cleanup · Niagara County
DuPont / Necco Park Landfill
Niagara Falls and Town of Niagara
Former DuPont disposal area containing an estimated 93,000 tons of Niagara Plant process waste. Cap, groundwater recovery and treatment manage fractured-bedrock contamination. EPA's 2024 review found short-term protection while requiring more work on emerging contaminants and their sources.
The documented story
What happened here?
Necco Park began as a recreation property associated with the Niagara Electrochemical Company, the origin of the name 'Necco.' DuPont acquired the property in 1930 and used the approximately 24-acre area for industrial disposal from the mid-1930s through 1977.
The waste-producing factory was a separate Buffalo Avenue property. Niagara Electro-Chemical began with sodium and sodium-peroxide manufacturing in the 1890s; Roessler & Hasslacher and then DuPont expanded the chemical business. Necco Park records document a destination for later Niagara Plant wastes, not the factory's location.
Liquid waste went into shallow lagoons in the southeast portion while solid wastes were placed elsewhere. EPA records describe fly ash, sodium salts and cell-bath residues, rubble, chlorinolysis wastes, off-grade products, and other organic and inorganic process materials; the total is estimated at about 93,000 tons.
Investigation found contaminants in soil and a complex sequence of overburden and fractured-bedrock water-bearing zones, including dense non-aqueous-phase liquid. The remedy therefore emphasizes hydraulic containment and recovery over wholesale excavation of the waste mass.
From early electrochemistry to a landfill still requiring treatment
The Niagara chemical works sent its wastes to Necco Park
93,000 tonsestimated industrial process waste within the disposal area
1895-1896
Niagara power supported a new sodium works
Electrical World's December 1896 account describes a recently operating Buffalo Avenue factory established in 1895, with Franz Roessler, Hamilton Castner, and Jacob Hasslacher as officers. Sodium and sodium peroxide were its founding products. The report places the office frontage on Buffalo Avenue; it does not place this manufacturing at the later Necco landfill.
1925-1930 and later
Roessler & Hasslacher became part of DuPont
Hagley's collection description, reproduced by North Tonawanda History, dates the merger of Niagara Electro-Chemical and Roessler & Hasslacher to 1925 and DuPont's purchase to 1930. A 1995 court account identifies sodium compounds, cyanides, ammonia, chlorinated solvents, polyvinyl alcohol, and adiponitrile across the Niagara Plant's history. This list spans different periods; it is not a claim that every product was present in 1896.
1942 - separate plant operation
The city intervened over particle emissions
A 1994 federal opinion recounts Niagara Falls shutting a DuPont incinerator in 1942 because precipitators were missing. It does not locate that incinerator at Necco Park or trace its ash there.
1940s-1970s plant practices
Some wastes entered the ground before ever reaching a landfill
The 1995 insurance opinion describes solvent tank residues washed onto bare ground and sodium/cyanide equipment and residues left outdoors to weather, leaching barium and cyanide. It also describes PCB cooling oil washed through drains and trenches to Gill Creek and tetrachloroethane reactor wastes discharged toward the creek. These are Buffalo Avenue plant pathways, distinct from waste transported to Necco Park.
Mid-1930s-1977
The landfill inventory connects the products to their residues
EPA's 1998 decision identifies sodium-process salts and broken cell materials; chlorinolysis residues containing hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene, and hexachloroethane; and liming sludge carrying TCE and PCE. Polymer residues and off-grade products also went to Necco. Liquids entered shallow earthen lagoons while solids occupied other areas. This documented Niagara Plant waste inventory totals an estimated 93,000 tons.
Investigation
Dense liquid moved into a complicated bedrock system
Sampling identified soil contamination, multiple water-bearing zones, and dense non-aqueous-phase liquid. Fractures made source control and plume monitoring more complex than a shallow-soil remedy.
1998-present
Containment and recovery replaced wholesale excavation
The selected system uses a clay cap, groundwater and DNAPL recovery, seep collection, treatment, groundwater restrictions, and a broad monitoring-well network.
2020 sampling / 2024 review
New contaminants reopened the question of sources
EPA reviewed monitoring-well detections of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane. Detections occurred both upgradient and downgradient, leaving the landfill's contribution unresolved. The March 2024 review found the remedy protective in the short term because there were no current exposures, but required broader sampling and checks of treatment-system influent and effluent for long-term protection. Its September 2026 milestone does not itself prove the follow-up was completed.
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
- 1895-1896
Niagara Electro-Chemical was organized and brought its Buffalo Avenue sodium works into operation.
- 1925-1930
Hagley's collection description dates the Niagara Electro-Chemical/Roessler & Hasslacher merger to 1925 and DuPont's acquisition to 1930.
- Before 1930
The property served as Niagara Electrochemical Company recreation land, giving Necco Park its name.
- 1930
DuPont acquired the property.
- Mid-1930s-1977
DuPont used lagoons and land areas for liquid and solid process-waste disposal.
- 1977 onward
Disposal ended and investigations focused on the waste footprint, seepage, and multiple groundwater zones.
- 1998
EPA selected a remedy centered on a stronger cover, expanded groundwater and DNAPL recovery, seep collection, treatment, monitoring, and groundwater-use restrictions.
- March 2024
EPA found the remedy protective in the short term; long-term protection required more data on emerging contaminants and their sources.
- Present
Cap care, recovery and treatment, plume monitoring, and periodic review continue across the long-term containment system.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Approximately 93,000 tons of industrial process waste remain in the disposal area.
- Groundwater contamination extends through complex fractured bedrock.
- DNAPL creates a persistent subsurface source requiring specialized recovery and monitoring.
- The 1998 decision identifies sodium-process salts and cell rubble, chlorinated-manufacturing residues, and sludge carrying TCE and PCE among the deposited materials. These are specific waste categories rather than an assumption that everything made by the company was dumped here.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- A clay cap isolates waste and reduces infiltration.
- Groundwater and DNAPL recovery systems remove contaminated liquids for treatment.
- A broad monitoring-well network tests plume containment and remedy performance across the layered bedrock system.
Then and now
The site today
EPA's March 2024 review found short-term protection because no current exposures were identified. PFAS and 1,4-dioxane detected in monitoring wells required further delineation and source investigation, including treatment-plant influent and effluent sampling.
Continued cap maintenance, liquid recovery and treatment remain necessary. The review's September 30, 2026 investigation milestone is a target; the reviewed public file listing does not establish its completion.
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.
Niagara Electro-Chemical, Roessler & Hasslacher, and DuPont waste trails
A manufacturing lineage links the Buffalo Avenue works to Necco Park disposal and Gill Creek discharge records. DuPont's separate WWII impregnite property has its own manufacturing and cleanup history.
EPA inventories sodium-process debris, chlorinated residues and solvent-bearing sludges transported to the separate landfill.
Plant drainage and sediment pathwayGill Creek / DuPont–Olin Chemical CorridorHistorical accounts describe DuPont PCB-oil drainage and reactor wastes entering Gill Creek; sediment cleanup and groundwater controls followed.
Separate DuPont wartime propertySolvent Chemical SiteThe 3163 Buffalo Avenue impregnite facility is distinct from the Niagara Plant and Necco landfill; company ownership alone does not trace its wastes to either.