Published: August 01, 2008 09:50 pm      

NIAGARA FALLS: Health officials want HOPE VI work halted

County health department concerned about hazardous waste on site of $80M project

The Niagara County Department of Health has issued a letter to the developers of the Niagara Falls HOPE VI project advising the company to “cease and desist all residential construction activities” on the project due to concerns of potentially hazardous waste levels and unstable land conditions.

In the letter obtained by the Niagara Gazette Friday, Director of Environmental Health James Devald cites “deficiencies” in assessment and planning reports submitted by Norstar Development USA, the company handling the city housing authority’s construction project. The reports include the project’s soil management plan and phase III assessment submitted to the health department last month.

An investigation by the department determined phase III land contains “waste materials with various inorganic chemicals above levels recommended by the (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation),” Devald writes.

Niagara Falls Housing Authority Executive Director Stephanie Cowart did not return messages left at her office and home seeking comment.

Linda Goodman, director of project development for Norstar Development USA, L.P. said Friday she had not yet received a copy of the letter, which was dated for Wednesday, and could not comment.

Among the specific problems in submitted reports:

n A failed TCLP, or toxicity characteristic leaching procedure, indicates the presence of hazardous waste at the site, but improper sampling techniques were blamed in Norstar’s reports — an explanation Devald calls “unacceptable.” Elevated levels of inorganics were not analyzed in the TCLP, mercury and arsenic are “absent” from the analysis and groundwater testing is needed to evaluate “exposure routes,” according to Devald.

n Devald cautions developers to investigate further before building on “former wetland with varying and possibly substandard quality of fill.”

“You are advised to seek out an acceptable soil and foundation structural stability study,” Devald writes, adding it did not appear the Niagara Falls Code Enforcement Department had been properly notified of plans.

n “The evaluation of the football field surface soil is unacceptable,” Devald writes. “The integrity of the report is questioned when two composite samples are used to justify clean soil on a 250,000 square-foot field where contamination is rampant below the fill and on similar surface soil immediately adjacent to the samples.”

n Norstar’s soil management plan states that “ash can be re-used below the final 2-foot soil cover,” but the health department “does not authorize a residential development as an acceptable disposal location.”

“All exhumed waste requires disposal in an authorized facility,” Devald writes. “All exhumed waste must be taken to a permitted landfill.”

This is not the first time the HOPE VI project has caught the eye of health agencies.

State and county health officials raised concerns in April over the levels of arsenic on a strip of land south of Centre Avenue, where construction was planned. The agencies determined the land’s arsenic levels exceeded 90 parts per million while acceptable arsenic levels for residential cleanup are 16 parts per million.

The local HOPE VI project is partially being funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has pledged $20 million to Niagara Falls as part of HOPE VI, a federal redevelopment program that seeks to revitalize badly dilapidated public housing projects into mixed-income developments. In all, the Niagara Falls project is expected to cost as much as $80 million to compete.

The city council also gave $1 million of its casino revenue to the Niagara Falls Housing Authority for the project in April.

Mayor Paul Dyster said he had received the health department’s cease and desist letter late Friday and would spend next week evaluating reports from the health department, the developers and the city’s environmental consultants. Once the information is analyzed, he hopes to meet with project stakeholders to discuss plans going forward.

“The city has a strong interest in the continuation of this project,” he said. “On the other hand, we have a strong interest in protecting the health and safety of our residents. Trying to strike that balance is the critical decision ahead of us.”

In the letter, Devald writes the department is available to discuss “the minimum requirements necessary to satisfy these concerns.”

“It is noted that the department has not approved any plans associated with this project and cannot do so until our regulations are satisfied,” Devald writes.