Tonawanda Coke faces up to $200 million in fines when the company and its environmental manager are sentenced in September and residents in the areas affected by the company's pollution want a say in where that money goes. The Clean Air Coalition waged an aggressive fight against the company and its pollution practices. After the company was criminally convicted, the coalition began a campaign to persuade Federal District Judge William Skretny to let residents affected by Tonawanda Coke have a voice in how the fine is spent.
Instead of the fine just going into federal coffers, residents have some definite ideas about where the cash should go. Coalition community organizer Rebecca Newberry says the affected people deserve a voice.
"We think it's important that the community has a voice here. There's a lot of residents in these neighborhoods that have been extremely affected, impacted by pollution and they want to see their voice heard and they really want to see some sort of closure locally," Newberry says.
Newberry says there was a lot of skepticism about trial and conviction of the company and environmental manager Mark Kamholz.
A total of 561 voters in the Tonawandas, Riverside, and Grand Island cast ballots with multiple choices possible. The top choice was pollution prevention programs, barely beating out an Environmental Health Institute and a Wickwire Park.
Other suggestions include health studies and a Tonawanda tree farm.
