BUFFALO, N.Y. — The New York Civil Libraries Union Racial Justice Center on Saturday announced that it is suing the New York State Department of Transportation over an Environmental Impact Statement.
“The NYSDOT’s refusal to thoroughly study the environmental impacts of the Kensington Expressway Project endangers the Humboldt Park neighborhood near the project site — a predominantly Black community that has carried the burden of decades of environmental racism,” Lanessa Owens-Chaplin, director of NYCLU’s Racial Justice Center, said in a statement, announcing the lawsuit.
“With this lawsuit, the first filed by the newly created NYCLU Racial Justice Center, we are upholding our commitment to right the wrongs of the past and ensure they do not repeat themselves. In Buffalo, this starts with the state conducting an Environmental Impact Statement. Despite the Governor, federal, and state officials misguidedly championing the Kensington Expressway as a national model, this project will only meet the moment if air quality protections and mitigation measures for impacted residents are provided without delay.”
The lawsuit asks the court to force the NYSDOT to complete an EIS and to direct the agency to protect residents from the increase in air pollution with mitigation measures implemented. This project will affect the Black and low-income community near the construction site.
“Before the Kensington Expressway was built, we never heard anyone talk about respiratory illnesses. After construction, air quality was a huge concern for our families, and now today, I’m one of many who has asthma and lung cancer,” Gwen Harris, an 81-year-old resident who lives 500 feet away from the redevelopment project, said in a statement.
“This project should make us safer and healthier, not the opposite. If the state doesn’t study the environmental impacts and take action to reduce the harm, my life, and many others will be put further at risk.”