LEWISTON, N.Y. -- After 24 years living in his Niagara County home, Harry Wade said he's ready to move to Niagara Falls to live with his fiancé. There's only one problem.

"I'm all set to move and the house isn't sellable," he said.

In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency investigated the lot around Wade's house and found radioactive gravel, a leftover from the industrial era.

"Nobody's going to buy a house with a contaminated site across the street," he said. "How do you tell a prospective buyer the driveway's radioactive?"

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said there are more than 60 identified radioactive hot spots in Western New York. Communities in Niagara County and neighboring Grand Island have the most.

"They're not just in industrial sites," Schumer, D-NY, said. "They're in backyards, roads, parking lots, driveways. We're standing on one right here."

The Senate Minority Leader said the EPA had pinpointed three sites for remediation, including the one by Wade's home. It appeared his problem would soon be solved, but at the end of this summer, things changed.

"EPA just packed up the trucks, abandoned the sites, abandoned homeowners and residents here of Lewiston," Schumer said.

He said the Office of Management and Budget has attempted to slash the agency's budget in the past. He suspected that's what's happened again, although he can't get a straight answer.

"I don't know why they pulled out," Schumer said. "We've called them a whole bunch of times, can't get a good answer so I came here to demand it."

He is calling on the EPA to get back to work right away unless, of course, it has a viable reason for stopping. Schumer said lack of money isn't a good enough reason.

"I will tell the folks at EPA, ‘don't worry about your budget,’" he said. "We'll get it restored in December when we have our next budget meeting. Again, there's bipartisan support to do it."

Wade, meanwhile, has his trust in Schumer. He doesn't really have another choice.

"I feel more hopeful than yesterday," he said. "Having Senator Schumer here, if it's important to him, hopefully something can be done."