cleanup · Chautauqua County
D.C. Rollforms / Proto Tool
Jamestown
Former tool-manufacturing complex where forging, machining, heat treating, electroplating, and vapor degreasing left chlorinated solvents, petroleum, metals, and other contaminants. Cleanup included excavation, river-protection barriers, shoreline stabilization, and continuing controls.
The documented story
What happened here?
The D.C. Rollforms/Proto Tool complex occupied part of Jamestown's Chadakoin River industrial corridor. Forging, machining, heat treating, electroplating, and vapor degreasing supported tool production but also created multiple waste streams and source areas.
Investigation identified chlorinated solvents, petroleum, metals, and other industrial contaminants in soil and groundwater. Its riverbank setting required cleanup construction that protected the Chadakoin while removing source material.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Manufacturing era
Tool production included forging, machining, heat treating, plating, and solvent degreasing.
Investigation
Environmental studies identified several contaminant groups and source areas.
Remedial construction
Contaminated material was excavated while temporary river-protection measures isolated the work.
2009
DEC certified completion of the major engineering construction.
Present
Shoreline stabilization and continuing institutional or site-management controls preserve the remedy.
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 closed tool plant becomes a river-edge excavation and stabilization project
After Proto Tool production ended, cleanup removed source material while barriers protected the Chadakoin River; DEC certified the major remedial work complete in July 2009.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ↗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.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- TCE, related breakdown products, toluene, xylenes, petroleum, and metals were associated with historic operations.
- Oil and other industrial residues affected portions of soil and groundwater.
- The proximity of the Chadakoin River required careful control of excavation, runoff, and bank stability.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Contaminated soil and source material were excavated for appropriate management or disposal.
- Temporary barriers protected the river during construction, and the shoreline was stabilized afterward.
- Remaining impacts are governed by approved covers, land-use or excavation controls, monitoring, and site management where required.
Then and now
The site today
The former tool complex is a completed-construction cleanup within a larger riverfront manufacturing district. D.C. Rollforms and neighboring Weber-Knapp have related geography but distinct source histories and regulatory 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.
Southern Tier small-industry cleanups
Foundries, furniture and veneer works, machining plants, dry cleaners, and rural disposal sites show that Western New York's cleanup history extends well beyond its largest waterfront factories.
Farwell Road represents a managed hazardous-waste landfill outside the major urban industrial corridors.
Municipal landfillCarroll LandfillCarroll connects local waste disposal to wetlands, Conewango Creek, and long-term treatment.
Tool-manufacturing complexD.C. Rollforms / Proto ToolProto Tool brings electroplating, heat treatment, degreasing, and river-edge remediation into the collection.
Small solvent siteC&B Dry CleanersThe dry cleaner demonstrates how a very small parcel can create a consequential subsurface cleanup.
Coatings and solvent siteEssex / Hope SiteEssex / Hope documents a long-running coatings property with an amended remedy and a separately investigated downgradient area.
Chlorinated-solvent groundwater cleanupDowcraft — South Dow StreetDowcraft connects former manufacturing and vapor degreasing to continuing groundwater treatment and monitoring.
Municipal and industrial-waste landfillJamestown City LandfillThe former city landfill preserves Jamestown's documented municipal and industrial-disposal history while clearly stating its current Class 3 status.
Bronze foundry cleanupEllison Bronze CompanyEllison Bronze adds metal-bearing foundry material, stabilization, containment, and continuing management to the Falconer record.
Petroleum and veneer worksBush IndustriesBush Industries layers early petroleum use with later wood-products manufacturing.
Foundry and machine shopRandolph FoundryRandolph adds discarded foundry sand, drums, and asbestos to the southern-tier industrial record.
Die-casting and machining plantLexington MachiningLexington documents solvent use and long-term groundwater management at a smaller manufacturing plant.
Jamestown chlorinated-solvent cleanup sites
Dry cleaning, tool production, and other industrial degreasing created separate chlorinated-solvent cleanups around Jamestown. This collection compares processes and remedies; it does not assert one shared plume.
Anderson Cleaners is a Class 2 soil and groundwater cleanup at Hunt Road.
Separate dry-cleaning cleanupC&B Dry CleanersC&B is a separate compact dry-cleaning site with its own investigated area and controls.
Tool-manufacturing cleanupD.C. Rollforms / Proto ToolProto Tool used vapor degreasing alongside forging, plating, machining, and heat-treatment processes.
Scrap-metal degreasing cleanupKeywell / Vac-AirThe nearby Frewsburg property used TCE in high-grade scrap-metal processing and has a separate managed groundwater remedy.