NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — The Niagara Falls Fire Department and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation responded to 99th Street for a possible toxic spill at the home of a family who has been pushing for relocation relief.
Daniel and Jocelyn McKiernan have sounded the alarm since July, saying they believe hazardous materials are in their backyard. I covered their pleas for relocation last month.
The McKiernans told me on Thursday they hired a private contractor, separate from the DEC, to do some testing. They said that during digs in their backyard, a dark sludge came up from deep beneath the ground.
“Because we know what’s here, so we wanted more proof,” Jocelyn said.
They said their tests started inside the home, and once the sump pump inside of the basement was tested, Daniel immediately felt off.
“I started to feel violently ill, nauseous, flu-like symptoms. I didn’t feel right. I felt horrible,” Daniel said.
They still pushed forward, moving outside to test the backyard, where their worries originally began nearly two months ago.
At that point, the McKiernans said that they called the fire department. I was on scene when firefighters were there, and I watched some evaluate Daniel.
Daniel told me he drove himself to ECMC in the early afternoon, where he planned to get testing done.
Firefighters stayed on scene until a DEC worker arrived. The testers on scene told me that, based on a photoionization detector, they found no volatile organic compounds in the outside air.
However, I’m told they’re sending samples of the soil and sump pump water for anything that may fall below the detector’s threshold.
The DEC provided me a written statement that you can read here:
"The safety and the well-being of the family at the 99th Street property remains a top priority and New York State is committed to a full investigation and remediation of the property. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) laid out a plan for the residents that we believed would effectively investigate the contamination to ensure a full remediation. The property owners have not yet signed off on the plan. Instead, the residents hired a private contractor whose work we can't control and the quality of which we can't guarantee. Performing this work was not consistent with the recommendations provided to the residents not to disturb the material prior to DEC's investigation and cleanup so that exposure of potential contamination could be minimized."
WATCH: 'Started to feel ill': Fire Department, DEC respond to possible toxic spill in Niagara Falls
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