Letters to the Editor
Buffalo Crushed Stone DEIS found incomplete
By Jane Wiercioch - President Depew/Cheektowaga Taxpayers Assoc.
Nov 12, 2007, 19:20

The first of a series of responses regarding findings on the Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) submitted by Buffalo Crushed Stone (BCS) have been made public. Depew/Cheektowaga Taxpayers Association consultant Professor Joseph A. Gardella, University of Buffalo, Department of Chemistry, submitted findings indicating the BCS DEIS was incomplete and in need of more information.

His findings indicate BCS’ DEIS was faulty in many respects, especially regarding the health of residents and he is asking the DEC to require that BCS and their consultants to address these issues.

The Town of Cheektowaga still has not filed their findings although the Depew/Cheektowaga Taxpayers have asked for a SEIS to address issues that were not clearly defined in the DEIS.

The Cheektowaga Citizens Coalition has also filed their responses that were to be at the DEC on November 9th. New findings of hazardous materials that were not previously considered in the BCS DEIS need to be addressed.

Gardella findings

Department of Chemistry
Professor Joseph A. Gardella, Jr.
November 12, 2007

Abby M. Snyder, Region 9 Director
Steven T. Doleski, Regional Permits Administrator
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Region 9 Buffalo Office
270 Michigan Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14203-2999

Re: Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Buffalo Crushed Stone
Permit Application ID 9-1430-0001400011

Dear Ms. Snyder and Mr. Doleski:

I want to first thank you and Administrative Law Judge Molly McBride for extending the public comment period until today, allowing me time to review a number of parts of the subject DEIS so I could raise significant questions for review.

I have reviewed significant portions of the DEIS relating specifically to my concerns about gas phase priority pollutants, particulate matter emissions and the health impact studies that are in process. My concerns relate to projections of environmental impact in these areas, and feel additional information and analysis MUST be done before accepting the conclusions of the DEIS.

Public Health Studies (Section 4.1.3.3 Airborne Health Issues)

Let me first comment on the ongoing health studies in the Bellevue area. I obviously know the status of the UB/DOH studies, since I serve as PI on the UB portion. These studies involve asthma incidence in two neighborhoods, Bellevue and a similar area near Dick Urban, and autoimmune disease incidence in these areas.

I also have been party to presentations made regarding the studies on asthma incidence by Dr. Jamson Lwebuga-Mukasa to NYS DOH representatives at the Town of Cheektowaga offices. I work with Dr. Lwebuga Mukasa on a number of research projects and know the status of his ongoing work.

TVGA filed FOIL requests for information relating to incomplete UB/NYSDOH health studies. As I stated to TVGA representatives by phone, before the FOIL request, the data that is kept at UB is not subject to FOIL release for a number of reasons, most certainly because we have individual survey results which are confidential and governed by strict Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines.

These same IRB guidelines affect NYS DOH’s portion of the study. However, TVGA evidently made no effort to obtain fact sheets or other information from DOH. Further, TVGA did not research public documents that describe a number of precursor studies on autoimmune disease incidence.

All of that information is public and available. They did not schedule any attempts at a public interview of faculty that could have led them to real publicly available information. Their representatives clearly DID NOT understand how to collect and evaluate such information.

The studies that are publicly available all suggest serious health impacts in the area surrounding the present quarry. The health impacts are not discussed in the DEIS. The results of the FOIL request are simply listed and any further information is ignored. A better job of reviewing the structure, background and basis of these studies is necessary to understand the entire situation of public health in the area.

Lwebuga-Mukasa’s studies on asthma incidence have been widely reported and discussed. His results clearly show elevated levels of asthma incidence among residents and children in the local schools. Further, early studies by former UB faculty member Dr. John Vena, and his students led to enough preliminary concern by UB and DOH to structure the larger study that is still not completed. These studies were not identified by TVGA and not discussed.

By not reviewing known information on health impacts in the neighborhood, the TVGA DEIS suggests there is little information available on health impact. That is not true, and this entire section of the DEIS is insufficient, and uninformed.

The TVGA consultant evidently thought that FOIL requests to UB were sufficient. They did not schedule an interview with me, nor did they talk with Dr. Vena (now at University of South Carolina) or Dr. Carlos Crespo (now at the Portland State University), both of whom, as environmental epidemiologists, were the health study leaders. My service as PI recognized that a significant collaborative effort in environmental air pollution analysis would be required to link exposure to emissions, but TVGA did no research about the structure, content or background of either study. The draft EIS is incomplete without a careful analysis and discussions with all three UB faculty involved in this study.

I request that this section of the DEIS be redone with significant work on examining public health impact. Without that effort, linking historic exposure to air emissions, and then modeling the future impact of the emissions on the public are insufficient to conclude that there will be no negative environmental public health impact.

Air Quality Issues (Section 4.1.3.2)

I believe the TVGA DEIS deals with all relevant areas of air quality that I would be interested in, but falls short, perhaps, in one area.

One major community concern has to do with the heavy diesel truck traffic in the neighborhood, and the resultant diesel emissions among the air pollutants. Since EPA has seen fit to identify diesel particulates as a known human carcinogen, and issue regulations for new diesel engines, I believe the health impacts of the traffic must be accounted for in the DEIS.

I did not see a careful analysis of this air pollutant in considering the air quality issues. I think such an analysis is necessary and timely given the increased attention to retrofitting school buses by EPA and other efforts to lower human exposure to diesel particulates. At a minimum, I would expect that BCS should require all trucks in and out of the expanded facility to be retrofitted with either new engines or the filter systems that cut diesel particulate emissions.

Secondly, the analysis of air pollutants, such as hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and other nuisance odor/health impacts leaves much to be desired. Much is made of minimizing the bucket sampling effort by the Cheektowaga Citizens Coalition. That technology, while a single short term grab sample, was enough to motivate DEC Air Resources staff to investigate and obtain funding for Tonawanda’s air emissions in an ongoing project between DEC, EPA and the Clean Air Coalition in Tonawanda.

I would have expected a more significant effort to link the clear reports of air odors related to hydrogen sulfide to a planned sampling program to protect the neighborhood. Instead, analyses are accomplished and modeling is done to justify NO action whatsoever.

I insist that a public discussion be required to evaluate sampling and monitoring plans for the proposed expansion. Before a permit is granted, there must be a monitoring plan on site. Projections (without sufficient detail to analyze) based on modeling results are not sufficient to make the conclusion that no monitoring is required. We simply do not have information on emissions and the analyses in the document are not persuasive in comparison to the reports of odors and my own exposures in visits and work in the community.

I would have liked to see an analysis of a proposed air-monitoring program, similar to what is being established in Tonawanda, for continuous monitoring to protect the community. The fact is that this proposed expansion is right in the middle of a long established residential community.

While the lawyer for BCS may try to shift the blame on residents for living close to the quarry, the proposed expansion of the quarry now will increase potential exposures. The best way to evaluate those impacts is to propose a continuous monitoring program. That should have been considered and discussed and was not.

The limited air pollution studies that have been accomplished are not enough to base a conclusion that no further study or monitoring is warranted. The community has concerns and these were identified but simply rejected as relevant to planning for the future.

I believe that the Draft EIS can be improved by including, analyzing and addressing all of the above listed issues. Much effort has gone into the evaluation of the proposed permit. The present DEIS does not address public information health issues that are known concerns, and leaves much to be desired as a plan to protect public heath in the future.

Before we can evaluate the environmental impact fully, these issues should be required by the DEC to be addressed with additional efforts by BCS and their consultants.

Sincerely,

Joseph A. Gardella, Jr.
Professor of Chemistry


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