Government monitoring, modeling, and health orders documented airborne chemicals in these areas. The map also explains what that evidence cannot establish.
Read the shaded areas carefully.
The shading provides geographic context for documented study and response areas. It does not show parcel-level exposure, reconstruct a plume for a particular day, or prove that pollution caused an individual illness. Historic airborne concentrations changed with wind, weather, distance, operating conditions, and time spent in the area.
Not every airborne record belongs inside a shaded area.
These incidents involved documented releases, smoke, odors, evacuation, or emergency response. The reviewed records do not define a defensible historical plume polygon, so WNYAtlas links the event history without inventing an impact boundary.
2002 · Orleans County
Diaz Chemical release
A process-vessel release produced odors and community complaints in Holley, followed by evacuation, health review, enforcement, and a long-running federal and state response.
A major industrial fire prompted emergency response and became part of the property’s later cleanup history. Available records support the event—not a reconstructed neighborhood exposure zone.