pfas · Erie County
Marine Drive Apartments East PFAS Investigation
Buffalo
Brownfield investigation at 90 Erie Street documented PFAS impacts in groundwater alongside contaminants associated with historic fill; remediation planning remains part of the site record.
The documented story
What happened here?
Marine Drive Apartments East is a 2.447-acre piece of an active parking lot at 90 Erie Street, beside the existing apartment towers and near Canalside. Before the towers, this ground belonged to Buffalo's Canal District: homes, shops, foundries, a laundry, plating and boiler shops, garages, buried streets, demolition, and successive layers of fill all contributed to a complicated subsurface record.
The 1936 natural-gas explosion that devastated part of the district is part of that land history, but it is not evidence of today's contamination. The environmental evidence comes from borings and wells. Beneath the pavement, investigators found slag and historic fill extending in places to about 16 feet, with PAHs and metals including lead and mercury above unrestricted-use soil criteria.
PFOA and PFOS were also detected at low levels in groundwater, but soil samples from roughly two to nineteen feet did not exceed New York's PFAS guidance values. DEC's investigation treated the groundwater PFAS as likely off-site. This is therefore a historic-fill cleanup with a documented PFAS groundwater finding—not evidence that Marine Drive used or manufactured PFAS.
PFAS was found in groundwater, but not traced to the site's soil
Marine Drive shows why detection and source attribution must remain separate
2.447 acreswithin the housing-redevelopment brownfield
Historic canal district
Canals, streets, buildings, demolition, and filling built the subsurface
The modern parking area overlays a complicated urban record. Deep fill contains PAHs, metals, and other compounds typical of repeated waterfront demolition and reuse.
2024-2025
Brownfield investigation added a carefully limited PFAS finding
Low-level PFAS appeared in groundwater, but soil from the surface to more than 20 feet did not show PFAS above applicable criteria. DEC's decision treats the groundwater source as off site unless later evidence changes that interpretation.
Planned housing remedy
Affordable housing depends on controlled soil and groundwater work
The selected remedy governs excavation, soil handling, groundwater management, verification, cover, and any vapor protection needed during redevelopment.
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
Detected
Medium: groundwater
DEC considers the low-level groundwater finding likely attributable to an off-site source.
Detected
Medium: groundwater
DEC considers the low-level groundwater finding likely attributable to an off-site source.
Evidence limit: Soil did not exceed the applicable PFAS criteria. A groundwater detection does not establish that Marine Drive was the source.
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.
DEC selects a 37,000-cubic-yard excavation beside occupied apartments
The approved remedy targets historic fill for unrestricted-use cleanup while treating low-level groundwater PFAS as a likely off-site condition rather than assigning it to the parking-lot property.
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.
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
- Historic canal district
Streets, canals, tenements, waterfront activity, demolition, and filling created a complex subsurface record.
- February 2024
The applicant entered New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program.
- 2024
A remedial investigation characterized soil, groundwater, historic fill, and redevelopment alternatives.
- June 2025
DEC and the Health Department approved the investigation and remedial work plan and issued the final decision document.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- PAHs, acetone, and metals occur in deep historic fill and subsurface soil. Reported soil maxima included lead at 2,480 parts per million and mercury at 20.6 parts per million, figures that describe particular samples rather than uniform conditions across the lot.
- Low-level PFAS, SVOCs, and metals were detected in groundwater.
- The investigation did not identify PFAS above applicable guidance values in the sampled subsurface soil, collected from approximately two to nineteen feet, and attributes groundwater PFAS to an assumed off-site source.
- Groundwater at and near the site is not used as the public drinking-water supply. The adjacent apartments and daily use of the parking lot make construction dust, soil handling, traffic, and safe staging central community concerns during excavation.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- The June 2025 decision selected excavation and off-site disposal of approximately 37,000 cubic yards of soil, at depths ranging from about two to sixteen feet, to meet unrestricted-use soil objectives. Confirmation samples determine whether the planned excavation is sufficient.
- Construction controls, waste characterization, soil and groundwater handling, clean backfill, and community air monitoring are required to protect residents, workers, and visitors during the work. A limited archaeological investigation precedes excavation because the parcel lies within the National Register-eligible Erie Canal Harbor Archaeological District.
- Post-excavation groundwater sampling for SVOCs and metals will test whether soil removal addressed related groundwater impacts. The municipal prohibition on potable groundwater use prevents ingestion; the selected remedy does not claim that excavating this lot will eliminate an assumed off-site PFAS source.
Then and now
The site today
DEC approved the investigation, work plan, and remedy in June 2025 for planned housing redevelopment. The decision says the property does not pose a significant threat under the Brownfield Cleanup Program, but it remains an active cleanup project until excavation, confirmation sampling, final engineering documentation, and any required completion certification are finished.
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.
Western New York PFAS investigations
These records share an emerging contaminant and evolving agency investigation framework; they do not imply a common source or connected groundwater plume.
The air reserve station record follows PFAS investigation associated with federal facility operations.
Community investigationMayville PFAS SiteMayville is a separate Chautauqua County investigation with its own sources, boundaries, and response decisions.
Residential-area investigationMarine Drive Apartments East PFAS InvestigationMarine Drive represents a distinct Buffalo investigation and should not be read as physically connected to the other PFAS locations.
Research status
Open questions
- Update the profile with remedial construction quantities, groundwater PFAS trends, and the final completion certificate.
- Preserve DEC's distinction between on-site historic-fill contamination and the assumed off-site source of groundwater PFAS.