cleanup · Chautauqua County
Essex / Hope Site
Jamestown
Former paint, varnish, coating, and window-manufacturing property where solvents and other industrial chemicals affected soil and groundwater. DEC amended the remedy in 2023 to add thermal and chemical treatment, monitoring, a maintained cover, and continuing land- and groundwater-use controls.
The documented story
What happened here?
The approximately 4.7-acre state cleanup site covers six industrial parcels around Hopkins and Blackstone avenues. Paints, varnishes, industrial coatings, and related products were manufactured here by a succession of companies beginning in the early twentieth century.
DEC identifies the property as State Superfund site 907015, currently Class 4. That classification means remedial construction has been completed for the earlier remedy but continuing management, monitoring, or operation remains necessary.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Early 1900s onward
Successive companies manufactured paints, varnishes, coatings, and related products at the property.
1994
DEC selected a remedy centered on source removal, groundwater recovery and treatment, air sparging, and soil-vapor extraction.
1994–2023
Additional investigations, underground-tank and drywell removals, and treatment pilot programs refined the understanding of on- and off-site conditions.
2023
DEC amended the remedy to use in-situ thermal treatment for chlorinated VOCs, chemical oxidation for petroleum-related VOCs, and continued groundwater monitoring.
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.
DEC changes the remedy after decades of treatment and investigation
The amended decision added electrical-resistance heating for a chlorinated-solvent source and chemical oxidation for petroleum-related compounds while preserving cover, monitoring and off-site investigation requirements.
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
- DEC documents releases including trichloroethene, petroleum-related volatile compounds, toluene, xylenes, PCBs, and vinyl chloride.
- Groundwater flows generally north or northeast toward the Chadakoin River. DEC is handling the incompletely defined downgradient off-site area as a separate operable unit.
- The record applies to the defined cleanup site and investigated downgradient area; it does not establish that every nearby parcel shares the same conditions.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- The amended remedy calls for electrical-resistance heating and vapor collection in a chlorinated-solvent source area, chemical oxidation in a petroleum-affected area, and monitored natural attenuation.
- A site cover, industrial-use restriction, groundwater-use restriction, excavation controls, vapor-intrusion review provisions, and periodic certification remain part of site management.
Then and now
The site today
Essex / Hope remains a long-term managed cleanup. Its Class 4 status should be read as continuing stewardship, not as an unrestricted or inactive property.
The 2023 amendment changed how remaining source areas will be treated; it did not erase the earlier removals, treatment systems, or off-site investigation history.
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.