LEW-PORT: Board president admonishes critics about truck traffic

By Aaron Besecker/beseckera@gnnewspaper.com

The Lewiston-Porter Board of Education has admonished its critics who have raised concerns about trucks hauling hazardous waste past the school campus to a nearby landfill.

In its first public statement in months regarding the issue, Board President David Schaubert responded to a series of comments made during the board’s public input sessions in recent months by saying the board won’t be drawn into a scuffle over larger issues.

“The district will not allow the various political action committees on both sides of the hazardous and nuclear waste debate to use the students of the Lewiston-Porter School District as pawns in forwarding their individual agendas,” Schaubert said in the statement issued last week.

He pointed to two formally established avenues the district will use to supply its input on the issue — the CWM Chemical Services Citizens Advisory Committee and the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works Restoration Advisory Board.

The school has to deal with both the good and bad aspects of being located on a state road, Schaubert said.

“The concerns presented to the district and the board by citizens are and will continue to be taken seriously,” he said.

Schaubert’s comments did little to appease parent April Fideli, whose daughter attends a pre-school program at Lew-Port. Her comments helped ignite the issue this past fall. She said the board’s statement did not address the issue of the risks caused by truck traffic.

Fideli said she’s seen trucks convoying and violating blackout hours on a regular basis. She has also called for better enforcement of the existing traffic rules.

“I’m completely infuriated,” she said. “The fact that they would say that we’re using children as pawns is absolutely absurd. We’re just trying to protect them.”

CWM, the northeast’s only hazardous waste landfill, utilizes “blackout” hours when trucks are not allowed to arrive at its Balmer Road gate, just a few miles down the road from Lew-Port.

The blackout times are meant to coincide with times students arrive and leave the school campus.

Trucks hauling waste are prohibited from arriving at CWM’s gate on days when school is in session between 7:15 and 9:15 a.m. and 2 and 3:45 p.m.

Schaubert told the Niagara Gazette on Wednesday the board has no official opportunity to dialogue with residents during public comment periods at meetings.

“It was determined that there should be some type of response reminding everyone that the district’s position has not changed and reiterating what the position is,” he wrote in an e-mail, “so as to avoid misinformation or confusion surrounding how the district is protecting the interests of the students and staff.”

Lori Caso, CWM community and municipal affairs manager, said the company takes the trucking situation very seriously. Company officials recently conducted a meeting with trucking companies to ensure they understood the transporter rules and regulations.

She pointed out that only trucks carrying hazardous waste, not trucks carrying other materials used in the landfill process like carbon and cement kiln dust, fall under the blackout restrictions.

Vehicles with waste are also not allowed to ride within one-quarter mile of each other.

They are also prohibited from stopping on any road once inside Niagara County. In early December, a truck bound for CWM was found stopped in front of a Creek Road pizzeria, in violation of trucking regulations.

The time and route restrictions are requirements under CWM’s operating permit from the state.

The agreement establishing the traffic rules and the blackout periods predates the school setting up its pre-school program.

Peter Diachun, a member of the CWM Citizens Advisory Committee, said a small task force set up late last year to investigate possible alternative truck routes has found no feasible alternatives for the traffic.

A review by local highway superintendents, as well as county and state transportation officials, found other roads in the area would be physically incapable of handling the traffic, Diachun said.

He believes having traffic flow in front of the school is as good as it’s going to get for all parties involved.

“Nobody’s really liked the solution, but it’s worked,” he said.