Nearly 50 years after Love Canal first shocked the nation, local residents and environmental groups will hold a news conference in Niagara Falls to release a petition asking New York state agencies to re-examine whether homes in and around the Love Canal Emergency Declaration Areas (EDA) remain contaminated and habitable.
The media advisory says petitioners will call on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Department of Health (DOH) to reopen the question of whether families are living amid inadequately investigated toxic contamination in the Love Canal EDAs. Organizers singled out the McKiernan family, who live a few hundred feet from the Love Canal Superfund site on property the advisory says received limited remediation and where contamination was reportedly left behind. Petitioners are asking that the family be relocated immediately and that the state investigate other homes in the EDAs and surrounding streets.
Organizers described the petition as including statements, testimony and report excerpts from multiple groups and sources, including the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Save Our Backyards WNY, Clean Air Coalition of WNY, NAACP Niagara Falls Branch and Sierra Club Niagara.
Event details
When: Friday, October 2, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. (organizers note the event will be livestreamed; a livestream link was not included in the advisory).
Where: LaSalle Senior Center / Nutrition Program pavilion, 9501 Colvin Blvd., Niagara Falls, NY. The advisory included a satellite map with a pin marking the pavilion.
Speakers listed in the advisory
- Chris Murawski, Executive Director, Clean Air Coalition of Western NY
- Luella Kenny, Love Canal Homeowners Association
- JoAnn Abbo-Bradley, former Love Canal resident
- Attorney Christen Civiletto
- Representative of Save Our Backyards WNY
The advisory frames the petition as raising a question with potentially major consequences for Niagara Falls and the long-running Love Canal legacy: why the Love Canal EDA areas were declared habitable and whether adequate investigation and remediation were completed before families returned.
Organizers supplied a link to a map of the seven EDA areas hosted by the University at Buffalo digital collections: https://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/items/show/16702
Editors: the advisory did not include a copy of the petition, underlying sampling or remediation reports related to the McKiernan property, or a livestream URL. The story below is based solely on the media advisory and the attached satellite image provided by organizers.
