GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Grand Island Town Board voted to allow the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to continue radiological assessments in the community, including at Veterans Park on Bedell Road.
The vote came during tonight's town board meeting, where DEC representatives and several residents were present.
The DEC identified Veterans Park as one of the locations flagged during an aerial survey. Because it is a municipal property, the agency needed permission from the town board before proceeding with ground-level testing.
DEC Engineering Geologist Patrick Concannon said the aerial survey identified a point of interest at the park but stressed it does not indicate a confirmed problem.
"Five-hundred to six-hundred-foot diameter to it, basically, we saw 11 points on a map in Veterans Park. It doesn't indicate that there's a problem. It doesn't indicate that there's something along the lines of some of the concerns we've been addressing elsewhere. It's simply a location of interest," Concannon said.
Grand Island resident Jim Daigler, an environmental engineer with a specialty in solid waste and landfill, also spoke at the meeting. He said the news was not a surprise, but said he hopes to learn more from the DEC soon.
"How does it compare to the health thresholds and so on? So, my concern is we really, we don't know. This is not a new issue, so I don't really know how intense this radiation is," Daigler said.
Town Supervisor Peter Marston said the DEC also discussed privately owned properties on the list, though he was not told their locations.
"I was told at that meeting two weeks ago that there were between 15 and 20, and 3 of them had already been walked in, in essence without saying it cleared to be a non-issue," Marston said.
Marston added that Grand Island has never been an industrial community, with no smokestacks or chemical plants, and said he does not anticipate any findings of radioactivity in the community. He said testing at Veterans Park will begin soon.
