August 2026 News from Clean Air
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After several years of advocacy and organizing, we’re excited that the Town of Tonawanda will tonight be holding a hearing and a vote on a 1-year moratorium on data centers above 20MW of size, and will begin developing a zoning ordinance to regulate hyperscale data centers at the local level – please scroll down in this email for details! We also want to highlight that this Thursday 8/6 from 5:30-7pm we are holding a New Member Orientation at the TReC at 616 Niagara Street in Niagara Falls – please join us this Thursday, and invite others to attend, especially any Niagara Falls and Niagara County residents you think would be interested. Registration is NOT required, but strongly suggested to help us plan. We are also holding a Member Cookout on Wednesday August 12 from 5:30-7:30 at the Groundworks Market Garden at 1698 Genesee Street in Buffalo – again, registration is not required, but is suggested. With Bread and Roses, Bridge, Chris, Cindy, Stella, and Milo |
Town of Tonawanda Data Center Moratorium
Hearing and Vote Tonight August 3 |
Please join us tonight Monday August 3 at 7pm at 2919 Delaware Ave in Tonawanda to speak out in favor of the proposed moratorium on hyperscale/industrial data centers, and mention any specific concerns you have about hyperscale data centers in our community, particularly if you are a Town resident. You can find the text of the resolution and other documents on pages 29-39 of tonight’s agenda packet.
The hearing will be one of the first items on the agenda, so please plan to arrive by 7pm. Please plan to speak for 2-3 minutes, and while we strongly urge speaking from the heart, we ask that attendees refrain from any personal attacks against town officials and generally approach the hearing respectfully. From what we’ve heard, our expectation is that the Town Board will vote to pass the moratorium tonight with full support.
Town officials are not the people pushing the data center project at 3875 and 3821 River Road – the developer, Riverview Innovation Tech Campus (an affiliate of Ontario Specialty Contracting), is. If you have not yet done so, please take a moment today to send RITC/OSC an email urging them to pivot their planned use of these parcels from a data center to renewable energy.
This resolution follows the win last month of an Executive Order on data centers larger than 50MW, and increases protections for residents by expanding that moratorium to 20MW – click here to read our statement on the Governor’s EO, and here for an analysis contrasting the EO with the Responsible Data Centers Act from Assemblymember Kelles, a champion for regulating data centers and the lead Assembly sponsor.
To be clear, we are immensely grateful to Governor Hochul for taking this important step, the first of it’s kind from a US Governor to date, but we do have some concerns with the EO, namely the 50MW threshold and a lack of engagement with grassroots and community groups in stakeholder conversations – click here to send her a letter urging her to take action on these points, including signing the Responsible Data Centers Act into law. Do you have thoughts on what strong Community Benefits Agreements for data center projects would look like? Please email those to DataCenterCIF@esd.ny.gov by August 13, and read more here.
This month there will be several in-person actions our Erie-Niagara Data Center Campaign will be holding to continue to push for the passage of the Responsible Data Centers Act and other statewide actions, the first of which will be a joint rally with PUSH Buffalo and Evict 250 on Tuesday August 11 at 3pm at 250 Delaware as part of a nationwide week of action to Stop the Big Tech Takeover. Please join us on the 11th, and email Bridge if you want to participate in the other actions! Finally, if you were unable to join us for our training on the Tech Reich Broligarchy at our General Meeting on July 22, the recording is now available here, and a list of related resources is available here. Want to register for the upcoming Little Sis training on their Oligrapher Tool mentioned in the presentation? Click here! |
Tonawanda Just Transition Team – Actions You Can Take |
The Tonawanda Tomorrow Team, the member-leaders of our Tonawanda Just Transition campaign who work on new developments, have two actions for members this month. First, please attend the Kenmore Farmer’s Market on Sunday August 16 from 9am-1pm. The NFTA will have a booth where they will be soliciting ideas for potential future bus routes – please share your thoughts on where additional public transit routes should be planned, especially any East-West routes that you would support. Adding additional East-West public transit routes and service is a goal that has yet to be tackled robustly from the Tonawanda Tomorrow plan. Second, the Town of Tonawanda is conducting it’s public engagement process for the 10 year comprehensive plan review and update largely through this survey. We want to make sure the goals of the Tonawanda Tomorrow plan are carried forward into the Comprehensive Plan, and that newer environmental justice and just transition priorities that have emerged since the last plan development are included. Please take a moment to take the survey yourself, and share this link widely! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NCYFZLL Finally, just a bit of good news to share – after almost thirty years of stalled progress, movement finally happening on the Cherry Farms park project! Our TTT has been tracking and supporting this project for many years, so to see it finally picking up steam is very exciting.
We also hope this progress will also lead to additional conversations with National Grid about allowing the Town access to replace the playground equipment on their property in Sawyer-Kaufmann. |
We will be tabling at the Borderlands Festival next month!
We may need a couple volunteers to help cover the shifts, but will likely only have a couple extra passes available – if you are a Clean Air member who can commit to a full day September 18-20 and are interested, please reach out to Chris. |
Shout Out to Our Summer Intern Stella Chan! |
We just wanted to give a quick shout out to our summer intern Stella Chan! She’s been helping us out on our summer community engagement efforts and will be wrapping up her internship this month. If you see her out and about, please thank her for all her hard work this summer! |
Saturday August 8 – Buffalo United Events |
The Buffalo United Coalition is holding three community events this Saturday August 8. In Buffalo, join us at the East Side Community Cookout & Solidarity Grill 10-2 pm at Martin Luther King Park- Shelter #2 right near the splashpad, Buffalo, NY 14211. You can RSVP at https://calendar.app.google/tWzSmcrsCpMwjftX7 In Tonawanda, join us for a cookout from 1-3pm at the Tonawanda Gateway Harbor, 1 Young Street, Tonawanda, NY 14150. You can RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/lwv/event/970780/ In Lockport, you can join us for a cookout from 11am-2pm at the Widewaters Marina Pavilion , 768 E. Market St., Lockport, and you can RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/standuplockport/event/996171/ |
Niagara Falls – Growing Concerns |
As the grassroots organizing in Niagara Falls and Niagara County gains momentum, Clean Air will share calls for support on our social media.
For context, there are many issues that people are rapidly coalescing around – the radiological emergency, regulatory shortcomings for existing industries, chemical contamination, including concerns that the almost 50 year old cap at Love Canal is potentially beginning to degrade, disinvestment in public infrastructure like sewer systems, and much, much more.
Below are a list of resources we recommend to learn more. Niagara Gazette – Investigative Post sometimes republishes Mark Scheer’s coverage as well for wider distribution Dan Telvock, WIVB The Buffalo News – Complete Coverage of Niagara Radiological Emergency Thundering Waters by Christen Civiletto The Cancer Factory by Jim Morris Paradise Falls by Keith O’Brien |
EPA, DEC and Regulatory Agency News |
The DEC is accepting comments on an application for a Solid Waste Management Facility (SWMF) until August 7 for Buffalo Biodiesel’s operations on Sawyer Avenue in the Town of Tonawanda. Clean Air has been working quietly with the residents in the Sawyer-Kaufmann community for several years to address the lack of permit at this facility and to reduce the nuisance smells off site, which led to this current comment period. If you have any concerns about their operation that you would like the DEC to know about, but would like to submit your comments anonymously, please contact Bridge before the 7th, and they can submit your comments on your behalf. The DEC has also posted two brownfield notifications that we wanted to be sure to highlight – first, a Draft Investigation Work Plan for the Buffalo Central Terminal, which they are accepting comments about until August 21, and second an application and Draft Remedial Investigation Work Plan for the parcel at the corner of Amherst and Elmwood in Buffalo where the Voelker’s Bowling Alley once was, which they are accepting comments about until August 28. On the EPA side, we have some good news and bad news to share this month – first, on the good news front, another judge has ruled that the environmental justice grants that were funded under the Inflation Reduction Act that the Trump administration cancelled using an Executive Order must be reinstated. This is not the case that the Buffalo grant is included in that Clean Air would be a subrecipient of, but is a positive sign for that court case. On the bad news front, though, the Trump administration is pushing for a policy which would eliminate many public engagement requirements for air permits to streamline development for data centers. Read the proposed rule here, and coverage from Wired Magazine and Oil and Gas Watch News. The Sierra Club has a one-click email tool you can use to voice your objection to this proposed rule – click here to send an email before the August 21 deadline. Clean Air staff participated in the public comment hearing earlier this month to object to this proposal, and will be sending a separate additional comment later this month. |
Our congratulations to our friends at the Western New York Area Labor Federation, who are celebrating their 25th Anniversary! Please take a moment to support SUNY Erie County workers who are negotiating for a fair contract – click here sign the petition. |
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Headlines in Environmental Justice, Climate Justice, and the Just Transition |
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