waterway · Niagara County
Eighteen Mile Creek Superfund Site
Lockport and Newfane
Active federal Superfund site covering roughly 15 miles of Eighteen Mile Creek, from Lockport toward Lake Ontario. Historic industry contaminated soil, groundwater, and creek sediment with PCBs, lead, and other pollutants. Investigation and cleanup are proceeding in stages. Fish-consumption advisories remain in effect.
The documented story
What happened here?
The Eighteen Mile Creek Superfund site follows roughly 15 miles of water from the Erie Canal in Lockport north toward Lake Ontario. It is not one fenced factory parcel: former industrial properties, residential land, creek sediment, floodplain soil, and the aquatic food web form different pieces of the same investigation.
At the Lockport source area, the former Flintkote plant manufactured felt products and asphalt roofing materials. Other historical operations also occupied the industrial corridor. EPA documented PCBs, lead, and other contaminants in soil, groundwater, creek sediment, and floodplain deposits, but source attribution and remedy decisions differ by location.
The first major federal action focused on Water Street properties and the deteriorated Flintkote building. EPA selected permanent relocation for affected residents, demolition, excavation, and source control before turning to the much larger downstream sediment problem.
Fish-consumption restrictions make the story larger than the abandoned buildings: persistent contaminants can move through sediment and accumulate in fish even when a particular shoreline looks ordinary.
The lower creek from Burt Dam to Olcott Harbor is a separately defined Great Lakes Area of Concern. EPA's current assessment says lower-AOC sediment is below the toxicity threshold while fish-tissue PCB impairment is driven primarily by contamination arriving from upstream of Burt Dam. The AOC and Superfund boundaries therefore overlap as a transport story but are not interchangeable cleanup boundaries.
Homes, flooding, and a contaminated creek
Five families left Water Street because cleanup alone could not stop the flood pathway
5 homespermanently acquired and demolished on Water Street
Before Superfund
Industrial use and ordinary creek life occupied the same corridor
Factories used the creek and adjoining land while residents lived along its floodplain and anglers fished downstream. PCBs, lead, chromium, and other contaminants later tied source properties, sediment, residential soil, and the aquatic food web into one multi-mile investigation.
2013-2015
Recurring flooding made relocation the selected remedy
EPA selected cleanup for nine Water Street properties but permanently relocated residents from five. Because future floods could return contaminated creek water and sediment to their yards, those homes were acquired and demolished rather than restored for continued occupancy.
Continuing
The advisory changes what a successful day of fishing means
New York maintains an 'eat none' advisory for fish from the creek. Catch-and-release remains possible, but the warning represents a continuing human consequence even as source-area and sediment cleanup proceeds in stages.
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.
Eighteen Mile Creek joins the federal Superfund list
The listing formally joined Lockport source properties with the downstream sediment corridor, setting up a cleanup that would proceed through multiple operable units rather than one construction project.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup record ↗EPA proposes permanent relocation beside Eighteen Mile Creek
The first major cleanup decision called for purchasing contaminated Water Street properties, permanently relocating residents, demolishing homes, and removing the deteriorated Flintkote building.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency news archive ↗Residents describe the burden of living beside excavation and contaminated floodplain soil
Local reporting documented families limiting children's yard use, fearing dust and truck traffic, and learning that additional residential properties required excavation and soil replacement. These are attributed resident experiences, not proof of a particular illness.
Spectrum News ↗Federal review questions whether fish-advisory signs communicate the risk clearly enough
EPA oversight renewed attention to how anglers receive the creek's PCB fish-consumption advice, showing that risk communication remains part of the remedy while contaminated sediment work continues.
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal ↗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 era
Flintkote and other Lockport industries operated near the creek headwaters, leaving multiple source areas that later required separate investigation.
- 2012
EPA added the creek corridor to the National Priorities List, turning a local source-area problem into a staged federal sediment and watershed cleanup.
- 2013–2015
EPA selected acquisition and permanent relocation of affected Water Street residents, demolition of structures including the former Flintkote building, excavation, and capping.
- 2017–2019
EPA selected separate remedies for the Lockport creek corridor and for lead-contaminated residential soil near the former Flintkote property.
- 2024–2026
Construction began on source-area and residential work. As of March 2026, the creek-corridor sediment remedy remained in design while cleanup of the first 24-property residential group was underway.
- 2024–2025
In the downstream Lake Ontario Area of Concern, agencies removed two ecological impairment designations after monitoring, while fish-consumption and wildlife-reproduction impairments remained.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- PCBs and lead contaminate source-area soil and creek sediment.
- Groundwater, runoff, and sediment transport connected industrial sources to downstream reaches.
- Fish-consumption advisories reflect persistent bioaccumulation risk in the aquatic food web.
- EPA reports that fine suspended material can move over Burt Dam and that elevated PCB levels in lower-creek fish are primarily associated with upstream sources; this does not mean every downstream sediment location requires excavation.
- The official corridor boundary does not mean every bank, yard, or building along all 15 miles has the same contaminant level or cleanup requirement.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Source buildings and contaminated soil were removed or capped in priority areas.
- Residential relocation addressed properties where safe continued occupancy was not compatible with the selected action.
- The first group of 24 lead-affected residential properties entered cleanup, with another group of 42 properties moving toward contractor procurement and additional sampling continuing to define the extent.
- The Lockport creek-corridor remedy calls for bank-to-bank sediment removal, off-site disposal, floodplain-soil work, and removal of deteriorated dams; it remained in remedial design as of March 2026.
- The downstream Area of Concern uses fish, wildlife, toxicity, and sediment monitoring to judge ecological recovery. That program overlaps geographically with the creek but is not interchangeable with Superfund construction decisions.
Then and now
The site today
Eighteen Mile Creek remains an active, large-scale Superfund cleanup. Work is now visible at residential and source properties, but the major Lockport sediment remedy is not yet complete. Downstream ecological indicators have improved enough to remove some Area of Concern impairments; the statewide 'eat none' fish advice and the remaining ecological impairments show why that progress cannot be translated into an all-clear for the creek.
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.
Lockport industrial and disposal history
Automotive manufacturing, battery production, chemical processing, municipal disposal, and canal-side industry created several separately managed cleanup sites around Lockport.
The closed landfill represents the city's long-term disposal and containment history.
Automotive manufacturingHarrison Radiator Division, GMCHarrison Radiator preserves the environmental record of a major regional automotive employer.
Battery manufacturingElectruk BatteryElectruk adds a smaller controlled industrial property with an environmental easement.
Manufactured-gas plantTransit Street Former Manufactured-Gas PlantTransit Street represents the city's earlier gas-manufacturing infrastructure and recurring MGP contaminants.
Creek and sediment corridorEighteen Mile Creek Superfund SiteEighteenmile Creek links multiple Lockport source areas to a much longer sediment-cleanup record.
Ravine landfill and creek cleanupOld Upper Mountain Road LandfillThe former municipal disposal area connects Lockport's waste history with documented Gulf Creek sediment, floodplain and sewer-infrastructure work.
Former quarry landfillVanchlor Company LandfillThe capped Mill Street landfill adds a separately managed chemical-manufacturing waste record within the broader Lockport industrial corridor.
Waterway connection
See the documented waterway record
The separate waterways map explains the documented relationship among the historic waterbody, fill or sediment, and this Atlas site without crowding the regional map.
Linked research mapEighteen Mile Creek industrial and sediment corridor →