Eight Receive Grants from Niagara County Environmental Fund

BUFFALO, NY -- Eight Niagara County organizations have been awarded grants totaling $36,355 from the Niagara County Environment Fund (NCEF), administered by the New York State Center for Hazardous Waste Management at the University at Buffalo.

The funds will be used by the organizations to enhance, restore, care for and provide access to Niagara County's environment and ecology, and educate people about the county's natural environment. The grants are funded as part of the Love Canal settlement between New York State and the Occidental Chemical Corporation. More than 170 grants totaling more than $2.6 million have been distributed by the NCEF since 1998.

The grant awardees were selected from among 32 applicants, according to A. Scott Weber, UB professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and executive director of New York State Center for Hazardous Waste Management.

Receiving NCEF grants were: Stella Niagara Education Park for a county-wide science fair for students in grades 5-8; Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers, Inc. for an informational brochure about the rivers watershed; Niagara Street Area Business and Professional Association to enhance Gill Creek Park; Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara to enhance the Kim Woodruff Memorial Nature Trail; Murphy Orchards to assist in the designing and building of an Environmental Education Resource Center; Niagara Educational Center to use maple syrup production as an educational tool, and Greater Niagara Council, Boy Scouts of America for a series of five day-long educational workshop on environmental conservation; and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County for a pheasant rearing program.

The projects were selected by members of the Niagara County Environmental Fund Advisory Panel: Sen. Byron Brown; Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte; Timothy Demler,

supervisor, Town of Wheatfield; Irene Elia, mayor, City of Niagara Falls; Samuel M. Ferraro, commissioner, Niagara County Department of Planning, Development and Tourism; Joann Hale, Love Canal former resident; Thomas L. Jennings, representing Occidental Chemical Corp.; Assistant Attorney General Ken Shoetz; Sen. George D. Maziarz; Gerald Mikol, regional director, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; Matthew Murphy, Niagara County district attorney, and Anne Smith, Love Canal former resident.

For more information about the NCEF grants, call 716-645-3446 or go to www.ncef.buffalo.edu .