The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York (CACWNY) is a community health and advocacy group working to ensure local residents’ right to a healthy environment.  The group organizes media campaigns, provides resources, and designs programs to help reduce pollution in local communities

Gabel, Kathleen

English

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10-30-2011 
Monitoring Pollution in our Communities: The Clean Air Coalition 
of Western New York 
Kathleen Gabel 
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Monitoring Pollution in our Communities: The Clean Air Coalition of Western New 
York 
Abstract 
The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York (CACWNY) is a community health and advocacy group 
working to ensure local residents’ right to a healthy environment. The group organizes media campaigns, 
provides resources, and designs programs to help reduce pollution in local communities. 
Keywords 
Buffalo, Environment, Air Pollution/Climate Change/Energy, Fact Sheet, PPG, PDF 
This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/buffalocommons/47 
Monitoring Pollution in our Communities:
The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York
        
       
 
What is the Clean Air Coalition 
The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York (CACWNY) is a 
community health and advocacy group working to 
right to a healthy environment
provides resources, and designs programs to help reduce pollution in local 
communities.   
 
CACWNY emerged from a number of grassroots movements in 
the town of Tonawanda
of Buffalo, organized by residents who believed they were getting sick 
from pollution from nearby industries.
neighborhoods had been cleared as safe by state and federal agencies, 
members of the early coalitions organi
and send them to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for analysis.   
The EPA returned the samples with a report that they contained extremely 
high levels of benzene, 
cancers, including leukemia and other chronic illnesses
CACWNY took the results to the state, and along with the EPA, the state 
conducted a comprehensive study from 2007
benzene and five other hazardous air pollutants 
 
 
FACT SHEET    
              
 
 
 
 
Kathleen Gabel 
 
 
 
CACWNY's Erin Heaney speaks to media at a demonstration  
outside the Tonawanda Coke Plant in 2009.1 
of Western New York? 
ensure local residents’ 
.
2
  The group organizes media campaigns, 
 and the Black Rock and Creekside neighborhoods 
3
 After hearing that their 
zed to collect their own air samples 
a known human carcinogen linked to a number of 
. Members of the 
-2008. The study found 
in high levels. 
      
 
 
October 30, 2011                                                 
 How did the CACWNY use state and EPA reports? 
The CACWNY used these reports to focus on one major polluter: 
Tonawanda Coke. The CACWNY went into the local community and 
encouraged people to purchase special air quality testing buckets (pictured 
below). The residents organized “bucket brigades” to test air quality at 
their homes.4 Physical evidence of pollution in the buckets helped lend an 
urgency to the work of getting the factory to reduce its emissions of 
benzene and other toxic matter.  
 
What are these buckets and how do they work? 
CACWNY uses buckets similar to the one pictured below to allow 
citizens to collect samples of air for further testing. The bucket takes an air 
sample by vacuuming and trapping a few liters of air in a plastic or Teflon 
bag.  The sample is then sealed and sent to a laboratory for analysis.  The 
laboratories follow EPA standard techniques to test the samples and 
provide results for a fee. 5 
6
 
Graphic illustration of an air sample bucket. 
The buckets can only monitor some pollutants; for example, they 
cannot measure particulate matter or toxins, such as dioxins, that normally 
attach themselves to particles.7  Combined with a margin of general user 
error, this means that the bucket brigades may be more useful in getting a 
message of concern out to community residents, companies, governments, 
and agencies, rather than in providing scientifically accurate results. 
 
Costs and usage in Buffalo 
The buckets cost about $100 dollars each, while the sample bags 
inside them cost about $10 a piece.8 It costs approximately $500 to have 
one air sample bag tested at the EPA.9  Because bucket samples are still 
pricey for grassroots organizations like the CACWNY, the group only has 
three. CACWNY uses its buckets sparingly—either when they are looking 
for evidence about a more generalized problem of air pollution, such as 
research into the potential causes of asthma on Buffalo’s West Side, or 
following a specific event, such as a large-scale industrial fire.10  
 
 It takes only three minutes to vacuum and store an air sample
bucket.  This speed and convenience is a boon to local
organizers because they do not have to explain a complicated processes to 
their members; however, the downside is that a three minute sample is an 
extremely narrow snapshot view of the air at the time it is taken.
 
 
Media reports 
The CACWNY ha
local media—at least in regard to Tonawanda Coke. A 
media found massively increased coverage from 2008 onwards (see figure 
below). However, some questions remain as to whether the Tonawanda 
Coke story has unwittingly eclipsed stories about smaller local polluters, 
or stories from other nearby communities.  
 
12
 
Regulatory response and lawsuits
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation 
(DEC) is now monitoring the community on a
is providing follow
released.13  In addition, many
lawsuits filed in September 2010.
suing for damages to health and property under the auspices of another 
community action group called
 
Criminal liability
Mark L. Kamholz
Tonawanda Coke plant, was arrested and criminally indicted for 
counts of violating the
 grassroots 
11
s been very successful in getting its message to 
study of local 
 
 
 regular basis, and the EPA 
-up reports on progress after their major report was 
 residents have joined in two class action 
14
 One group of about 260 individuals is 
 Citizens United for Justice.15 
 for polluters 
, the environmental control manager for the 
fifteen 
 federal Clean Air Act, including five offenses 
 in a 
 
 relating to releasing coke oven gas containing benzene.
allegedly leaked through an unrep
counts are related to operating two towers without baffles, which are 
required by Title V of the Clean Air Act to reduce particulate matter.  
Kamholz could face up to five years imprisonment and a fine of 
The company itself could be fined up to $500,000.
 
Grant money 
In July 2011, the EPA announced that it will provide a 
grant to the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute
Tonawanda businesses conduct their own assessments of environmental 
impacts of their manufacturing processes.
positive changes remains to be seen: this is an area where the CACWNY 
will keep vigilant to help assess progress towards real environmental 
improvements instead of just better publicity for industry. The EPA also 
awarded a $100,000 grant to the CACWNY to help the Tonawanda 
community ensure 
considered by government and agencies.
 
What is the CACWNY working on now?
The CACWNY is working with the EPA, DEC, and local 
government on continu
recently, though, the CACWNY has become involved in m
air around the sites of industrial fires.  Most notably, after a major 
industrial fire at Niagara Lubricants
CACWNY noticed that local agencies were not monitoring air pollution in 
the neighborhood immediately a
and worked to distribute buckets and information as they did with 
Tonawanda Coke, and are now working with the residents to demand 
better emergency response systems from state and local agencies
 
Gary Castanik, a 20-year employee of Niagara Lubricant, left, and his friend Mark Nagowski, a former 
employee, express shock at the extent of damage to the facility after 
 
 16
 The gas was 
orted pressure relief valve.17 10 more 
$250,000
 
 
$130,000 
 to help 
18
 Whether this will result in 
that its particular environmental needs are heard and 
19
  
 
ed monitoring of Tonawanda Coke.20 More 
onitoring the 
 in Buffalo in summer 2011, the 
fter the incident.21 They took to the press 
.
the Niagara Lubricants fire
. 
22
  
 
.
23
 
 The group is also organizing community meetings to gather 
preliminary information based on neighborhood complaints in the Camden 
Avenue area of pollution from school busses.  The group believes that 
idling school busses might be contributing to rising asthma rates in the 
neighborhood.24 They plan to take air samples using the buckets.  In the 
meantime, they are working on an advocacy campaign to stop idling for 
long periods in the winter, including alternative battery-powered or 
electric warming devices and the enforcement of current statutory bans on 
idling for more than five minutes.25 
 
CACWYN has also organized citizens in West Side neighborhoods 
to take photographs of pollution and alleged polluters in their 
neighborhoods.26 The photographs were displayed in a public exhibition, 
to which public officials, including the mayor, were invited.27  The 
photography project is ongoing and may serve as an awareness-raising 
tool for neighborhoods and government.28  The photographs could 
potentially serve an evidentiary purpose in an adversarial context. 
 
Aiding citizens through Internet communication 
The CACWNY provides space on its website for citizens to 
write to DEC with their concerns.  They can fill out and send in 
forms reporting pollution from the site. While the forms are on the 
site, they require information in some detail: times and places of 
specific incidents, for example, or results from home monitoring.  
The website provides phone numbers and contacts for local 
officials, as well as emergency hotlines. This information can help 
ordinary citizens who might not have the kind of detailed 
information necessary to fill out EPA or DEC reports.   
                                                        
1
 David Kowalski, Re-Energize Buffalo,  
http://thegoodneighborhood.com/2011/02/09/clean-air-coalition-picking-
up-steam-staff-a-chat-with-erin-heaney/. 
2
 “About us,” Clean Air Colaition of Western New York, 
http://www.cacwny.org/about/our-mission/ (accessed Oct. 12, 2011). 
3
 Seamus Gallivan, “Clean Air Coalition Picking up Steam & Staff – A 
Chat with Erin Heaney,” The Good Neighborhood, Feb. 9, 2011. 
4
 Emma D. Sapong, “Two plants accused of air pollution,” Buffalo News, 
Feb. 17th, 2005, available at http://www.gcmonitor.org/article.php?id=187. 
5
 “POV: Fenceline: A Company Town Divided, ” PBS, July 23, 2002, 
http://www.pbs.org/pov/fenceline/getinvolved_article02.php (accessed 
Oct. 12, 2011). 
6
 Id. 
7
 Id. 
8
 Personal communication, Oct. 13, 2011. 
9
 Id. 
10
 Id. 
                                                                                                                                           
11
 Id. 
12
 Lawrence W. Gallick, news assessment from Lexis Nexis in “Media and 
Advocacy: Lessons Learned in Coverage of the Tonawanda Coke 
Controversy”, prepared for Media Law and Policy at the University at 
Buffalo Law School, Feb. 2, 2011. 
13
 See Tonawanda Community Air Quality Study 
Fact Sheet - October 2009, available at 
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/59464.html. 
14
 Class Action Suit Filed on Coke Plant, Tonawanda News, Sept. 28, 
2010, available at http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x535471788/Class-
action-suit-filed-on-coke-plant 
15
 Al Vaughters, “Over 200 people suing Tonawanda Coke,” WIVB, Jun. 
7, 2011, available at http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/erie/Over-200-
people-suing-Tonawanda-Coke. 
16
 See Press Release, United States Department of Justice, 
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nyw/press/press_releases/TonawandaCokeInd
ictment.pdf. 
17
 Id. 
18
 Air News Release (Region 2): EPA and DEC Report Progress at 
Tonawanda Coke Corporation; Announce New Commitments in 
Tonawanda Community Environmental Protection Agency Documents 
and Publications July 20, 2011. 
19
 Id. 
20
 Newsletter, CACWNY, April 2011, available at 
http://www.cacwny.org/docs/april2011.pdf.  
21
 Joyce Kryszak, “WNY Coalition Calls for Public Health Response to 
Industrial Fires, Sept. 9, 2011, WBFO, available at 
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/6601/0/18
54370/Environment/WNY.Coalition.calls.for.public.health.response.to.ind
ustrial.fires. 
22
 Id. 
23
 Derek Gee, Buffalo News, Aug. 21, 2011, 
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/west-
side/article487077.ece. 
24
 Personal communication, Oct. 13, 2011. 
25
 Id. 
26
 Id. 
27
 Id. 
28
 Id. 
_____________________________________________________________ 
 
Partnership for the Public Good    
www.ppgbuffalo.org    
237 Main St., Suite 1200, Buffalo NY 14203 
_____________________________________________________________ 


Monitoring Pollution in our Communities: The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York

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