cleanup · Niagara County
Transit Street Former Manufactured-Gas Plant
Lockport
Gasworks operated on Transit Street from 1851 to 1927. Most of the selected cleanup was constructed from 2014 through 2016, but DEC continues to classify the non-registry program as active rather than complete.
The documented story
What happened here?
A manufactured-gas plant operated on Transit Street from 1851 to 1927, supplying Lockport decades before natural gas service. Gas production generated a dense coal-tar byproduct containing PAHs, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene that persisted beneath the property long after the works disappeared.
The former plant footprint is only about 0.87 acre and is now occupied by an active electrical substation. Homes border the south, streets and businesses constrain the other sides, and the New York State Barge Canal lies downgradient. That compact urban setting made complete excavation impractical.
Investigation found coal-tar nonaqueous-phase liquid in soil, overburden, and fractured bedrock, with an ongoing discharge pathway toward the canal. Investigators also found contamination in canal sediment, but distinguished gasworks-related PAHs and tar from PCBs, metals, and other constituents attributable to additional Lockport sources.
The remedy therefore follows the pathway from a vanished plant, beneath an operating substation and public streets, through fractured rock, to the canal. It combines excavation where access allowed it, underground barriers where it did not, recovery wells for mobile tar, and sediment removal at the receiving water.
Coal gas, buried tar, and the Lockport canal cut
Transit Street lit nineteenth-century Lockport and left a pathway through fractured rock
1851-1927documented operating period of the Transit Street gasworks
1851-1927
The gasworks served Lockport for more than three generations
Coal gas was manufactured and stored in three holders alongside tar tanks, oil tanks, a gas department, and support buildings. The works also supplied tar to a separate State Road tar-processing plant, creating another documented industrial connection without proving a buried pipe between them.
1928-1948
Demolition left parts of the production system below ground
Plant buildings and holders were dismantled over two decades and the property became an electrical substation. Investigators later encountered wooden sumps with coal-tar-like material, affected fill, groundwater, and dense non-aqueous-phase liquid in bedrock.
1980s-present
Investigation followed the geology toward the canal
Successive studies examined soil, vapor, overburden and bedrock groundwater, the city interceptor, and Barge Canal sediment. The evidence showed MGP-related impacts near the site while also identifying unrelated urban and petroleum sources in the same canal setting; major remedy construction occurred from 2014 through 2016.
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.
Chronology
Timeline
- 1851–1927
The Transit Street plant manufactured gas for the Lockport area.
- After 1927
Gas manufacturing ended and electrical infrastructure occupied the small parcel, while tar remained in soil and fractured bedrock beneath the redeveloped surface.
- Investigation era
Borings, wells, and canal sampling traced tar and dissolved gasworks compounds on-site, beneath LaGrange Street, and toward the Barge Canal.
- March 2009
DEC selected partial source excavation, sheet-pile and bedrock-grout barriers, NAPL recovery, a cover, canal sediment removal, and long-term site management.
- 2014–2016
Crews excavated accessible soil, installed the sheet-pile wall, collection trench and recovery wells, grouted bedrock pathways near the canal, and covered the substation property.
- 2018 follow-up
DEC prepared to remove approximately 800 cubic yards of gasworks-affected canal sediment using a cofferdam and controlled water treatment.
- Present
DEC continues to list the non-registry cleanup as active; recovery, monitoring, and remaining engineering documentation govern completion.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Coal-tar NAPL persisted as a mobile or residual liquid in soil and fractured bedrock, providing a continuing source of dissolved contamination.
- PAHs and BTEX compounds affected soil, groundwater, and gasworks-related canal sediment. DEC's 2009 decision identified ongoing tar discharge to the Barge Canal as an environmental threat requiring a physical barrier.
- The active electrical substation, neighboring homes, public streets, utilities, and canal made access and worker or community protection part of the remedy design.
- The canal contains pollution from more than one source. Transit Street explains documented coal-tar and PAH impacts, but the reviewed investigation did not assign all PCBs, metals, or other canal contamination to this gasworks.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Accessible tar sumps, heavily affected soil, and material beneath part of LaGrange Street were excavated for approved treatment or disposal while the substation continued to constrain deeper source removal.
- A sheet-pile wall contains shallow migration along the east and south sides. Near the canal, a subsurface grout wall seals fractures in bedrock that could otherwise carry tar around the shallow barrier.
- A collection trench and recovery wells capture mobile NAPL that cannot be safely excavated. The cover limits routine contact and infiltration across the remaining source area.
- Canal work uses a cofferdam to isolate the excavation, removes affected sediment, treats construction water before sewer discharge, and restores the canal edge. Monitoring and site management test the combined system over time.
Then and now
The site today
Most upland components of the 2009 remedy were constructed from 2014 through 2016, but DEC still identifies Transit Street as an active non-registry cleanup. The substation remains in service above a managed source, and present protectiveness depends on barriers, NAPL recovery, cover maintenance, canal work, and monitoring rather than a claim that all tar was removed.
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.
Manufactured-gas plant network
These sites share a historic gas-manufacturing system and recurring contaminant profile. Their classifications range from active cleanup to completed management and preliminary investigation; they are a comparative network, not one connected plume.
The former Buffalo Service Station / Blue Cross–HealthNow property is a completed cleanup and redevelopment example.
Managed remedy and active creek investigationIroquois Gas / Westwood PharmaceuticalThe former Iroquois Gas source area and lower Scajaquada Creek show how coal tar can require both constructed controls and continuing downstream investigation.
Class 4 Tonawanda siteGastown Former Manufactured-Gas PlantThe Gastown record shows how the same industrial system appeared in the City of Tonawanda.
Active Lockport programTransit Street Former Manufactured-Gas PlantTransit Street extends the comparative MGP record to Lockport.
Completed West Seneca cleanupMineral Springs Road Former Manufactured-Gas PlantMineral Springs Road documents another separately bounded former gas-manufacturing property.
Gas-holder propertyBuffalo Gas Light Gas Holder / 31 Tonawanda StreetThe Tonawanda Street holder site represents storage infrastructure within the historic manufactured-gas system.
Class 2 State Superfund siteJamestown Former Manufactured-Gas PlantJamestown is an action-required site with documented coal-tar liquid and possible migration toward the Chadakoin River.
Active Dunkirk programDunkirk Former Manufactured-Gas PlantDunkirk remains under active investigation and cleanup review, including off-property and bedrock groundwater work.
Potential Niagara Falls siteNiagara Falls Former Manufactured-Gas PlantHistoric maps establish the gasworks near the Rainbow Bridge area, while DEC's Class P status preserves uncertainty about current cleanup needs.
Potential Salamanca gas propertySalamanca Former Gas PropertyThe Salamanca record documents gas purification and distribution history but does not yet establish on-site manufactured-gas production or a required remedy.
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.