The Department of
Environmental Conservation announced today that air quality testing should
begin early next month in the Peace Bridge neighborhood. The Buffalo News has the story here. The DEC will be monitoring upwind and downwind of the bridge in two, six
month phases. The first monitoring phase will be before the planned expansion
and the second phase will occur six months after the expansion has been
completed.
Once all the data has been
collected the DEC will compare notes and see if there has been a significant,
negative environmental impact with the expansion and the additional trucks sure
to follow. While nearby residents have been trying to get the air quality
monitored for quite some time, the DEC is only acting now and it seems like the
effort is coming up short.
Peace Bridge neighborhood
resident, Kathleen Meeca believes the effort is, “too little, too late” and I
definitely have to agree with her. It has been documented that cases of asthma
in the neighborhood are significantly higher than other areas of the city as a
result of the truck traffic and idling. While it’s good that the DEC will be
finally monitoring the effects, what happens after the expansion is built and
it turns out the air quality is even worse?
Does anyone actually think
that if that turns out to be the case the newly built expansion will be
bulldozed to reduce the negative impact? The following letter comes from Dr.
Jamson Lwebuga-Mukasa, President and CEO of Respiratory and Environmental
Exposure Consultants. Dr. Mukasa has performed several of his own tests in the
Peace Bridge neighborhood in recent years. His research was also the basis for
a thesis project I completed in my final year in UB’s Environmental Design
program.
“After a transient decrease
in traffic congestion at the bridge and US Customs, truck traffic volume may
actually increase as truckers take advantage of decreased congestion at the
bridge. Increased truck volume will trigger in a new round of congestion and
parking lot enlargement paid for by the taxpayers. The proposed plan does not
address pollution due to diesel trucks accelerating out of the plaza and the
idling of the trucks at the duty-free shop at the parking lot. Increased truck
volume will increase pollution at these sites, which are major causes of
pollution.
The congestion and increased
pollution will require more land expansion deep into the community. So will the
illnesses associated with particulate exposure. This will results in further
widening of the parking lot and associated pollution due to further additional
traffic. Buildings number at the parking lot will need to be increased to
service the increased parking lot customers. Multi-story buildings at the
parking lot may be erected on the parking lot. Spaces between multi-story
buildings form channels with increased wind flow, which results into pollutants
penetrating deep into the community. Multi-story buildings ruin the quality of
life for those living in the community by obstructing the lake and river view
and rendering Front Park unusable because of increased pollution.
I now wish to talk about
children’s health. Sick children do learn as well. If a child has been up all
night, or in the emergency room and/or hospital, because of asthma, sinusitis,
ear ache, cough or nasal congestion he/she and the parents will not be able to
attend school or go to work. This contributes to already poor school attendance
and school achievement. Parents too leave work in order to take care of the
children. This contributes to a permanent underclass of community residents
that will last 50 to 100 years.
In the meantime, an organization
will make a lot of profit from tolls and shops at the parking lot. The city
will continue to provide services for the sewer system and connecting roads.
The number of jobs will be low paying and likely episodic. Workers at the tollbooths
are exposed to truck pollution and develop chronic illnesses that will increase
as traffic increases. Because pollutants are distributed to other organs in the
body, most people do not associate their illnesses with traffic pollution. For
example, heart attacks, stroke, certain cancers and other inflammatory
diseases. Such illnesses are paid for by taxpayers. The parking lot owners keep
the profits.
The construction of transit
traffic parking lot in a densely populated urban community is ill-conceived,
horribly unjust and progress in reverse, especially when other cities are
diverting pass-through traffic from downtown. Proper environmental assessment
has not been performed because of unachievable rushed timelines. Yet residents
are threatened with properties seizure when they request that justice be done.
The threats create uncertainty and a further deterioration of a stable diverse,
historic community. The rushed air monitoring schedule does not take into
account seasonal variations likely to invalidate the assessment. It appears
that studies are being done to cherry peak results that support the parking lot
expansion into the community.”
I had an opportunity to talk
to Kathleen Mecca further so she could elaborate on her opinion of the
expansion. “The DEC ploy is to detract from the scientific data collected by
Mukasa-Spengler and to avoid conducting an environmental impact study.” said
Mecca, “DEC monitoring does not replace that process and cannot be used to
avoid requirements under environmental law. Air monitoring is a part of the EIS
not a substitute. Why is the DEC so willing to violate NEPA?”
Mecca went on to explain
that, “Irrefutable data on air toxins at the peace bridge already exists that
is peer reviewed by top scientists. The location of DEC monitors is arbitrary:
According to Mukasa-Spengler, the hottest spot for fine particulates and toxins
was at the Episcopal Church Home not Busti and Vermont. Reason; The bridge and
the ingress and egress of truck diesel emission. The ECH is where the PBA
intends to expand it’s complex either with a Duty Free or some other truck
staging function – we don’t know because they won’t tell us.”
The whole situation
continues to result in more unanswered questions than anything else. “Why has
the scientific evidence been ignored by Higgins, Ryan, Kennedy, Mayor Brown,
David Rivera, Sam Hoyt, Gov. Cuomo, the PBA and now the DEC?” asked Mecca, “Who
are these agency bureaucrats that hijack federal policy & laws and why are
they able to get away with it?”