The documented story

What happened here?

EPA's Niagara Falls Boulevard removal addressed radioactive industrial slag used decades earlier as fill at commercial properties numbered 9512, 9524, 9540, and 9626 and in an adjoining wooded area. The work involved two operating businesses—a bowling alley and a building-supply center.

The slag contained low levels of radioactive elements concentrated through industrial processes. EPA treated the documented fill areas as specific removal sites rather than evidence of uniform contamination along the entire boulevard.

A regional aerial signal became a business-by-business removal

Crews excavated radioactive slag while Niagara Falls Boulevard businesses stayed open

28,362 tonsmaterial shipped to a licensed disposal facility in Michigan

1978 onward

Aerial surveys pointed investigators toward old industrial fill

A Department of Energy aerial survey first identified low-level radiation in this part of Niagara County. Later ground surveys linked the readings to slag-like material believed to have been produced by regional industry and used as fill in the early 1960s.

2016-2020

The removal moved from woodland into occupied commercial space

EPA addressed a 1.4-acre wooded area, a 3.3-acre parking area, and 7,526 square feet inside an office, two warehouses, and two storage rooms at the documented 9512-9626 Niagara Falls Boulevard properties.

During construction

Phasing kept two businesses operating

Work zones, temporary surfaces, restoration, and community air monitoring allowed the bowling alley and building-supply center to remain open. Excavated material was transported to a licensed disposal facility in Belleville, Michigan.

EPA: Niagara County radiation removal sites ↗EPA: Niagara Falls Boulevard cleanup completion fact sheet ↗

Chronology

Timeline

Early 1960s
Industrial slag is believed to have been placed as fill at the affected properties.
1978
A federal aerial radiation survey identified an anomaly near the Niagara Falls Boulevard property, prompting later ground investigation of the suspected slag fill.
2016–2020
EPA excavated radioactive slag from parking areas, interior spaces, and adjoining property and restored the affected areas.
2020
EPA reported completion of the Niagara Falls Boulevard removal work.

Environmental record

Documented impacts

Radioactive slag fill was documented in parking lots between the businesses and in specified interior areas of the building-supply center.
Interior removal involved an office, two warehouses, two storage rooms, and material beneath demolished floor sections.
The agency record identifies discrete affected properties and does not support extending the finding to every nearby commercial parcel.

Response

Cleanup and controls

EPA excavated or removed slag and associated material from exterior and interior areas.
Affected floor sections were demolished so underlying material could be removed and properly disposed.
Clean material and reconstructed surfaces restored the excavated commercial areas after verification work.

Then and now

The site today

EPA lists the removal as complete. The site's value in the atlas is both historical and methodological: it shows how old fill can move industrial radiological material into ordinary commercial settings and why precise property boundaries matter.

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.

Niagara regional radiological record

Federal storage, industrial processing, vicinity-property cleanup, and later residential or public-property investigations form a connected regional research record.

Federal storage siteNiagara Falls Storage Site

The storage site is the principal federal property in a wider network of material handling, containment, and vicinity-property work.

Vicinity propertiesNiagara Falls Storage Site Vicinity Properties

These properties are managed separately where eligible material lies beyond the principal storage-site boundary.

Wartime industrial facilityElectro Metallurgical Company

Electro Metallurgical represents a separate Manhattan Project-era industrial operation within the Niagara record.

Investigated propertyNiagara Falls Boulevard Radiation Site

This location was identified through later radiological investigation rather than treated as part of the NFSS parcel itself.

Public-property responseDonovan Head Start Slag Removal

The Head Start response documents investigation and removal at a public-use property.

Investigated propertyUpper Mountain Road Radiation Site

Upper Mountain Road is one of several separately bounded locations in the regional assessment record.

Vicinity investigationHoly Trinity Cemetery Vicinity

The cemetery vicinity record is linked by regional radiological assessment, not by a claim that every property shares one source.

Regional assessmentNiagara–Erie Residential Radiological Assessment

The assessment provides the umbrella research context for evaluating multiple residential and public locations.

Radiological-map connection

Place this site in the wider material history

The separate radiological investigation map distinguishes producers, processors, storage, the 100 historical survey records, federal remediation, and current assessment coverage.

Linked research mapOpen the radiological investigation →

Niagara Falls Boulevard Radiation Site