industry · Erie County
Clean Harbors BDT / Battery Disposal Technology
Clarence
Former commercial hazardous-waste treatment facility at 4255 Research Parkway that specialized early in reactive lithium-battery destruction, later received off-site waste mainly from Canada, and closed after a major 2002 fire. Investigation and soil removal ended with no further RCRA corrective action required in 2008.
The documented story
What happened here?
Battery Disposal Technology became an unusually specialized hazardous-waste operation early in the lithium-battery era. An EPA study described it as the only surveyed organization devoted solely to waste-lithium-battery disposal, using a mechanical and chemical process to break batteries open while an aqueous spray reacted with lithium and other reactive material.
The facility later operated as a commercial treatment, storage, and disposal facility for reactive and ignitable wastes, pressurized containers, pharmaceuticals, and packaged laboratory chemicals. EPA says off-site generators supplied the waste, mainly from Canada; treatment residues then went to other off-site disposal facilities.
The ownership sequence—Wilson-Greatbatch, Laidlaw Environmental Services, Safety-Kleen, and Clean Harbors BDT—describes successive operators of one hazardous-waste facility rather than four separate sites.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Early 1980s
Battery Disposal Technology operated a specialized lithium-battery destruction process in Clarence.
1986–2002
The facility operated under the RCRA hazardous-waste system, treating reactive and ignitable off-site waste and shipping treatment residues elsewhere.
August 14, 2002
A major fire consumed substantial stored waste and ended operations.
2002–2003
Remaining waste was removed. Approximately 80,000 gallons of collected firefighting water and about 260 cubic yards of affected soil were taken off-site, with additional work around the former hydrolysis sump.
December 28, 2008
After investigation, soil removal, and groundwater evaluation, regulators terminated RCRA corrective action with no further action required.
News record
Major news events
Coverage selected here marks a turning point in public awareness, policy, enforcement, employment, or cleanup. Links open at the original publisher or archive; WNYAtlas does not reproduce restricted articles or images.
A major fire ends hazardous-waste operations in Clarence
The fire consumed much of the stored waste and created a firefighting-water response. Remaining waste, affected soil, and water were removed while investigators evaluated the slab, hydrolysis sump, and groundwater.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ↗Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The 2002 fire and firefighting response created defined soil and water-management areas requiring sampling and removal.
- Investigators sampled ponding areas and beneath the operating slab, evaluated the former hydrolysis sump, and installed overburden and bedrock groundwater wells.
- EPA's final account does not document an uncontrolled continuing plume; regulators concluded that the completed work did not require further RCRA corrective action.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- All remaining waste was removed by March 2003, along with collected firefighting water and affected soil.
- Soil and groundwater investigations tested whether fire response or earlier treatment areas had created continuing releases.
- RCRA corrective action ended in 2008, and EPA reports no active hazardous-waste management permit for the former facility.
Then and now
The site today
The strongest continuing historical question is the waste network: which Canadian and U.S. generators shipped material to Clarence, how it crossed the border, and where treatment residues ultimately went. Those flows require manifest research rather than assumptions about present contamination.