industry · Erie County
DuPont Yerkes Plant
Town of Tonawanda
Long-running chemical and polymer-products facility at 3115 River Road, included in the state’s southwestern Tonawanda groundwater study and subject to wastewater, hazardous-air-pollutant, and emissions controls.
The documented story
What happened here?
DuPont's Yerkes plant at 3115 River Road developed as a chemical and polymer-products manufacturing complex within southwestern Tonawanda's dense Niagara River industrial corridor. The plant has shared that setting with Dunlop, Polymer Applications, 3M O-Cel-O, FMC, Huntley, and other major facilities.
A former DuPont disposal area was investigated as New York site 915019 and later delisted from the Registry of Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites. Delisting that historical unit did not end environmental regulation of the operating manufacturing facility.
The active plant has operated under industrial wastewater, air-emissions, hazardous-material, and chemical-reporting programs. Corporate names and business structures have changed, including the DuPont Specialty Products name, but the atlas follows the River Road property and its documented regulatory record rather than assuming every DuPont operation was identical.
Film, surfaces, labor, and industrial safety
Yerkes workers carried a century of changing DuPont production
$440,000civil penalty in the 2014 federal air-pollution settlement
1920s onward
Rayon and cellophane established the Yerkes industrial campus
DuPont-related companies built rayon and cellophane plants in Tonawanda during the early 1920s. Rayon production ended in 1955, while the site evolved toward specialty films and surface products used in buildings, kitchens, solar equipment, and other manufactured goods.
November 2010
A maintenance explosion killed one worker and injured another
A 10,000-gallon tank exploded while maintenance was underway, killing contractor Rick Folaron and injuring another worker. The event belongs in the plant history as a documented human loss, without speculating beyond the official investigation record.
2014-2017
Enforcement and collective bargaining changed how safety was governed
A federal settlement required stack testing, monitoring improvements, and correction of hazardous-air reporting deficiencies. In 2017, United Steelworkers Local 6992 reported a contract adding a joint health-and-safety committee and stronger job-security language.
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
- Industrial development
The River Road property developed into a chemical and polymer-products manufacturing complex.
- 1993
A Phase II investigation characterized the former state-listed Yerkes disposal site and supported later regulatory decisions.
- 1995-2007
DEC studied regional groundwater jointly with Yerkes and neighboring facilities, distinguishing shallow flow toward the Niagara River from deeper zones influenced by industrial pumping.
- 2014
A federal court approved an EPA air-pollution settlement requiring stack testing and a $440,000 civil penalty for hazardous-air-pollutant and reporting violations.
- 2025
DEC completed technical review of a renewed industrial wastewater permit and proposed updated temperature, flow, suspended-solids, and PFOA/PFOS monitoring requirements.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Historical disposal and chemical operations warranted a state site investigation; DEC's later regional study identifies the Yerkes unit as delisted rather than an active Class 2 Superfund site.
- The plant historically discharged stormwater, non-contact cooling water, water-treatment backwash, and boiler blowdown through a permitted Niagara River outfall, while process wastewater went to the municipal sanitary system.
- EPA's 2014 case concerned hazardous-air-pollutant controls and federal chemical-release reporting. A compliance settlement documents violations and required corrective measures; it does not by itself establish a neighborhood exposure or health outcome.
- Regional groundwater findings must be apportioned carefully among several adjacent industrial properties. DEC found shallow and intermediate groundwater generally moving toward the Niagara River while deeper flow could be altered by industrial extraction elsewhere in the corridor.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Wastewater permits establish enforceable treatment, outfall, temperature, solids, flow, best-management-practice, and monitoring requirements.
- The 2025 draft renewal added action-level monitoring for PFOA and PFOS. A monitoring requirement is a tool for evaluating discharge; it is not proof that either chemical exceeded an action level.
- Hazardous-air-pollutant controls, stack testing, emissions reporting, and emergency-planning requirements govern active process sources.
- Groundwater investigation, historical delisting, and any present corrective measures must be attributed to the exact Yerkes unit and decision rather than inferred from neighboring properties.
Then and now
The site today
Yerkes remains a regulated operating industrial facility beside the Niagara River. The former state waste-site unit is delisted, while current wastewater and air obligations continue under operating permits.
The atlas should show both halves of that record without implying that a valid permit proves zero impact or that a historical listing proves present danger.