A School, Museum and 3 Churches In Direct Line Of Toxic Tunnel’s Pollutants

By Betty Jean Grant We Are Women Warriors

Betty Jean Grant

Children at the Dr. Charles R. Drew School, patrons at the Buffalo Science Museum and the congregation of at least three churches are in the direct line of the pollutants coming from the southern, or Dodge St. portal of the Humboldt Parkway Tunnel that NYSDOT and Gov. Kathy Hochul are proposing to construct under Humboldt Parkway and the 33 Expressway.

According to credible information that has been researched and verified, the Buffalo Public School and the Science Museum, next door, are approximately only 492 ft. from the 900 ft. plume of car and truck exhaust that will be emitted from the Tunnel’s southern portal opening.

It is officially known and documented that the carbon monoxide and other pollutants coming from cars and other vehicles driving along the 33 Expressway have damaged the health of many residents of Humboldt Parkway, some to the point of loss of life due to COPD, cancer, heart diseases, strokes, Asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The residents have also suffered sleep deprivation and other psychological and neurological disorders due to the noise and frequency of so much traffic traveling down the 33.

The conversation about removing the Expressway and the possibility of installing a tunnel that could harm our children or the church goers has not yet taken place by those above who will be directly affected. I wonder what will it take for our representatives on the Buffalo Board of Education to weigh in on this important convention because their students will definitely be in harm’s way if that tunnel is allowed to built? These same concerns should be acknowledged and addressed by those churches’ leadership committee and also by the administration that runs the Buffalo Science Museum.

Even if I don’t agree, I can understand why some non-profit and public benefits organizations have been quiet. A few of them have been threatened with loss of government funding in next year’s New York State’s annual budget if they go against the wishes of the governor and the state’s senate and asembly members. That is intimidation and the withholding of public funding to elect a desired result is vindictive and is illegal in NYS.

But, even if the non-profit organizations are afraid to speak out for the health and safety of their students and patrons, the Buffalo Public School and the pastors of Calvary Baptist Church, Metropolitan UM Church, and Young’s Tabernacle Church should be worried, but also independent enough from the local, money throwing politicians, to speak up in defense of their students or congregations.

In addition to the southern portal polluting the museum and school children and church ladies in the southern portal opening, the northern Sidney Street portal opening will poison at least two churches and a slew of houses on Humboldt Parkway that fall outside of the 3/4 of a mile tunnel. Do not forget: the Tunnel Project is already a failure because it fails to address all residents of Humboldt Parkway. Some homes would be covered by the tunnel, but three times as many houses with residents will be left with more health and pollutants issues than they are experiencing right now.

Finally, Governor Hochul, Assemblyman Peoples Stokes and Senator Tim Kennedy, please do right by the residents of Humboldt Parkway and its Eastside neighborhoods. Please reconsider and order the NYSDOT to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement regarding the past, current and future health issues regarding the residents of Humboldt Parkway if that toxic tunnel initiative is allowed to progress further.