NIAGARA FALLS — Three generations of Love Canal residents, joined by regional and national environmental and civil‑rights groups, filed an administrative petition with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health on Oct. 2, 2026, asking the agencies to take immediate action to protect families living in the Love Canal Emergency Declaration Areas.
The petition asks the state to immediately relocate the McKiernan family from a house at 1026 99th Street — roughly 300 feet north of the Love Canal Superfund containment area — and to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to provide Superfund funding for the move. It also requests a comprehensive remedial investigation of EDAs 1–7 and adjacent streets, an inquiry into whether the Love Canal landfill is leaking, and testing of soil, groundwater, indoor and outdoor air and other environmental media for exceedances of state cleanup standards (6 NYCRR Part 375).
According to the petition and supporting documents, DEC sampling and an independent environmental company working with the McKiernans detected heavy metals and an array of hazardous chemicals at and around the property in July 2026. The petitioners say visible industrial waste, ash‑like material and noxious odors were found after shallow excavation for a backyard pool and that non‑aqueous phase liquid (NAPL)‑like material has infiltrated basement drains and sumps.
The filing singles out the state habitability decision from the late 1980s — which allowed portions of the EDAs to be resettled — as unscientific and says DEC and DOH left contamination in place on some properties in the EDA in the 1990s. The petition cites historic critiques from the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups to support its contention that containment systems and caps degrade and that monitoring and leak‑detection systems are essential.
The petition is signed by residents Daniel and Jocelyn McKiernan and other first‑, second‑ and third‑generation Love Canal survivors, Dr. David Carpenter, SUNY Buffalo Law adjunct and author Christen Civiletto, Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, NAACP Niagara Falls Branch, Save Our Backyards WNY, Sierra Club Niagara Group, Nuclear Information & Resource Service and multiple local advocacy organizations.
Petitioners say the agencies should determine whether residential properties in and around the EDAs exceed the State Superfund Soil Cleanup Objectives and other health‑protective guidance and should inspect whether the leachate collection system and other engineered controls are operating effectively. The petition invokes Section 204 of the New York State Administrative Procedure Act and requests the agencies issue a declaratory ruling; under the statute the agencies generally must respond within 30 days unless their rules allow up to 60 days, the petition notes.
The filing includes an EDA map and links to supporting reports and prior reviews, including EPA Five‑Year Review material cited by petitioners. The petitioners also released a companion “truth‑telling” memo summarizing historical statements and reports going back to the 1980s.
DEC and DOH were not included in the materials provided with a statement responding to the petition. The petitioners request the state immediately seek EPA assistance to relocate the McKiernan family and to initiate an urgent, comprehensive remedial investigation of the EDAs and adjacent streets.
Editor’s note: the petition and related documents are the primary source for this report. DEC, DOH and EPA have not been quoted here; reporters should seek agency statements and obtain underlying lab data, chain‑of‑custody records and any completed sampling reports for independent verification.
