cleanup · Niagara County
Hooker Main Plant / Occidental Niagara Plant
Niagara Falls
Large Buffalo Avenue chemical-manufacturing property where historic operations released chlorinated organics, mercury, dioxin-related compounds, and other materials to soil and groundwater. Caps, groundwater extraction and treatment, non-aqueous-phase-liquid recovery, monitoring, and industrial-use restrictions remain part of the corrective-action program.
The documented story
What happened here?
Oldbury Electro-Chemical, a predecessor acquired by Hooker in 1956, manufactured phosgene for the WWI chemical-warfare program. The War Department describes an experimental operation followed by a larger plant that began production on August 5, 1918. Oldbury initially sought a use for carbon monoxide generated as a byproduct of phosphorus manufacture.
Oldbury also made perchlorates before World War I. EPA dates the first U.S. manufacture to Niagara Falls in 1908; a 1999 industrial-history paper identifies sodium perchlorate in 1908 and potassium perchlorate in 1910. These oxidizer salts expand the product history beyond phosgene.
Hooker Electrochemical Company began operating its Niagara plant in 1906, using Niagara Falls' abundant hydroelectric power to manufacture caustic soda and co-product chlorine. The modern approximately 113-acre property at 4700 Buffalo Avenue grew from Hooker parcels and neighboring works operated by Niagara Alkali Company and Oldbury Electrochemical Company.
The facility's 1984 historical database records Hooker's acquisition of Niagara Alkali on November 30, 1955 and Oldbury on November 30, 1956. Those acquisitions consolidated several older chemical works and their different manufacturing, drainage, and waste-management areas into the Main Plant.
Chlorine, caustic soda, hydrogen, bleach, and hydrochloric acid formed the basic-product side of the operation. Beginning in the 1920s, the plant also manufactured pesticides and a wide range of chlorinated organic compounds; that production peaked from the 1940s through the 1970s.
Hooker's Niagara Falls operation also produced fluorocarbon coolant and lubricants for the Manhattan Project's K-25 gaseous-diffusion plant, according to a participant's Nuclear Museum oral history. A Cornell historical chemistry record identifies MFL as the Manhattan District designation for Miller's Fluorolube, a chlorotrifluoroethylene polymer oil developed for uranium-hexafluoride-related equipment. The Smithsonian's Miller collection independently describes the Manhattan Project effort to develop lubricants, coolants, seals and other components able to withstand uranium hexafluoride.
Government technical tables identify Fluorolube FS-5, T-45, T-80, HO-125 and MO-10 oils, along with GR-544, LG and GR-362 greases, as Hooker Chemical products. These tables verify Hooker's later Fluorolube product line; they do not date a particular product batch to the wartime Niagara Falls contract.
Together, those sources support a carefully bounded synthesis: Hooker produced Manhattan Project fluorocarbon coolants and lubricants at Niagara Falls; Miller's Fluorolube was among the specialized materials developed for uranium-hexafluoride equipment; and Hooker subsequently manufactured Fluorolube products. No single reviewed source proves that a specific wartime Hooker batch was formally branded Miller's Fluorolube.
Occidental Petroleum acquired Hooker Chemicals and Plastics in 1968. The property continued under the Hooker name until 1982, when it became Occidental Chemical Corporation's Main Plant and later the Niagara or Buffalo Avenue Plant.
This page covers the manufacturing complex and its RCRA corrective-action program. The S-Area landfill lies within the broader plant property but has its own federal Superfund record; Love Canal and the Hooker portions of the 102nd Street landfill are separate disposal sites with separate map entries and remedies.
Workers inside the chemical complex
The federal record recognizes an atomic-era workforce
1944-1948federal Special Exposure Cohort operating period
1908-1910 - Oldbury predecessor
Niagara Falls also helped launch the American perchlorate industry
EPA identifies Oldbury as the first U.S. perchlorate manufacturer, in 1908. Industrial pioneer Joseph C. Schumacher's 1999 history specifies sodium perchlorate in 1908 and potassium perchlorate in 1910. Perchlorates supply oxygen in applications such as flares, fireworks, and propellants. That product history is distinct from Oldbury's 1918 phosgene work. The reviewed sources do not establish where its perchlorate wastes went or demonstrate continuous poison-gas production after WWI.
1918 - Oldbury predecessor
Oldbury manufactured phosgene during World War I
Oldbury developed phosgene production using carbon monoxide generated by phosphorus manufacturing. The War Department records 83,070 pounds from the experimental plant, including 24,800 pounds shipped overseas, and 435 tons from a larger plant that started August 5, 1918. Hooker acquired Oldbury in 1956; the later owner should not be treated as the operator of every predecessor process.
Later disposal history
A landfill connection does not settle the wartime waste trail
The 102nd Street landfill investigation describes phosphorus-bearing wastes buried below the water table on former Oldbury property. A public-health assessment dates Oldbury's acquisition of its landfill parcels to 1924. The company-to-landfill relationship is documented, but no reviewed record identifies this as the destination of wastes from Oldbury's 1918 phosgene operation.
1940s
An unsuccessful incinerator left a landfill waste trail
The 1994 federal opinion describes Hooker abandoning thionyl-chloride-waste incineration around 1944. Some wastes went to Love Canal during 1945-1948; most went to S-Area. The history connects an attempted treatment method to named disposal destinations.
World War II and after
Some employees supported federal atomic work
The Department of Labor recognizes Hooker Electrochemical as an atomic-weapons employer. In 2015, a defined class of employees who worked at the Niagara Falls facility for at least 250 aggregate workdays during the July 1944-December 1948 operating period entered the Special Exposure Cohort under the federal occupational-illness compensation program.
Why the designation matters
Dose could not be reconstructed reliably for the covered class
The federal designation followed a finding that radiation dose could not be reconstructed with sufficient reliability under the program's rules. It creates a compensation pathway for qualifying workers with specified cancers; it does not declare that every employee was exposed or became ill.
November 2021
Manufacturing ended for another generation
OxyChem closed its Niagara Falls manufacturing operations, affecting 130 full-time employees and 20 contractors. The company announced transitional pay and benefits, severance, counseling, outplacement help, and possible relocation—an ending distinct from the site's continuing corrective-action obligations.
Atlas classification: environmental detection, agency investigation.
PFAS activity, investigation, or detection is documented in the cited site record. That documentation does not by itself establish off-site exposure or a health effect in any individual.
Compounds and evidence
PFAS reported; exact compound not specified
Medium: on-site and off-site monitoring wells
The 2022 permit record reports low-level detections slightly above guidance values but the reviewed summary does not identify each compound.
Evidence limit: This is a documented monitoring-well finding, not evidence that Hooker manufactured PFAS or used APFO. Compound-level laboratory results remain a research item.
C8 and APFO: PFOA is often called C8. APFO is the ammonium salt of PFOA, but a PFOA environmental result does not identify APFO as the original product or prove where it came from.
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.
Hooker workers support atomic-era production later recognized by a federal compensation program
A defined employee class entered the Special Exposure Cohort because radiation dose could not be reconstructed reliably under program rules; eligibility is not a finding that every employee was exposed or became ill.
U.S. Department of Labor ↗Chemical manufacturing ends while groundwater containment and corrective action continue
Plant closure affected 130 employees and 20 contractors, but shutdown did not end the subsurface treatment, monitoring, caps, barriers, or permit obligations.
Buffalo Toronto Public Media ↗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.
Health context
Why PFAS are a long-term concern
PFAS are a large family of manufactured chemicals. Many are highly persistent, and some can remain in the environment or build up in people and animals over time. Persistence can allow releases to move through groundwater, surface water, waste systems, food, and fish long after the original use has ended.
Human studies have found associations between increased exposure to certain PFAS and higher cholesterol, lower antibody response to some vaccines, changes in liver enzymes, pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia, small decreases in birth weight, and kidney or testicular cancer for PFOA. Evidence differs by compound, and research continues. A site detection does not show that a particular person was exposed or that PFAS caused an illness.
Chronology
Timeline
- 1906
Hooker Electrochemical began Niagara Plant operations producing caustic soda and chlorine.
- 1908-1910 - Oldbury predecessor
Sodium perchlorate production began in 1908 and potassium perchlorate in 1910, according to the industrial history preserved in a NASA-hosted report.
- 1918 - Oldbury predecessor
The War Department records 83,070 pounds of phosgene from the experimental plant, including 24,800 pounds shipped overseas, and 435 tons from the larger plant that began production August 5.
- 1920s-1930s
The product line expanded beyond basic chlor-alkali chemicals into chlorinated organic manufacturing.
- World War II
Hooker's Niagara Falls operation produced fluorocarbon coolants and lubricants for the Manhattan Project's K-25 gaseous-diffusion plant.
- 1940s-1970s
Production of chlorobenzenes, chlorotoluenes, chlorinated phenols, lindane-related compounds, and other organics reached its broadest scale.
- 1955-1956
Hooker acquired Niagara Alkali and Oldbury Electrochemical, bringing their parcels and operations into the consolidated plant.
- 1968-1982
Occidental acquired Hooker Chemicals and Plastics; in 1982 the complex became the Occidental Chemical Corporation Main Plant.
- 1980s-1995
Hydrogeologic studies, historical-data compilation, off-site investigations, and a RCRA Facility Investigation documented soil, sewer, overburden-groundwater, bedrock-groundwater, and NAPL conditions.
- 1992-1998
NAPL collection, groundwater interception, bedrock extraction, treatment, caps, and other interim corrective measures were installed in stages; the bedrock system began operating in April 1996.
- 2000
DEC issued the final corrective-action decision and a recorded declaration restricted future property use to commercial or industrial purposes.
- 2003-2008
Collection systems were upgraded so additional overburden groundwater could be routed to the F-Area treatment plant rather than the sanitary sewer.
- August 2021
Chemical manufacturing ceased, beginning full production-area decommissioning while the cleanup systems remained active.
- 2022-2024
DEC renewed the corrective-action permit and required emerging-contaminant testing, a Flow Zone 1 assessment, and a remedial-system optimization review completed in 2024.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- DEC considers the entire facility an Area of Contamination because releases occurred from historical spills, leaks, manufacturing areas, sewers, and waste-management areas over many decades.
- The most significant source areas identified by the permit include the C-, D-, F-, M-, N-, and T-Areas and the former Mercury Cell Area. Other remedy areas include U-Area, X-Area, Energy Boulevard, the former elemental-phosphorus area, and the separately regulated S-Area landfill.
- Documented constituents include chlorobenzenes, chlorotoluenes, chloroethenes, chlorobenzotrifluorides, hexachlorobutadiene, hexachlorocyclopentadiene, lindane and related BHC compounds, 2,4,5-trichlorophenol, mercury, elemental phosphorus, and dioxin-related contamination.
- Groundwater investigations identified both dissolved plumes and dense non-aqueous-phase liquid. NAPL can act as a continuing subsurface source because it occupies fractures or pore spaces and dissolves into groundwater slowly over time.
- The historical bedrock plume extended north toward the Falls Street Tunnel and New York Power Authority conduit drains. Overburden groundwater could also enter plant sewers and outfalls, making those utilities part of the investigation and containment strategy.
- The 2022 permit briefing reported low-level 1,4-dioxane and PFAS detections slightly above guidance levels in on- and off-site monitoring wells and required treatment-system influent and effluent sampling. That record documents detection and treatment evaluation; it does not establish that Hooker manufactured PFAS at this plant.
- The fluorocarbon coolant and lubricant history documents a wartime production role. It is not, by itself, evidence that Fluorolube was disposed at a particular Hooker landfill or caused a documented environmental release.
- A 1994 court account describes thionyl-chloride wastes sent to Love Canal and mostly S-Area after Hooker abandoned an unsuccessful 1940s incineration effort.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Bedrock extraction wells create hydraulic containment along the western and northwestern plant boundaries. The F-Area treatment plant uses air stripping and activated carbon for groundwater; contaminated stripper air is treated by thermal oxidation and scrubbing.
- Overburden collectors, drain tiles, wet wells, converted sewer segments, and force mains intercept groundwater and NAPL before they can migrate through shallow materials or infiltrate utilities.
- A plant barrier wall, the adjoining S-Area barrier wall, and the New York Power Authority intake wall form a continuous physical barrier intended to restrict shallow groundwater movement toward the Niagara River.
- Asphalt, concrete, gravel, and soil-and-grass caps cover different source areas. NAPL collection wells, trenches, sumps, groundwater monitoring, outfall and sewer monitoring, fence maintenance, and annual cover inspections support the containment remedy.
- DEC concluded that restoring the entire property to preindustrial conditions was not technically feasible at the time of remedy selection. The remedy therefore emphasizes containment, mass recovery, treatment, exposure prevention, and long-term performance monitoring.
- A recorded declaration restricts future use to commercial or industrial purposes, requires protection of engineering controls, and preserves agency access for oversight.
Then and now
The site today
Manufacturing ended in August 2021, but this is not an unrestricted-use closure. Production buildings and equipment are being decommissioned while groundwater treatment, NAPL recovery, caps, barriers, monitoring, inspections, and permit reporting continue.
EPA reports that the extraction systems restrict off-site groundwater migration and that monitored concentrations have declined. The 2024 optimization review nevertheless continued evaluation of Flow Zone 1 performance and possible operational improvements.
Any future redevelopment must remain compatible with the industrial-use restriction and the buried collection systems, wells, caps, walls, and contaminated media that make the remedy work.
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.
Wartime chemical production and its environmental record
WWI agent production, a mustard-gas plant project, WWII protective treatment and later disposal histories have different evidence. These connections do not establish continuous warfare-agent manufacture, a shared plume, or a verified destination for WWI gas-production wastes.
DEC identifies Area D phosgene manufacture; military records document a mustard-gas project with unresolved actual output.
Oldbury predecessor productionHooker Main Plant / Occidental Niagara PlantOldbury manufactured phosgene in 1918, decades before its acquisition by Hooker.
WWII and Korean War protective treatmentSolvent Chemical SiteDuPont and later Hooker manufactured impregnite at 3163 Buffalo Avenue. The treatment was protective, not proof of poison-gas production.
Later Oldbury disposal connectionHooker / 102nd Street LandfillOldbury acquired landfill parcels in 1924. Later phosphorus-waste burial does not establish a destination for its 1918 gas-production wastes.