Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Professor Michael Milligan has received a sub-award of just over $87,000 to support his work in a State University at Buffalo investigation that will assess the health and environmental impacts of Tonawanda Coke manufacturing operations on residents of Tonawanda and Grand Island, N.Y. Two separate, but complimentary studies, comprise the $11 million project.
Dr. Milligan will be engaged in the second study, “UB Soil Sample Study: Determining the Environmental Impact of Coke Oven Emissions Originating from Tonawanda Coke Corp. on Surrounding Residential Community."
Beginning in the spring of 2017, Milligan will be part of a team that will collect approximately 300 soil samples in residential areas in and around the Tonawanda Coke facility on River Road to assess pollutant levels in the soil. Initial analysis by a contract lab will provide certified results for a suite of classic pollutants, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
More specific analysis will be performed using state-of-the-art instrumentation in Milligan’s lab at Fredonia and the lab of UB Chemistry Professor Joseph Gardella, who is leading this study, to attempt to identify unique chemical markers for the different industrial processes that have been occurring in this general area for approximately 100 years.
Fredonia alumnus Milligan, '85, plans to hire a Fredonia undergraduate Chemistry major to assist in the sampling and laboratory efforts required for the soil study, which is to be completed by August 2018.
Results of the soil study will be used to assess the overall levels of contamination in affected residential areas, which could lead to environmental clean-up efforts. Additionally, researchers may potentially be able to connect environmental levels of contaminants to health effects of persons living in the impacted neighborhoods.
Another Fredonian who will work on the second part of the Tonawanda Coke study is 1985 graduate Jackie James-Creedon, who earned a B.S. in Chemistry. She is longtime environmental community activist in Tonawanda, the head of the grassroots organization, Citizen Science Community Resources, and is serving as one of the project’s co-Principal Investigators.
The first part of the project is a 10-year study that will assess the human health effects due to emissions from Tonawanda Coke, and potentially other industrial processes in the area, on 38,000 residents of Tonawanda and Grand Island.
