cleanup · Chautauqua County
Jamestown City Landfill
Jamestown
Former municipal landfill used from 1962 to 1974. Historical records identify municipal refuse together with paint, solvent, and degreasing wastes; DEC currently classifies the State Superfund record as Class 3.
The documented story
What happened here?
The City of Jamestown operated the Washington Street landfill from 1962 through 1974. It was not only a household-refuse dump: municipal environmental reviews preserve a record of waste paint, solvents, degreaser sludge, and paint liquids placed in defined disposal areas during the operating years.
The site later became part of a park and utility landscape, making buried-waste awareness important even when no emergency was underway. A 2000 DEC operation-and-maintenance visit noted new asphalt, concrete, and stone dumping in the north-central park area and inspected regrading where an eight-inch gas line crossed the landfill's western side; the inspector recorded no indicated problem with that work.
DEC now lists the site as Class 3 and records its legacy vapor-intrusion review as complete with no further action for that pathway. Class 3 means the state does not presently consider the site—or reasonably foresee it—to pose a significant threat. It is a current regulatory conclusion, not a claim that the 1960s waste was excavated or never existed.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
1962–1974
The City of Jamestown operated the landfill.
Operating period
Records describe disposal of municipal refuse and industrial materials including paint, solvents, degreaser sludge, and paint liquids.
October 2000
A DEC maintenance inspection recorded park-area fill placement and reviewed regrading around a gas-line installation across the landfill.
Legacy review
Because chlorinated hydrocarbons had been disposed, the property entered the statewide reevaluation of older remedies for potential soil-vapor pathways.
Present classification
DEC lists the site as Class 3 and records the legacy vapor review as complete with no further action for that pathway.
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 municipal dump also receives Jamestown's industrial wastes
Municipal environmental-review records preserve the lesser-known history that the Washington Street landfill received paint, solvent and degreasing wastes along with ordinary refuse; DEC's present Class 3 status does not erase that disposal record.
City of Jamestown ↗Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The documented industrial materials included paint liquids, solvents, and degreaser sludge in addition to municipal refuse.
- Utility construction and later fill placement show why a closed landfill can remain relevant to excavation planning even without a current significant-threat classification.
- The reviewed record does not support turning the map marker into a complete waste boundary, a current plume, or a claim about exposure in nearby homes.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- DEC's historical operation-and-maintenance inspections tracked surface condition and work that disturbed or crossed the landfill.
- The legacy soil-vapor evaluation was completed with no further action for that pathway, while future excavation or redevelopment still requires current parcel and agency review.
Then and now
The site today
This entry records a municipal landfill that also accepted documented industrial liquids and sludges. Its present Class 3 status prevents the history from being exaggerated into an active emergency, while the park and utility uses explain why the buried-waste record still matters.
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.