cleanup · Niagara County
Electruk Battery
Lockport
Former battery-related industrial property at 4922 IDA Park Drive. The completed environmental-restoration site remains under an approximately 1.35-acre easement restricting the controlled property to commercial and industrial use.
The documented story
What happened here?
The 1.35-acre Electruk property at 4922 IDA Park Drive was a battery operation whose closure left batteries, contaminated equipment, drums, hazardous liquids, building debris, and lead-affected soil inside an industrial-park building and around its foundation.
Niagara County health officials asked New York for emergency action in June 1998, and DEC brought in EPA the following month. By June 1999 the federal removal had shipped 99 drums, 21 pallets containing 27.45 tons of batteries and battery parts, 8,634 gallons of hazardous liquids, 695 cubic yards of debris and equipment, and 180 cubic yards of lead-contaminated soil to permitted facilities.
That emergency work removed the gross hazards but did not make the property residential-grade. Lead remained bonded to some floor and ceiling surfaces and in soil below the industrial removal threshold; New York therefore completed the later restoration with an easement, commercial/industrial-use limits, and soil-management rules.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Battery-operating era
Electruk handled batteries and battery materials at the IDA Park Drive building.
1998–1999
County and state referrals led EPA to remove batteries, drums, hazardous liquids, contaminated equipment, debris, and lead-bearing soil.
Post-removal restoration
Niagara County investigated the residual lead and prepared the publicly controlled property for restricted reuse.
2012
New York issued a Certificate of Completion and established continuing institutional controls.
Present
Commercial or industrial reuse remains subject to an environmental easement and site-management requirements.
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 county-led battery-site cleanup reaches controlled completion
The final engineering record and easement document a completed restoration with commercial and industrial use limits, groundwater restrictions and soil-management duties for future excavation.
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
- Lead affected soil, building surfaces, debris, equipment, batteries, and other wastes; the removal also handled thousands of gallons of hazardous liquid.
- Post-removal sampling found residual lead below EPA's industrial removal level but above New York's unrestricted-use soil objective and residential surface guidance.
- The defined 1.35-acre controlled property should not be conflated with the larger industrial park.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- EPA's emergency action removed the identified bulk hazardous wastes and the most contaminated soil for off-site disposal.
- Residual building surfaces required encapsulation before reuse, while remaining soil was judged compatible with undisturbed commercial or industrial use.
- The environmental easement restricts use to commercial and industrial purposes and prohibits unauthorized groundwater use.
- A site-management and soil-management framework governs future disturbance; the completion record identifies no continuing engineering control.
Then and now
The site today
Electruk is a completed environmental-restoration project, but the sequence matters: emergency removal first, controlled reuse second. Its easement and soil plan preserve the reason commercial or industrial occupancy can be safe even though the cleanup did not meet unrestricted residential standards.
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.