Since the Clean Air Coalition began taking its air samples in 2005, the group has been collecting political support along the way.

Locally, Erie County Legislator Michele Iannello, D-Kenmore, has been involved with the Clean Air Coalition longer than any other elected official. She’s a fixture at most of the group’s meetings and has pushed for more attention to be given to the cause in various venues. Iannello put forth a unanimously approved resolution in the Erie County Legislature requesting that Tonawanda Coke and the other polluters along River Road reduce the harmful emissions they release into the air.

Both the City of Tonawanda and Town of Tonawanda issued similar resolutions in a show of support for the endeavor. State Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, also added his name to the list around that time, asking that federal stimulus money be used to help offset the cost for companies looking to reduce emissions.

It’s important to note, however, that all those resolutions amount to nothing more than a call to action and carry no consequences for being ignored.

After the June release of results from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s year-long air monitoring study showed benzene coming in high concentrations from the Tonawanda Coke area, residents were greeted with more support. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter to plant owner J.D. Crane demanding a meeting between Crane and the community to develop a plan for reducing benzene emissions.

“While I commend you on your efforts to reduce levels of certain toxins, much more needs to be done to reduce the amount of benzene that Tonawanda Coke releases into the air,” Schumer wrote on June 22. “I have no doubt that an emissions reduction plan can be developed and implemented in a way that allows the plant to prosper even while protecting public and worker health.”

Crane’s response

In a response to Schumer written Aug. 21, Crane argues that his company is and has always been in compliance with its DEC operating permit. He goes on to say that “not once has our facility been cited for an air permit violation or air releases in excess of DEC air quality standards.”

Sitzman said that’s not true, and in a letter to Crane he spelled out the problems the DEC has with those statements. Since Crane took over in 1978, the Tonawanda Coke plant has been cited three times for air quality violations. In 1981 the facility was sent a consent order to bring itself in line with new permitting agreements. There was no fine attached to that order.

Another violation in 1998 related to too much smoke coming off during the coking process, but also carried no fine. In 2006 the company was cited for an opacity violation, meaning the smoke coming from its tall smokestacks was too dark. That carried a $6,000 fine and has since been resolved.

But Crane’s letter to Schumer also points out that a DEC study in the 1990s found that “motor vehicles are by far the single largest source of air pollution in New York state.” He contends that since the air monitors are adjacent to not only Tonawanda Coke, but also to the I-190/I-290 corridor, the results are showing excess benzene from cars, not his plant.

While DEC officials have said all along that vehicle traffic and Tonawanda Coke produce roughly the same amount of benzene each year — provided the coke facility is in line with its permits — Sitzman disagrees with Crane’s estimations about car traffic.

Sitzman says Department of Transportation numbers provide accurate counts for the number of cars, and through that the levels of benzene being produce by those cars, each year. But with the DEC ruling out traffic as the cause, it means there’s still unaccounted-for benzene coming from somewhere.

The air monitors pointed at Tonawanda Coke.

That’s why a new round of testing was done at the River Road facility, with the Environmental Protection Agency and the DEC on board. The EPA is reviewing its results, but has published some of its data already. Crane said a look at it shows spikes of benzene levels in the middle of the night that aren’t accounted for by his plant.

“What happened there? A truck probably passed by,” Crane said.

University at Buffalo chemistry professor Joe Gardella, who has been working with the CAC for years, disagrees. He said this new testing was done on the outskirts of the Tonawanda Coke plant to see how the emissions migrate into the community.

“They took a portable device with them that measures benzene by reading the spectrum in the air,” Gardella said.

While the EPA isn’t willing to draw conclusions until its study is done, Gardella said his analysis of the data shows concentrations of benzene shooting up between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Later in the day there are also spikes, but those are substantially lower than the ones late at night. But where Crane contends the measurements reflect passing trucks, Gardella said in the middle of the night there is less traffic on the road. He argues that traffic-related emissions are more of a gradual rise and fall, not the sharp increases the EPA found — and if traffic was the cause the spikes would be seen during rush hour, not in the middle of the night.

“Trying to figure out whether benzene is from industry, these spikes are a really good indicator,” Gardella said.

Second wind

After Crane’s letter to Schumer, the public pressure waned, but behind the scenes things were moving.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., began assisting the CAC in late July by seeking to arrange a meeting with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter also began pushing for a community meeting with the EPA, writing a similar letter to Jackson in October. Slaughter said she intendes to call Jackson soon to add her voice to the chorus demanding some action. Iannello has also continued her push to get the Grand Island tollbooths removed, saying the reductions in exhaust from idling cars would both eliminate some benzene and remove arguments from Crane’s arsenal.

“The bottom line is if we did remove the tolls, the overall threshold of benzene would be reduced,” Iannello said.

Recently interest in the pollution debate has been rekindled. In its story about the Tonawanda Coke facility published Oct. 11, the Buffalo News cited DEC studies in claiming the facility produced 75 times more benzene than the DEC’s recommended levels.

Tom Gentile, who heads the air toxins section of the DEC’s Division of Air Resources in Albany, and Larry Sitzman, one of the DEC air quality engineer handling the site, both said that claim is false. They say that the benzene levels picked up on one of the air monitors reflects that level of benzene, but both are quick to point out their investigations haven’t pinpointed Tonawanda Coke as the source.

Still, the number has had a lasting effect on the debate, with various media outlets and politicians quoting the figure.

This quote, taken from a press release issued by Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, relied exclusively on the assumptions presented in the Buffalo News story and subsequent TV media reports:

“The DEC found that the benzene emissions by Tonawanda Coke are up to 75 times higher than recommended guidelines,” the release stated.

Hoyt also said the state may need to close the plant out of public health concerns while the evaluation is being completed. A letter from the assemblyman to State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo went even further than his public comments, stating, “benzene emissions from Tonawanda Coke were found, on average, to be 85 times higher than the EPA guidelines.”

No where in any of media reports or government research reviewed by the Tonawanda News has there been mention of levels 85 times higher than DEC recommendations.

Schumer’s statement on the subject, sent out Oct. 14, echoed those comments.

“Data from an EPA and DEC funded study confirms that Tonawanda Coke is responsible for releasing tons of toxic chemical compounds into Western New York’s air each year, resulting in levels that are up to 75 times higher than New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recommended guidelines in some areas,” Schumer wrote.

Gillibrand was more careful to note that the benzene levels exist without outright tying them to Tonawanda Coke.

“I continue to be deeply concerned about the air quality surrounding Tonawanda Coke. The study in (the Oct. 11) Buffalo News cited alarming levels of carcinogens in the air at up to 75 percent higher than recommended guidelines. I plan to call EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson this week to urge swift action on this matter. It is critical that the EPA in Washington, DC meet with local residents to address this issue,” Gillibrand said in her statement, also sent Oct. 14.

Buying influence?

While several politicians have lined up to support the CAC’s endeavors, the group wonders about Crane’s influence on others. A flier being circulated by the CAC points out the various politicians who received money from Crane for their campaigns.

The list includes Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Anthony Caruana and Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, both Democrats, and Republican Rep. Chris Lee.

Crane, however, said supporting candidates that he thinks are best, just as everyone else is allowed to do, doesn’t mean he gets anything in return in his role as a business owner. Crane added that he has been contributing to individual candidates, not to parties’ national funds, for more than 10 years.

“I don’t make any apologies for making political contributions,” Crane said.

Caruana also doesn’t make any apologies for accepting contributions, although he’s not sure he’s ever met Crane. The supervisor said he held a fundraiser two years ago hosted by Schimminger and that approximately two-thirds of those in attendance were people he’d never met before that night.

“To be honest with you, I can’t remember meeting him, although it would have been then if ever,” Caruana said. “I may have said hello or something like that.”

Regardless of whether Crane contributed to his campaign, Caruana said that doesn’t entitle him or anyone else to special treatment. The supervisor said he has been a supporter of the Clean Air Coalition, lending his support to the Town Board’s resolution asking that Tonawanda Coke and other industrial polluters work with residents to reduce harmful emissions.

“If their company is breaking the law, they should be fined,” Caruana said. “If he’s doing something wrong in the town, he should be looked at absolutely, and that’s what the DEC is doing.”

Schimminger said he met Crane once, a couple of years ago, but echoed Caruana’s sentiments that meeting a local business owner doesn’t mean that person gets special treatment. The assemblyman said his office has been present at every DEC air quality meeting during the past year, conversed with relevant DEC and EPA staff about the issue and supported the DEC’s efforts to study the problem.

“Tonawanda Coke is one business which has, like many other, supported my reelection,” Schimminger said. “The leaflet implications are clearly without any basis and over the top.”

Lee didn’t personally respond to a request for comment about the donation, but his office issued a brief statement.

“Congressman Lee has promoted an agenda of growing jobs and the economy. He enjoys strong support from a variety of people across Western New York,” Lee’s spokeswoman Andrea Bozek said.

Call to action

Regardless of any support for either side, CAC founder Jackie James-Creedon said her group wants results. That’s why she and the group’s executive director Erin Heaney are in Albany today meeting with representatives from Gov. David Paterson’s office.

“We pay our taxes, we fund the DEC and we fund the EPA,” Heaney said. “They’re the experts. They should be working for us to find out what the right controls are.”

Iannello agrees with that sentiment and disagrees with Hoyt’s statement made over the weekend that the current laws are good and just need to be enforced.

“Self-reporting is not acceptable for me,” Iannello said.

Tuesday’s Tonawanda News detailed the fact that much of the measurements for benzene emissions come from the plant itself, which calculates how much pollution is being emitted based on how much coke had been produced.

According to Sitzman, the DEC has put off rewriting Tonawanda Coke’s air permit so that the agency will have all the new data on hand while making decisions. The process is tricky, especially given the imprecision of some of the DEC’s rules. “Best available control technology" is a term often used when discussing technology that would improve emission controls, but the idea both empowers and handcuffs regulatory agencies. The term basically weighs the cost of improvements against the number of people who will benefit. When there are large amounts of emissions that would carry serious financial penalties for companies, the best available technology argument is easy to sell to a company. But when the pollution is coming in small amounts, Sitzman said it doesn’t take much to tip the scales against installing cleaner technology.

Fining the facility is another concern, since Sitzman said a threat of fines is often the tool agencies use to negotiate improvements. Iannello has been a vocal critic of the DEC’s lack of fines and said getting improvements for the future and fining a company for crimes in the past shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.

“I’d be curious to see, when the report comes out from the EPA, if any fines are given to Tonawanda Coke,” Iannello said.

In the meantime, Iannello is preparing a larger push for signatures on petitions asking for the removal of the Grand Island tolls, saying every drop in the bucket helps. And when the CAC’s leaders return this week and prepare for a trip to make their pitch in Washington, they’ll have a better idea of what they want their next move to be.

Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.