For residents
The testing is free, and you have to ask for it
New York State is offering soil, indoor air and sump water testing to property owners on the western end of Cayuga Island, and says it covers investigation, any mitigation, cleanup, and putting your property back the way it was — at no cost to the homeowner. Nothing happens on a property without the owner’s permission.
What is being offered
DEC’s sampling programme has three parts, and a property owner can be offered any or all of them depending on the property.1
- Surface soil. Samples from up to four locations on the property, taken by hand digging or augering.15
- Sub-slab soil vapour and indoor air. A paired set — one sample of the gas directly beneath the floor, one of the air inside the building — to establish whether anything underground is getting in through the basement, crawlspace or slab.1
- Sump water. For homes that have a sump.1
What DEC says it pays for
The September 2026 fact sheet is explicit, and the scope is broader than testing alone:
“All work associated with property investigation, any recommended mitigation, cleanup, and restoration of properties to pre-cleanup conditions will be completed at no cost to the homeowner.”
NYSDEC, West Cayuga Island — Site Investigation Update, 1 September 20261
Restoration to pre-cleanup conditions is the part worth reading twice: it covers putting back what has to be dug up or removed to do the work.
DEC states it will accommodate property owners inside the investigation area who were previously offered sampling and have not yet arranged it, and asks those owners to make contact using the details in the fact sheet.1 The earlier round is not a closed door.
Who to contact
These two people are named as the site contacts in DEC’s own fact sheet. Their phone numbers are printed in that document; because the numbers could not be read reliably from the file, only the email addresses are reproduced here, and the fact sheet is linked so you can take the numbers from the source.1
Sarah Whiteway
Public Participation Specialist · NYSDEC
700 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209
For property access, scheduling, and questions about the investigation itself.
Daniel Tucholski
Environmental Exposure Investigation · NYSDOH
Corning Tower, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12237
For health questions — exposure, symptoms, what a result means for your household.
The instruction from 1993 that never expired
Call before you dig
When DEC and DOH assessed this ground in 1992 and 1993, they sent every property owner a notice with the contaminant levels found, and told owners to contact DEC or DOH before performing ground-intrusive work on their properties.1
That instruction was never withdrawn. It applies to the ordinary things people do to a house: a fence, a pool, footings for a deck, a new tree, a garden bed, a utility trench. Given that DEC describes the material as mostly subsurface, digging is the activity most likely to bring someone into contact with it.5
It is also worth noting how this entire investigation started: a contractor drilling two soil borings in the street noticed an odour and reported it.1 That report is the reason anything is happening at all.
We cannot tell you whether your property is affected, what your results mean, whether your family has been exposed, what to disclose in a sale, or whether you have a legal claim. None of that is in the public record, and some of it is not a question for a website at all.
Property-specific results exist only with DEC and the owner they were given to. Health questions go to the Department of Health. Legal and disclosure questions go to your own attorney. This page exists to tell you accurately what the state has said and offered, and to hand you the documents.
What happens after sampling
Based on what DEC has published, the sequence runs like this. Each step is the agency’s description, not a prediction.1
| Step | What DEC states |
|---|---|
| Access | DEC staff reach out directly to property owners at the locations of interest to offer soil, indoor air quality and sump water testing. Access is voluntary.1 |
| Sampling | DEC’s contractor collects the samples at properties where owners provided access.1 |
| Results | Results are “provided directly to the property owners.” They are not published per property.1 |
| Review | DEC and DOH “closely review the results” and determine what next steps may be needed to address potential exposure concerns.1 |
| Mitigation | Property-specific plans to address any contamination needing mitigation are underway, at no cost to the homeowner.1 |
| Second phase | DEC and DOH are beginning a second phase of investigations, extending offers to additional properties along West Rivershore Drive to establish the extent of the impacts.1 |
DEC closes the September update by saying the agencies are “committed to continuing to work with the Cayuga Island community throughout the investigation” and cleanup.1
Sources on this page
- NYSDEC, West Cayuga Island — Site Investigation Update (1 September 2026). All quoted language on this page is from this document. Primary
- Mark Scheer, “DEC: chemical sampling underway on west end of Cayuga Island”, Niagara Gazette, 15 June 2026. Reporting
Stay with the record
Be told when this changes
A new agency document, a correction, or a change in the investigation. No more often than the record actually moves, and nothing else.