cleanup · Chautauqua County
Closed Alumax Extrusions
Dunkirk
Former locomotive, heat-exchanger, specialty-steel, and aluminum-extrusion property within Dunkirk's Roberts Road complex. Source treatment was completed, but monitoring continues for chlorinated solvents and benzene in groundwater along with long-term land controls.
The documented story
What happened here?
American Locomotive expanded onto this property around 1918. Later uses included heat-exchanger fabrication, specialty-steel production, and aluminum extrusion before Alumax closed the facility.
DEC tracks the controlled property as completed Voluntary Cleanup Program site V00589, distinct from adjoining Roblin Steel and Edgewood records. That distinction prevents results from one monitoring network from being casually assigned to the entire Roberts Road industrial complex.
Another closure struck the same industrial families
Alumax workers watched a century-old manufacturing property go quiet
1993year Alumax ended aluminum-extrusion operations
Circa 1920-1976
The property changed products while remaining an industrial workplace
American Locomotive expanded onto the site, followed by foundry, coal-storage, heat-exchanger, and specialty-steel uses. Alumax acquired the facility in 1976 and operated an aluminum-extrusion business serving a different manufacturing market.
1993
Closure became a household event, not just a corporate date
Contemporary recollections describe families confronting another local plant shutdown and workers comparing their shared uncertainty to earlier industrial closures. Production stopped, leaving an idle parcel within the larger Roberts Road complex.
Cleanup era
A closed plant required source treatment and continuing groundwater monitoring
Investigation identified chlorinated-solvent contamination associated with a suspected former tank area. Treatment, a maintained cover, excavation controls, groundwater restrictions, monitoring wells, and an environmental easement support the completed industrial remedy.
Chemical guide
Chemicals named in this record
These links explain potential hazards and exposure pathways. A chemical named in a record does not establish that anyone was exposed or harmed.
Chronology
Timeline
- 1918–1962
Locomotive and heat-exchanger manufacturing occupied the property.
- 1969–1993
Specialty-steel and aluminum-extrusion operations followed.
- 2004 onward
Source-area treatment using zero-valent iron was followed by long-term groundwater monitoring.
- 2024–2025 review
DEC-reviewed monitoring continued to evaluate chlorinated compounds, vinyl chloride, and benzene in the remaining well network.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Investigations identified a chlorinated-solvent source near a suspected former tank and TCE-related groundwater contamination.
- DEC's 2025 periodic review reported benzene above the state groundwater standard in specific wells sampled during 2024, alongside continuing chlorinated-VOC and vinyl-chloride monitoring.
- DEC records distinguish the Alumax groundwater area from the adjoining Roblin Steel property.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Source treatment, a maintained cover, excavation controls, restricted groundwater use, monitoring wells, and periodic certification manage remaining conditions.
- Monitoring continues until the site-specific chlorinated-VOC performance threshold is achieved.
Then and now
The site today
Completed program status records remedial construction; it does not mean that all monitoring and property controls have ended.
The property is part of a larger industrial complex, but the Alumax remedy and monitoring network must remain distinct from neighboring Roblin and Edgewood records.
Atlas connections
Connected places
These collections explain documented material, facility, waterway, ownership, or cleanup relationships. Inclusion does not imply that every place shares one contaminant source or plume.
Dunkirk metals and manufacturing corridor
Former locomotive, steel-reclamation, specialty-metal, and related industrial properties form a connected manufacturing landscape whose individual remedies and present uses differ.
AlTech represents the corridor's largest and longest-running steelmaking cleanup record.
Locomotive and steel-reclamation propertyRoblin SteelThe property began within the American Locomotive Company complex and later supported steel reclamation.
Aerospace-alloy manufacturingSpecial MetalsSpecial Metals shows continued industrial use alongside a separately managed cleanup area.
Brass foundry removalMarsh ValveMarsh Valve adds a completed federal removal and state no-further-action record to the Dunkirk metals corridor.
Locomotive, steel, and aluminum propertyClosed Alumax ExtrusionsAlumax shares the Roberts Road industrial landscape while retaining its own chlorinated-solvent remedy and monitoring record.