Government thieves want to steal a building from coal electric plant that the government forced to close

[Saltwater60]

This is ridiculous IMO. Obamas coal regulations forced this plant to close and now since they decided not to sell it to the town of tonawanda they just decided they will take it through Emma any domain. What the hell gives these people the right to even think they can do this? Makes me sick.

Town of Tonawanda announces new plans for Huntley site

TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger has big plans for the Huntley Plant on River Road. During his State of the Town address, Emminger announced the town…

www.wivb.com

 

[Vantrepes]

The town is pissed they aren't getting taxes from a new development, so they plan to steal it, and sell it to someone else.

 

[Acer-m14]

maybe they should fire the place back up to make that needed electric for all them EV autos that will need charging they want to force on us ..

 

[spat]

Last time a town in western NY did that we ended up with Love Canal.

If you don't know the history, company knew the place was highly contaminated and wanted to just hold onto it forever to avoid complications.

Town threatened to seize it if they wouldn't sell, because they wanted it developed.

Company sold it for like $1. New neighborhood got built, beaucoup tax dollars to be had. Then the company that was forced to sell it became the bad guy when kids started getting sick.

 

[spat]

100% true, although most don’t know it.

Government is asshole.

It is the one universal constant.

 

[Saltwater60]

The town is pissed they aren't getting taxes from a new development, so they plan to steal it, and sell it to someone else.

There more to it than that. This plant used to run a cooling pump that supplied cooling water to a couple other factories. There factories said if we don’t have that we’re gone. I wonder if that’s in jeopardy and I think the town took control of that. I’ll have to ask my buddy who runs one of the plants what the status is.

 

[Saltwater60]

100% true, although most don’t know it.

I did not know that.
This is an industrial area so I don’t picture houses being built there. It’s right on the Niagara River, but no one would want to live there.
As far as I understand it the contamination is from tonawanda coke not Huntley, but I’m not even sure if any testing was done on Huntley property. I’d refuse.

 

[Saltwater60]

I am referring to Love Canal, not Niagara Mohawk’s Huntley Steam Station (now closed) in N. Tonawanda. The most truthful expose of what actually happened was published like 40 years ago by Reason Magazine. As I recall, the original “Love Canal” was an attempt back in the late 1800’s to create a water bypass around the Falls, but it was not completed.

The actual ground,- like a lot of it in Niagara County, is heavily clay. Which is why there are still other landfills in Niagara County even today.

Anyway, the original Hooker Chemical company ended up buying it, and used it as a landfill. The thing is,- they were a responsible company who disposed of their wastes properly,- based on what was known at the time. They also did work for the US Government during WWII and some of that waste also was disposed in there.

After the war, as the economy boomed, the City of Niagara Falls wanted to grow, and as the city was constrained by the river, they could only expand eastward toward the canal. Hooker, which was a relatively small company had only limited resources to fight them when N Falls fought them for that land. Rather than go bankrupt and lose control over land that they knew contained plenty of dangerous chemicals, they agreed to sell it with the agreement that 1. The city agreed to never develop the actual canal land itself. That allowed the city to use the surrounding land. And 2. They specifically had the title modified to warn all future owners that the land was not to be disturbed for all eternity, as it contained chemicals that could kill, etc. And under duress, they sold it to the City of N Falls for $1.00. Later, the company was sold to Occidental Corp, who of course had big pockets and would later be sued for the canal.

The real problems began when the City ignored Hooker’s warnings, and built a school directly on top of the canal cap, and sold off the adjoining land to developers who built housing on it thereby surrounding the canal. And then they cut into the canal to run sewer and utility lines to the houses. And chemicals that should never have been disturbed began leaching out of the sealed canal landfill and into the homes.

What happened next of course was that the residents (led by Louis what’s her name) cried foul; and the city and the school district that created the problem in the first place then sued Occidental Chemical Corp. and the whole thing blew up and was turned into a a superfund site, with the houses and area condemned.

Now, years later, the government has claimed that the entire area is “safe” and has resold some of the houses as I recall.

Do you trust the government? Do you want to live there?

Sorry if it wasn’t clear, but yes I was aware you were referring to love canal in your post. I just didn’t know that background of it.

 

[Saltwater60]

No sweat. If memory serves, there is a cluster of industrial plants right there on and near Sawyer Ave. that were dependent on Huntley for either steam and or power. They include the Chevy engine plant; DuPont’s Corian plant; FMC; and 3M’s plant.

I expect that when all is said and done, that the government’s forced closing of Huntley will end up being a cluster of epic proportions…

You’re correct. I’m not sure if all those plant rely on Huntley, but I know three do for cooling water alone. Also don’t forget the government forced the closure of tonawanda coke. Do I agree with that one yes likely because they violated environmental regulations on benzene multiple times. However the regulations change so much that maybe something else could have been done.
The true issue is with Huntley and tonawanda coke closing that put them in bad with tax money. They had to lay off cops and are still short to this day.