cleanup · Cattaraugus County
Peter Cooper–Markhams Superfund Site
Dayton / Markhams
Former disposal property on Bentley Road that received wastes from the Peter Cooper animal-glue operation in Gowanda. The remedy consolidated and capped waste, added drainage and erosion controls, and requires continuing inspection and land-use controls.
The documented story
What happened here?
The Markhams property is a separate disposal site in the Town of Dayton. Waste from the Peter Cooper animal-glue plant in Gowanda was transported here, linking two geographically separate communities through one industrial waste stream.
The Bentley Road disposal property must be understood as the receiving end of that waste-transfer history, not as the location where the glue and adhesive products were manufactured.
The rural setting can make the site appear disconnected from industrial history. In fact, its central evidence is logistical: factory residuals were loaded, transported away from Gowanda, and placed on a different landscape whose drainage, erosion, and long-term controls then became a separate public responsibility.
Connected history — factory waste crossed municipal boundaries
Markhams was the receiving end of Gowanda's animal-glue industry
2 sitesa source factory in Gowanda and a separate disposal property in Dayton
Industrial disposal era
A rural property became part of a distant factory's production system
Waste from the Peter Cooper animal-glue operation traveled from Gowanda to Bentley Road. Markhams therefore documents how industrial impacts could be exported beyond the factory community to a separately owned receiving landscape.
Investigation and remedy
Federal work treated the waste mass as its own Superfund site
EPA and New York investigated the disposal property, drainage, leachate, erosion, and surrounding media. The selected remedy consolidated waste beneath a low-permeability cover and added diversion, erosion, access, and land-use controls.
Present
Containment requires a continuing local obligation
Inspections, maintenance, institutional controls, and periodic federal reviews protect the capped site. The record remains linked to Gowanda for waste origin while present conditions are judged at Markhams itself.
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.
Federal remedy contains transported glue-manufacturing waste at Markhams
EPA selected consolidation, a low-permeability cover, drainage and erosion controls, and continuing land-use restrictions for the rural receiving property.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Record of Decision ↗A rural receiving property remains connected to a factory miles away
The human geography is unusual: Dayton-area land carries waste generated in Gowanda. Inspections, access limits, erosion controls, and deed restrictions remain local obligations even though the manufacturing source closed elsewhere.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Record of Decision ↗Chronology
Timeline
- Historic disposal era
Glue-production wastes from the Gowanda operation were deposited at the Bentley Road property.
- 1980s
Federal and state investigations evaluated the waste mass and surrounding environmental media.
- 2006
EPA selected a final containment remedy.
- Remedial construction
Waste was consolidated beneath a low-permeability cover with drainage and erosion controls.
- Present
Inspection, maintenance, land-use controls, and periodic federal review continue.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The disposal area contained animal-glue manufacturing wastes transported from the Gowanda plant.
- The remedy addressed waste, leachate, drainage, erosion, and the potential for direct contact or migration.
- The mapped disposal-site boundary and the source factory are separated geographically; the record does not support drawing a continuous contamination plume between them.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Waste was consolidated and capped.
- Surface-water diversion, erosion protection, access and land-use controls, monitoring, and maintenance support the containment remedy.
Then and now
The site today
The remedy relies on preserving the engineered cover and institutional controls. The site remains a separate Superfund property from the former Gowanda factory.
Federal periodic reviews evaluate whether the containment remedy remains protective rather than treating capped waste as removed from the property.
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.
Gowanda animal-products and waste network
Glue production, leather tanning, creek-edge disposal, and the transport of glue waste to Markhams form a connected industrial history. Each cleanup retains its own official boundary and remedy.
The Gowanda plant generated animal-glue waste and managed an on-site sludge-disposal area.
Leather tannery and landfillMoench TanningThe neighboring tannery adds a separate century-scale leather-waste and creek-management history.
Off-site disposal propertyPeter Cooper–Markhams Superfund SiteMarkhams received waste transported from the Peter Cooper operation in Gowanda and is managed as a separate Superfund site.