cleanup · Niagara County
Olin Buffalo Avenue Plant
Niagara Falls
Long-running chlor-alkali and chemical-manufacturing complex where mercury-cell operations, chlorinated-organic production, and historic waste handling affected soil and groundwater. Extraction systems, paving and caps, monitoring, and deed restrictions manage the remaining contamination.
The documented story
What happened here?
The Olin complex at 2400 Buffalo Avenue is part of one of the oldest chlor-alkali manufacturing districts in the United States. EPA and DEC records trace inorganic chemical production on the property to 1897, when Niagara Falls hydropower made the electrolysis of salt commercially attractive.
The modern site includes the roughly six-acre former Plant 1 and the approximately 16-acre Plant 2, separated by Chemical Road and intervening DuPont property. Gill Creek crosses the eastern operating area about 1,000 feet north of the upper Niagara River.
Olin's corporate chlor-alkali lineage combines the former Mathieson chemical business with Olin Industries; the 1954 merger created Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, shortened to Olin Corporation in 1969. Site records also describe earlier operators and do not assign every pre-merger release to the same corporate entity.
The plant electrolyzed brine to produce chlorine and caustic soda. Historical mercury-cell technology created mercury-bearing brine muds and wastewater; organic operations later produced chlorinated benzenes, chlorinated phenols, and benzene hexachloride compounds.
This manufacturing-complex page is separate from Olin's nearby Industrial Welding disposal site, parking-lot fill area, deep disposal well, Charles Gibson disposal site, and its portion of the 102nd Street Landfill. Those records document related corporate activity but different waste locations and remedies.
More than a century of chlorine chemistry
Olin joined hydropower, mercury cells, an explosion, and a continuing groundwater remedy
1897year chemical production began at the Buffalo Avenue complex
1897-1956
Salt, electricity, and industrial labor built a chlor-alkali district
Olin predecessors used electricity to separate brine into chlorine and caustic soda. From 1950 to 1956, Plant 2 also produced chlorinated benzenes, trichlorophenol, and BHC compounds until a production explosion severely damaged the organic-chemical facility.
Mercury-cell era
The production technology created a persistent waste history
Mercury-cell operations generated mercury-bearing brine muds and wastewater-treatment sludge. EPA records mercury in plant soil and identifies benzene, chlorinated benzenes, BHC compounds, chlorinated phenols, methanol, and mercury within the site's groundwater history.
1990s-present
Production changed while hydraulic containment continued
A recovery-and-treatment system began operating in 1998 to maintain groundwater capture zones. Paving, caps, monitoring, deed restrictions, and coordination with neighboring industrial remedies remain important even though mercury-cell and chlorinated-organic production ended.
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.
Olin and DuPont remove contaminated sediment from Gill Creek
The creek work addressed a shared industrial pathway while later groundwater systems remained source-specific, preventing the two companies' plumes and responsibilities from being collapsed into one account.
Niagara River Toxics Management Plan ↗Hydraulic containment remains necessary beside the creek and Niagara River
Production wells, recovery wells, carbon treatment, monitoring, and deed controls make present operation inseparable from the historic groundwater remedy.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ↗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
- 1897
Olin predecessors began inorganic chemical production at the Buffalo Avenue complex.
- 1950-1956
Plant 2 manufactured chlorinated benzenes, trichlorophenol, and BHC compounds until a 1956 production explosion severely damaged the organic-chemical facility.
- 1954-1969
The broader company became Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation through a 1954 merger and adopted the Olin Corporation name in 1969.
- 1970-1981
Mercury-cell wastewater and brine-sludge areas remained environmental concerns; Olin removed lindane-affected sediment from Gill Creek in 1981.
- 1993
Two reportable chlorine releases later became the subject of a 1998 EPA enforcement settlement concerning delayed federal notification.
- 1994-1997
A RCRA Facility Investigation and Corrective Measures Study led to an EPA administrative consent order establishing the cleanup program.
- Early 1998
The groundwater recovery and treatment system began operating, with paving, caps, monitoring, and institutional controls supporting the remedy.
- 2008
Olin converted the Niagara Falls chlor-alkali operation from mercury-cell to membrane-cell technology.
- 2016-present
Olin reduced Niagara Falls chlor-alkali capacity while continuing chlorine, bleach, hydrochloric-acid, and hydrogen operations documented in corporate filings.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- EPA reports mercury in soil throughout the plant, with historical concentrations ranging from less than one to 15,600 milligrams per kilogram, and elevated BHC compounds near the former organic-production area.
- Historical waste handling included mercury-cell brine muds, wastewater-treatment sludge, coal fines, and organic-process residuals. Some brine sludge containing mercury and possibly PCBs was used as fill or land-spread in designated plant and parking areas.
- The Olin-related groundwater plume principally contains benzene and chlorinated benzenes, with lower concentrations of BHC compounds, chlorinated phenols, methanol, and mercury. The highest concentrations were identified between Alundum Road and Gill Creek.
- Gill Creek received site-related contamination through shallow groundwater and drainage pathways, but the creek also passes through a multi-company industrial corridor. Contaminant attribution must therefore follow compound patterns and source investigations rather than proximity alone.
- Other groundwater beneath the property migrated from the neighboring DuPont and former Solvent Chemical properties. The atlas does not attribute those separate incoming plumes to Olin.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Recovery wells maintain capture zones in the overburden and multiple bedrock intervals so contaminated groundwater is drawn toward treatment rather than continuing to spread.
- The high-capacity Olin production well influences groundwater across the corridor and is operated under the remedy in coordination with DuPont obligations. Pumped groundwater is treated using activated carbon before discharge.
- Paving and caps reduce contact, dust, erosion, and rainwater infiltration. Groundwater monitoring checks whether hydraulic containment remains effective and tracks long-term concentration changes.
- Deed restrictions and site-management requirements limit use and protect the wells, paved areas, treatment equipment, and remaining contaminated media.
Then and now
The site today
The historic mercury-cell and chlorinated-organic operations have ended. Current corporate filings still identify Niagara Falls production of chlorine, sodium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid, and hydrogen, while EPA's cleanup profile continues to track the corrective-action systems.
An operating chemical plant and a managed cleanup occupy the same property. Current production does not erase the historical contamination, and the cleanup record does not mean every present-day operation is uncontrolled.