Toxic Air Pollution/Goodyear

Electric towers and air pollution in yellow sky

Pixabay: Electric Towers during Golden Hour

For almost 4 years, the Niagara Falls Goodyear plant has been releasing a known carcinogen, ortho-toluidine (OT), into a New York State (NYS) designated “environmental justice community”. This working class community has been living under an OT toxic cloud up to 105 times higher than the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Annual Guidance Concentration. 

  • The Sierra Club Niagara, Clean Air Coalition of WNY, Don't Waste NY, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Niagara Falls and the Interfaith Climate Justice Center of WNY sent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 Administrator Lisa Garcia an email in November of 2024, requesting that the EPA issue an Emergency Order under the Clean Air Act (CAA). 

  • The EPA, along with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), met with us virtually on January 14, 2025. The EPA decided they would let the NYS DEC continue to take its time to regulate Goodyear’s air emissions, rather than issue an Emergency Order.

  • After our virtual meeting on January 14, we obtained a copy of the consent decree which the DEC had signed with the leaders at Goodyear. It had been signed on the same day as our meeting (January 14, 2025). The consent decree allows Goodyear 22 months to install equipment that would reduce OT emissions to safe levels. Members of our coalition agree that Goodyear should be required to make the required changes much more quickly, since OT is a documented bladder carcinogen!

  • We are currently working to organize the citizens who live in the affected areas of Niagara Falls in order to put pressure on Goodyear and the DEC to speed up the installation of equipment that will reduce 90% of OT stack emissions, as well as the fugitive emissions that are not contained in stack emissions. This is critical to the health of the workers within the plant, as well as those who live in the neighborhoods closest to the plant.

If you are interested in joining us in this fight, please email us at Niagara Sierra.