Lewiston Village Board member questions underlyings of plateau
LEWISTON — Village Board member Terry Collesano told the board Monday he “didn’t want to be an alarmist,” and then turned on the siren, asking if anyone really knows what’s buried deep beneath the Lewiston Plateau.
The 42 acres of land east of Artpark was owned for decades by the New York Power Authority. Over 50 years ago, when the Schoellkopf Power Project collapsed and fell into the gorge, the debris from the old plant, along with debris from the Robert Moses Parkway construction, was dumped at the site in Lewiston and was known for many years as the “Spoils Pile.”
It’s no longer spoiled however. The Village has been leasing it from the state for $1 a year since 2001 and has used money from Niagara County’s Environmental Cleanup Fund to restore the area, plant grass and put in recreation fields, while environmental groups have nurtured grasslands for habitats.
But Collesano said since the state leased the land to the village again (at its July 7 meeting as part of the relicensing agreement), he said he is concerned about what was dumped at the site before all the rock was put there.
“Page three of the deed said the premises are accepted as is with all their faults and with all their environmental hazards,” Collesano said. “I remember a sulfur chemical company used to dump all its sulfur waste there. One truck, three to four times a day for seven years.
“I remember it was gooey, yellow and smelled like rotten eggs” he said. “Sulfur has carbon tetrachloride and bisulfite, nasty stuff. Was any testing ever done? They didn’t have those concerns 50 years ago.”
Mayor Richard F. Soluri said they took soil samples when they did the reclamation project, but Richard SanGiacomo, the village engineer, said testing wouldn’t have gone very deep.
Collesano said he just wants the Power Authority to provide the village with all of the information so that they know what tests were actually done at the site.
“Maybe we need to look into it a little more and ask for these tests,” Collesano said. “We should know what we are getting into.”
In an unrelated environmental issue, the board unanimously voted to support a resolution to ask the state Department of Environmental Conservation to stop sending toxic waste from downstate to Chemical Waste Management in Youngstown.
Niagara County Legislator John Ceretto said he will sponsor a similar resolution at to-night’s Legislature meeting that will tell the state agency that 75,000 tons of toxic waste from Glens Falls should be cleaned up on-site, rather than be sent here to Niagara County.
“It bewilders me how they can send all the waste from downstate here just to save a penny. It’s like blood money,” said Ceretto.
In another matter, the board agreed to a request from the Little Yellow Chocolate House to remove the Visitors Center from the Center Street store. A new location for the center has not been determined.
Owner Jonathan Boas, who took over the former Chamber of Commerce site for his store, said he had agreed to temporarily house the Visitors Center until the spring, but said that instead of helping out, they were being asked to take away time from their customers.
Co-owner Cathy Boas said that it’s too late this summer, but hopes that with the added space they can offer scoop ice cream in the Visitors Center space next summer, since chocolate is not as popular in the warm weather. They already offer some ice cream treats.
In addition, the village, which is renting the building to the Boas, agreed to the Boas’ request for a formal lease agreement.
