In general, it’s good for industry to work with surrounding community members and leaders. Companies are, after all, corporate citizens of those communities and draw their workers from them. But cooperation wouldn’t seem to be the case at Tonawanda Coke Corp.

Company owner J. D. Crane has refused repeated requests to talk to this newspaper, the public and members of the Western New York congressional delegation, although the firm is facing allegations that its emissions are sickening the surrounding community.

News staff reporter Mark Sommer has written several articles on this issue, including stories of people who have had cancer and those who died from various forms of the disease. Area residents believe there may be a link between cancers or other ailments and the smell of rotting eggs and burning tar in the air. State and federal regulatory agencies have studied and, in some cases, cited the company for air-quality violations.

Yet the company has maintained a consistently uncooperative stance, even to the point of rejecting findings by the Department of Environmental Conservation and a request by Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N. Y., to develop a benzene-reduction plan.

Crane’s response was to write back that the high benzene levels near the plant are caused primarily by cars and trucks. As Schumer wrote in a scathing letter, the claim is not credible.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N. Y., earlier announced plans to consult with the head of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her concern is echoed by the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York.

Reasonable people want to know what’s going to be done. Tonawanda Coke Corp., on a 188-acre site at 3875 Rover Road along the Niagara River, produces high-quality foundry coke for use in melting metal and removing impurities in the steel manufacturing process. The state DEC found the plant to be emitting benzene, a carcinogen, up to 75 times higher than recommended guidelines and up to 2z time 1/3 more than what the company reported to regulators.

Both the Environmental Protection Agency and the DEC could inform the company of expected goals to reduce benzene emissions and the path to get it done.

Technology exists to mediate benzene emissions. Government agencies, which have produced strong studies outlining the problem, have a mandate to lay out expectations. Since neither Crane nor his representatives will open the door to public scrutiny, government agencies should say what can be achieved.

The DEC has been on site and has developed recommendations to reduce ammonia emissions. But that’s not what people are worried about—it’s the benzene. Whether the plan comes from Tonawanda Coke or the DEC, it will provide the community with information on plans and costs. It’s incumbent on either the government or company to get a plan into the hands of the people to assess what can and should be done.