-owned businesses within
three years of the application.
“Clearly
these reform measures are needed to ensure that the public isn’t giving
hand-outs to polluters like J.D. Crane,” said Allison Duwe, Director of
the Coalition for Economic Justice. “Crane is a very wealthy business
owner who has a track record of poisoning his workers, their families and
children, and the air all of us breathe. If he is going to ask for taxpayer
assistance he should use it to clean up his act and his plant, and do right by
his workforce and the community, not line his own pocket.”