NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. (WKBW) — Residents of the Town of Niagara gathered Monday night to share information and develop a plan of action in response to ongoing radiation testing that has found elevated levels at several homes in the area.
The meeting, held at a hotel in Niagara Falls, was organized by Save Our Backyards Niagara, a community group co-founded by Lexi Hawk. About a half dozen homes are currently undergoing soil testing after a state and federal government screening process found elevated radiation levels.
"When people speak together, things get done," Hawk said.
Hawk said the meeting gave Town of Niagara residents a chance to understand their options for engaging with the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Environmental Protection Agency, and to explain what they believe the agencies should do. She said she would like to see more transparency from officials about the scope of contamination.
"It would be nice if they could at least, they don't have to tell people's addresses, but they'll just be like we have this amount that are contaminated like they used to do," Hawk said.
Residents packed the lobby to hear from four homeowners who were found to have the highest radiation levels in the county so far and have since temporarily left their homes. Jacquelyn and Jeremy Linkowski are among them.
"They found it everywhere, honestly, pretty much all throughout our home was 4 to 5 times background level," Jacquelyn Linkowski said. "So to just find out that we were getting blasted with radiation for almost 14 years, I can't really explain the feeling, but we just had to get out of there."
The Linkowskis have been living with her mother for the last 10 days after learning their home of 14 years is no longer safe to live in due to its radioactivity. They said the process of getting answers and being relocated was not easy.
"We want our neighbors and our loved ones to be able to be told the truth that you're getting high levels and we need to relocate you. That was not our experience. We had to fight to be relocated. We had to fight for our answers," Linkowski said.
Renae Kimble, president of the NAACP Niagara Falls Branch, facilitated Monday night's meeting. She said she would like to see Governor Hochul designate the Town of Niagara as a "Class 1 Superfund site". A Class 1 designation means contamination constitutes a significant threat to public health and the environment, and Kimble said it would provide important protections for residents.
"We would feel much better if they were in charge of doing the investigation and clean up and working to get our residents relocated," Kimble said.
Kimble also said the EPA and DEC must follow through on their promises to relocate any additional homeowners found to have elevated radiation levels.
"They're responsible for the soil, air and water, that it's safe and that people can live safely. It's not like a choice that they have. It is a legal obligation," Kimble said.
DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton spoke with 7 News on Monday. Officials said they are currently focused on thorium, which is what is being found at elevated levels at the tested properties.
WATCH: More community meetings set for radiological screenings
"That's why we started on this effort to proactively ask the question. We didn't want to wait 20 years from now and realize there was something wrong, something that we could have prevented if only we started looking," Lefton said.
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