cleanup · Orleans County
Monroe Electronics
Lyndonville
An electronics plant built on a former pesticide-formulation property disclosed tons of spent degreasing solvent, leading to a separate chlorinated-groundwater remedy beside homes, farmland, and a school.
The documented story
What happened here?
The ten-acre property at the end of Housel Avenue carries two industrial histories. Before Monroe Electronics arrived, DuPont and Barre Lime & Sulfur formulated pesticide sprays and dust mixtures there. Monroe began manufacturing electrostatic measuring instruments and other electronic devices at the property in 1972, using solvents for cleaning and degreasing.
In a 1986 hazardous-waste questionnaire, Monroe reported disposing of approximately one to four tons of 1,1,1-trichloroethane at the Housel Avenue facility. That disclosure became especially important because the property had once been included in the separate Lyndonville West Avenue pesticide-and-arsenic site.
Investigations in the 1990s did not find consequential pesticide or arsenic contamination at the Monroe plant itself, but they did not resolve the solvent question. DEC separated Monroe from the West Avenue site description in 1999 so its volatile-organic contamination could be investigated as its own source and plume rather than folded into the older pesticide-landfill case.
The setting makes the distinction consequential: the manufacturing building shares the property with a residence, apple-processing facilities lie to the north, a middle-high school lies to the south, and farmland borders the east and west. Those neighboring uses are geographic context; property-specific sampling and pathway analysis determine where action is required.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
Before the 1950s
DuPont and Barre Lime & Sulfur used the property to formulate pesticide sprays and dust mixtures.
1972 onward
Monroe Electronics manufactured measuring instruments and electronic devices using cleaning and degreasing solvents.
1986
The company reported disposal of approximately one to four tons of 1,1,1-TCA at the facility.
1997–2001
Investigation distinguished the plant's solvent problem from the nearby Lyndonville West Avenue pesticide-and-arsenic site and began defining Monroe as a separate cleanup property.
2014–2015
Remedial and supplemental investigations traced chlorinated compounds and their daughter products through overburden and bedrock groundwater and evaluated treatment alternatives.
March 2016
DEC selected enhanced in-situ bioremediation, zero-valent-iron treatment, a commercial-use cover, and long-term controls.
After 2016
Predesign investigation and remedy implementation refined the treatment area and monitored how the groundwater responded.
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 biological and chemical treatment for Lyndonville's solvent plume
DEC chose enhanced bioremediation and zero-valent-iron treatment for highly contaminated overburden and bedrock groundwater, together with a commercial-use cover and long-term controls.
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.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The groundwater record includes 1,1,1-TCA, TCE, dichloroethenes, dichloroethanes, chloroethane, and related degradation products in overburden and fractured-bedrock zones.
- DEC's remedy targets groundwater with total chlorinated volatile-organic concentrations above 1,000 micrograms per liter in and downgradient of the suspected source beneath the manufacturing building.
- The mixture of parent solvents and daughter products shows that degradation was occurring, but natural breakdown alone had not reduced the plume enough to eliminate active treatment.
- The older pesticide-manufacturing history remains relevant background, but the state separated this property from the West Avenue landfill record because Monroe's principal remedial problem is the chlorinated-solvent plume.
- The nearby residence, school, businesses, and agricultural land make groundwater and vapor pathways important to evaluate; proximity by itself does not establish that every neighboring property was affected.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Enhanced in-situ bioremediation supplies carbon, electron donors, buffering, and selected microorganisms to accelerate reductive dechlorination of chlorinated solvents in groundwater.
- Injected zero-valent iron supplements the biological remedy by chemically reducing contaminants in overburden and bedrock groundwater.
- A cover supports commercial use while limiting contact with material left in place, and institutional controls govern land use, groundwater use, excavation, and future construction.
- Monitoring must show whether treatment is shrinking concentrations and preventing unacceptable exposure pathways; the 2016 decision is the remedy blueprint, not proof of final performance.
Then and now
The site today
The operating industrial property remains a Class 2 State Superfund site with an active groundwater remedy. Current conclusions should follow the newest treatment, monitoring, and periodic-review records.