Coal Tar is Leaching into Canal, DEC Reports
By Thomas J. Prohaska, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Jul. 7–LOCKPORT — Coal tar from a long-demolished gas manufacturing plant is leaking through the Erie Canal walls, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said in a report last week.
The contamination is making its way through bedrock and can be seen when the canal is at its winter levels. During the boating season, the coal tar is below the water’s surface, said city Director of Engineering Norman D. Allen.
The DEC is holding a public information meeting in City Hall at 7 p. m. July 15 to discuss its findings and solicit views on possible remediation of the leaching coal tar.
Allen said the source is a property on South Transit Street where a New York State Electric & Gas Corp. electrical substation now stands.
According to the DEC report, a plant for manufacturing gas stood there from 1851 to 1927. It made a combustible gas from coal and other sources.
DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren said the agency began soil borings on the site in November 2004. In the two-year process, she said, the technicians determined that coal tar has migrated through bedrock north to the canal wall.
Allen said the leaching is visible during the low-water season on the canal wall near St. Mary’s Catholic Church, west of the locks.
The DEC plans a feasibility study on options for remediation, Wren said, and a decision will be made within the next 12 months. “That time line is dependent on the public comments,” she said. Once a work plan is proposed, she said, there will be another comment period.
Carmella R. Mantello, director of New York State Canal Corp., said her agency was aware of the findings. “Canal Corp. staff is waiting for DEC’s proposed remedial action plan for the site,” she said. “We will comment during the public comment period.”
The City of Lockport sometimes uses canal water for drinking water during high-demand periods. “The intake on the canal is upstream, but it hasn’t been used in quite some time.” Wren said. “The water would be tested and treated to ensure that it meets all provisions of the Department of Health sanitary code.”
The DEC says groundwater has not been affected by the migrating tar and that since the material is not easily accessible to the public, there seems to be no immediate hazard.
Allen said this site is separate from another one NYSEG owns on State Road near South Transit Street, where a gas plant also once stood. Last year, after the city objected to cleanup work that would have required fencing off the site and perhaps blocking the Canalway Trail, the DEC settled for covering the coal tar area with gravel.
Wren said that there was a small area of tar found in 2004, during Stevens Street Bridge construction.
The substation site is “more serious,” Allen said. “It’s coal tar leaking into the canal.”
tprohaska@buffnews.com
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