What You Need to Know To Help Remediate the Former American Axle Site!
The American Axle site located at 1001 East Delavan Ave. has been known to be significantly contaminated. Approximately 110 thousand gallons of PCBs are located underneath this site. PCBs, known carcinogens, were found to be leaking into the sewer that flows under community members homes. Families are afraid to drink their water and plant gardens in their backyards.
Our members have been organizing for a comprehensive remediation for years. The new owner, developer Jon Williams, has put in a sampling plan to the State of New York to renew. This plan, called the Remedial Investigation Work Plan, is in a public comment period. This sampling plan is a foundation to any future site remediation. The deadline for this comment has been extended to Monday, August 24th.
Do you want to see this site remediated in a way our community deserves? We need you to comment on or before Monday the 24th!
If you care about the health of the community, write, email or call the Department of Environmental Conservation and tell them that The Remedial Investigation must comprehensively investigate for lead and other metals on this site, as well as investigate off site potential avenues for off site contamination.
What you need to know to comment:
What are you commenting on? You are submitting a public comment on the Remedial Investigation Work Plan, or RIWP, for the former American Axle site in the Delavan Grider community in Buffalo. The RI is the plan to investigate how dangerous the site is to human health and the environment. The RIWP describes how the owner will test the site to determine the levels of toxins and geographical location of the contamination and suggests how the owner will remediate it. This is one phase in the process of cleaning up the site. Learn more about the brownfield process by watching this short video!
Who are you commenting to? You are writing a comment to the site manager at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). This is the agency that oversees environmental remediation programs in our state.
Why is this important? The RIWP is an important step in the remediation process. Finding where and how concentrated the waste is will determine if it will be removed, or if it will be capped and buried. If no one knows about it, they can’t remediate it. The more people that show concern means that the DEC needs to pay more attention.
How to comment: Comments can be submitted by mail to the site Project Manager, Eugene Melnyk at 270 Michigan Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14203; via email eugene.melnyk@dec.ny.gov; or by calling 716-851-7220. Make sure you include the site number and the address of the site.
Comments must be submitted by the deadline, 5pm on Monday August 24th 2020.
If you are an individual see our sample comment below.
If you are a leader in an organization or community group see our sample comment below.