Request an investigation by NY State Attorney General, James into the Owners Who Leased this for an Elementary School

In 1967-68, several hundred . eight to nine year old children were sent to school in facilities formerly utilzed by the Federal Government for Research and development of WWII, war era weapons (TNT Production) and subsequently Cold War era, chemical weapons, Hydrazine rocket fuel production, as well as Radio Active waste from various locations within the continetal US, from weapons grade putonium, urainium, and Radium...Disposal of Radio Active Laboratory waste from the Univeristy of Rochester,NY containing lab animals, and the remains of human individuals un-suspectingly injected with Plutonium. Additionally within 1.2 miles was an active Radar base as well as a Nike missle base. Along with the 200 children were Teachers, office workers, Cafeteria workers, and buildings and grounds maintenance personell all exposed to un-know levels of Arsnic, and various elemental poisons, in concentrated forms scattered thruought the landscape in addition to the aforementioned Toxic materials our understanding is that the drinking water was from onsite groundwater wells, we are still investigating the water supply.
The aforementioned site was located in the North West corner of the former Lake Ontario Ordinance Works, LOOW. The property was part of the former LOOW Federal reservation, 568 acres of the 7,500 acre site were sold to the Fort Conti Corporation in 1966 by the GSA these facilities were leased to the Lewiston-Porter School District by the Fort Conti Corporation, listed as a Buffalo,NY corporation. In 1970, these facilities were abandon by the School district, and in 1972 the New York State Department of Health issued to subsequent purchasers of said properties to cease all operations order reflecting strong concerns regarding the presence of individuals working around any of the grounds in these areas because of the aforementioned contamination and to address concerns to human health until further evaluation could be made by the NY State DOH. Foia's are in process to various state and county departments. Prior to 1972, it is our understanding that the county DOH and the NY State DOH, were not permitted access to the Federal Property, however between 1966 and the abandoment by the school district of the facilities, in 1970 (while it had been transsferred to private ownership i.e Fort Conti Corporation) there apears that there was no concern by the NY State DOH, as well as the Niagara County DOH, as stated before the Foia's are in process to obtain more records. To date, the U.S Army Corps. of Engineers has been charged with the Environmental assesment and subsequent cleanup of the most heavily contaminated areas, of the 7,500 acre site.
Our goal is to have a formal investigation by the NY State Attorney Generals office into how this occurred, and how (knowing of the hazard to human life) was there never any follow up of the 200 children and adult individuals individuals health that were subjected to the aforementioned toxins. Additionally, we would demand that a list of all individuals assosciated with this incident of exposure be medically examined,and that their health records be reveiwed and that if any of these individuals have developed cancers, or neurological disorders assosciated with the exposure levels identified by the US DOE for the former LOOW workers which to date have some recourse for there exposure and subsequent diseases identified to have a direct correlation to said exposure. We request that these individuals responsible for this Crime are identified, living or deceased.
We request that a historical sign be errected for the entire site proper identifying, both the siggnificance of the Lake Ontario Ordinance Works to the security of our Nation additionally the "Other Uses" of the property, including this documentable incident....We also Demand that all public records assembled by the Federal Government under the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers , New York State Department of Health N.Y. State Environmental Conservation, Niagara County Department of Health, the Town of Porer N.Y. Lewiston-Porter School district, reflect the Utilization of these facilities leased by the Lewiston-Porter school district for the purpose of education of 200 third grade children in 1967-1970.
My personal connection to this pettition is that I was one of the 200, 3 rd grade school children, sent to this site to attend school. I have Identified several of my former classmates that have suffered from strange diseases, Cancers and neurological disorders.

As most all of the children who attended this particular school the "Balmer Road School" were subject to double jeprody drinking groundwater at the site, as well as playing around the school in soils laden with then toxic levels of all of the aforementioned contaminants.

Balmer Road School still raises questions

http://www.niagara-gazette.com/print_story.asp?id=2415

BY RICK FORGIONE
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

LEWISTON-PORTER — In September of 1967, a couple hundred third-graders were sent into the woods to attend a school that once housed military offices.

The facility, surrounded by a tall metal fence topped with barbed-wire, was located smack dab in the middle of one of the worst radioactive waste sites in the country.

While this may sound like a script for some Hollywood horror movie, for Janet Mitchell and her classmates, it was all too real.

"I just can't believe they did that to us," Mitchell said. "We were 9-year-old kids."

Overcrowding in the centralized Lewiston-Porter School District in the late 1960s forced officials to come up with a temporary site to teach third-graders. After turning down the idea of installing portable classrooms on the Creek Road campus, the district decided to lease a building from Fort Conti Corp. of Buffalo.

The Balmer Road facility was located on the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, the site for federal government activity during the 1940s, including the storage of radioactive waste. The district renovated the building into 11 classrooms and used a separate nearby building as the gymnasium and cafeteria. Classes were taught at the site until June 1970 after a new elementary school was opened at the Creek Road campus.

"Nobody thought anything about it back then," said Mitchell, who attended the school from 1969 to 1970.

Nowadays, Mitchell worries a lot about spending time on that site. It's bad enough, she said, that the current Lew-Port campus sits on the buffer zone of LOOW, but to actually send students on the site seems almost as if they were part of some experiment.

"That's what we're all thinking," said Mitchell, adding the school was the main talk during her recent 25th High School class reunion. "There's so many chemicals we went to school on."

She doesn't think it's a coincidence that many of her female classmates at Balmer School have had miscarriages and given birth to children with special needs. So far, Mitchell and her two children have avoided any health problems.

"I feel like a ticking time bomb," she said.

Students attending Balmer School drank water that came from an on-site well. Lunches also were prepared using that water.

"The water from the drinking fountain tasted horrible," said Ellen McGuire-White, who also attended the school.

White moved to Texas after graduating from Lew-Port in 1978. She returns home every summer, but can't bring herself to visit her old school campus.

"I wouldn't be comfortable about sending my children there either," she said.

Evelyn Buffone also attended third grade at Balmer Road. She and her classmates used to put their coats on and walk outside to get to the cafeteria and gym. At the time, she didn't think anything was unusual about her surroundings.

"My dad was very upset that they were sending kids there," Buffone said. "I never thought much about it, but I always wonder now."

White said she's heard of several Lew-Port students and teachers who have died as a result of exposure to the surrounding environment, but she thinks there's a lot more still being kept secret.

"Nobody likes to talk about the high incidents of cancer out here," she said.

Like it or not, the issue is going to remain on the front burner, Mitchell added.

"I'm not going to keep quiet about this," Mitchell said. "Ignorance is the biggest disease out here."

Contact Rick Forgione at (716) 282-2311, Ext. 2257
 ©2005