04/21/09: NIMBY: Petroleum Gasoline Tainted Soil Near Black Rock School

Original YNN Buffalo Air Date: 04/21/09
Black Rock’s Hank Sontag watched contractors start hauling soil into a privately owned lot nearly two weeks ago. The mounds border train tracks and sit less than 100 feet from West Hertle Middle School and nearby homes.
“The kids come back and forth through here from the school, neighbors cut across the tracks to get to markets, people standing on the dirt several times already,” said Hank Sontag
But it’s not just the dirt. It’s the petroleum and gasoline mixed in that’s fueling Sontag’s anger.
Crews dug up the soil from around gas tanks at an old donut shop at Elmwood and Hertle. The new owner of the old lot and the Black Rock dumping spot handed the soil over to the state for clean-up.
Department of Environmental Conservation officials say they are waiting to hear back from the New York Department of Health and the US Environmental Protection Agency to find out if there are any health precautions they need to take before treating this soil. This call could take anywhere from one to two weeks to hear back. The process may take one to two years to complete.
“The contaminates that are in the soil are what we call weathered petroleum, and what that means is they’ve been in the soils for a long time the tanks were probably installed in the 1980’s and anyone familiar with the area knows the gasoline station at the old Dickey’s Store hasn’t been in operation for many many years,” said New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s Dan King
DEC officials say they plan to treat the soil in the safest natural way possible.
“Fertilizing it like you would you’re own lawn. Maintaing moisture. Periodically rotating the soil to aerating it and then letting the decomposition process take place naturally,” King added.
Sontag says there’s nothing natural about it. He plans to go before the Buffalo School Board Wednesday night to voice his concern for students who attend West Hertel Middle School.