cleanup · Niagara County
Frontier Chemical — Pendleton
Pendleton / North Tonawanda
Closed Class 4 chemical cleanup site on Townline Road. This property is distinct from Frontier Chemical's Royal Avenue facility in Niagara Falls and is mapped separately to prevent their histories and remedies from being conflated.
The documented story
What happened here?
Frontier Chemical Waste Process operated an industrial-waste treatment facility in Pendleton from 1958 to 1974. The plant treated plating wastes, pickle liquors, and other acidic liquids from plating and metal-finishing businesses.
DEC lists incineration alongside oxidation, product recovery and distillation. A 1979 EPA case study specifies flammable-waste burning and records complaints about smoke, odors, noise and trucks; it also recounts a June 1973 drum explosion and brief neighborhood evacuation.
Treatment residuals were discharged into the approximately 15-acre Quarry Lake. After operations ended, much of the former process area was filled and graded, leaving contaminated sediment, soil, and groundwater that required a containment-based remedy.
Industrial liquid waste became sediment, then an engineered landfill
Frontier Chemical consolidated Quarry Lake sediment into an eleven-acre cap
11 acresapproximately, within the capped on-site landfill
1958-1974
A regional waste-treatment business discharged residuals to a quarry lake
Frontier accepted plating and metal-finishing wastes and treated acidic liquid streams. Residuals from that process accumulated in the approximately 15-acre Quarry Lake and affected soil and groundwater.
1992-1990s remedy
The cleanup moved lake sediment into engineered containment
DEC selected containment and collection in 1992. Contaminated lake sediment was excavated and consolidated within an approximately 11-acre capped landfill, paired with a subsurface barrier and groundwater collection and pretreatment.
2013-present
A changed boundary did not end site management
DEC redefined the managed site boundary in 2013 so Quarry Lake was no longer inside formal Site 932043. Cap care, groundwater systems, wetlands, runoff controls, monitoring, security, and periodic review continue.
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.
New York selects containment, sediment consolidation and groundwater collection
The 1992 decision addressed the process/fill area and Quarry Lake sediments through containment and consolidation, with groundwater collection and treatment. The Townline Road site is separate from Royal Avenue.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ↗A capped waste area requires continuing groundwater stewardship
Long-term reports track the capped landfill, groundwater collection and pretreatment, monitoring and institutional controls. Consolidation and containment leave continuing management obligations.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ↗Chronology
Timeline
- 1958–1974
Frontier Chemical treated plating and metal-finishing wastes at the Pendleton facility.
- Post-1974
Waste-treatment operations ended and portions of the process area were filled and graded.
- 1992
DEC selected a containment and collection remedy in the site's Record of Decision.
- 1990s
Contaminated lake sediment was removed and consolidated in an on-site engineered landfill.
- 2013
DEC redefined the managed site boundary so that Quarry Lake was no longer inside the formal Site 932043 boundary.
- Present
The capped landfill and groundwater collection and pretreatment system operate under long-term management.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Plating wastes, pickle liquors, and acidic industrial liquids generated contaminated treatment residuals.
- Quarry Lake sediment received residuals from the waste-treatment process.
- Contaminated soil and groundwater required containment and hydraulic control.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Contaminated lake sediment was excavated and placed within an approximately 11-acre on-site capped landfill.
- A subsurface containment boundary and groundwater collection, conveyance, and pretreatment system limit migration.
- Fencing, cap maintenance, wetland-area controls, monitoring, and annual periodic review preserve the remedy.
Then and now
The site today
The Pendleton site is a closed Class 4 facility with waste consolidated and managed on site. The latest reviewed periodic report documents the cap, collection and pretreatment system, wetlands, runoff controls, monitoring network, and security features. It is entirely distinct from Frontier Chemical's Royal Avenue facility in Niagara Falls, which has a different operating history and remedy.
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.
The Burning Years: incineration and residue histories
These places illustrate separate municipal and industrial burning, residue disposal and later reuse histories; the group does not establish a common furnace, hauler or waste stream.
Ash-related lead and arsenic on the plant grounds and creek corridor required a property-specific remedy.
Village burning and landfillDepew Village LandfillMunicipal incineration and disposal beside Cayuga Creek have their own cleanup record.
Industrial burningBuffalo ColorThe investigation documents buried on-site burning residues.
Commercial treatment and incinerationFrontier Chemical — PendletonIncineration was one of several waste-treatment processes.
Separate successor facilityFrontier Chemical — Royal AvenueHistorical records document sewer and off-site residue pathways.
Fill transfer and later reuseTifft Nature PreserveUSGS describes Squaw Island fill moved into an engineered disposal area; not all fill was identified as ash.
Research status
Open questions
- Track current groundwater-system performance and Quarry Lake monitoring in future periodic reviews.
- Map the capped landfill, Quarry Lake, wetlands, former process area, and larger surrounding property as separate features, preserving DEC's 2013 site-boundary change.
- Recover incinerator operating logs and feed records before identifying particular chemicals as burned. Keep incineration distinct from Quarry Lake treatment discharges.