waterway · Niagara County
Pettit Flume / Durez Outfall
North Tonawanda
Contaminants from the former Durez chemical site affected a storm-sewer route and Niagara River cove. Cleanup included plant containment and cleaning about 22,000 feet of sewers. Crews also removed roughly 25,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, restored wetlands, and later performed maintenance dredging.
The documented story
What happened here?
Pettit Flume was not simply a creek beside the Durez chemical plant. It became a source-to-river conveyance: plant drainage entered a long storm-sewer system, moved beneath North Tonawanda, and discharged into a cove on the Niagara River. Contaminants accumulated along roughly 22,000 feet of sewer and in the sediment where the system met the river.
Local newspaper photographs preserve the human-scale warning signs from the operating era, including basement explosions and a 1953 fish kill attributed in contemporary coverage to the flume. Those reports document what residents and responders encountered, but later sampling and regulatory records—not a headline alone—establish which chemicals were present and how they moved.
The remedy therefore had to follow the entire route. It combined source containment at Durez with sewer cleaning, removal of about 25,000 cubic yards of contaminated sewer and cove sediment, wetland restoration, and later maintenance dredging. Follow-up mussel and sediment monitoring found continuing dioxin and furan availability in the cove, demonstrating why a large excavation was not the same as the end of stewardship.
Connected history — the route from factory drain to river cove
Pettit Flume made the Durez waste pathway physically visible
22,000 feetapproximately, storm-sewer route cleaned during the remedy
Industrial discharge era
A buried sewer carried the plant's environmental footprint outward
Stormwater and contaminated drainage traveled from Durez through Pettit Flume to the Niagara River. Deposits along the sewer and at the outfall preserved a source-to-river pathway that a single plant pin could not show.
Major cleanup
Crews cleaned the route and removed the receiving sediment
The project cleaned roughly 22,000 feet of sewer and removed about 25,000 cubic yards of contaminated sewer and cove sediment. Wetland restoration followed the excavation while containment at Durez reduced continuing loading.
Long-term phase
Maintenance dredging tested whether the connected remedy held
Later monitoring and maintenance dredging addressed renewed deposition in the cove. The continuing record links upstream source control, sewer condition, sediment, and habitat rather than treating the outfall as an isolated dot.
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.
Basement explosions and a fish kill enter the local record along Pettit Flume
Preserved Tonawanda News images document what residents and responders encountered during the Durez operating era; later sampling, not the newspaper accounts alone, identifies particular contaminants and sources.
North Tonawanda History / Tonawanda News archive ↗Post-remedy mussel and sediment testing finds continuing dioxin availability
Monitoring and maintenance dredging showed why cleaning the sewer and removing cove sediment required follow-up rather than a one-time declaration of completion.
Niagara River Toxics Management Plan ↗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
- 1940s–1950s
Plant drainage moved through Pettit Flume toward the Niagara River; preserved local coverage records basement explosions and a 1953 fish kill during the Durez operating era.
- Source investigation
Agencies linked sewer and cove contamination to former Durez operations.
- Through 1995
Source containment, cleaning of approximately 22,000 feet of sewer, and removal of about 25,000 cubic yards of affected sediment formed the principal remedy.
- 2000
Post-remedy findings prompted additional sediment removal from the cove.
- 2000s–present
Mussel and sediment monitoring, source investigation, maintenance work, wetland management, and controls at the former plant continued.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Durez-related phenolic chemicals and dioxin- and furan-related contamination accumulated in storm-sewer and cove sediment along a long conveyance route.
- The Niagara River cove received affected sediment at the outfall, connecting a land-based chemical source to river habitat.
- Without control of the Durez source, cleaned downstream areas could be recontaminated.
- Post-cleanup biomonitoring showed that contaminants remained environmentally available in the cove; this finding supports continued investigation but does not mean every part of the Niagara River had the same concentration.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Source containment at the former plant reduces continuing discharge.
- Sewer and cove sediments were excavated and disposed of off site.
- Wetland restoration, maintenance dredging, and monitoring address residual deposition and habitat.
Then and now
The site today
Pettit Flume demonstrates a source-to-outfall remedy: plant, sewer, sediment, and cove must be evaluated together. The major removal is complete, but upstream controls and maintenance remain essential.
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.
Hooker Chemical landfill network
Several Niagara Falls disposal sites share a corporate and chemical-manufacturing history while retaining separate boundaries, remedies, and present-day controls.
Love Canal is the best-known Hooker disposal site, but its remedy and neighborhood history are site-specific.
Industrial landfillHooker / Hyde Park LandfillHyde Park is a separately managed landfill with its own migration pathways and remedy.
Niagara River landfillHooker / 102nd Street LandfillThe 102nd Street site connects Hooker disposal history directly to the Niagara River shoreline.
Industrial disposal areaHooker / S-Area LandfillS-Area is another distinct Hooker disposal property governed by its own cleanup record.
Facility-to-river pathwayPettit Flume / Durez OutfallThe Pettit Flume record follows a documented industrial drainage and outfall pathway associated with the Durez operation.
Niagara River waterway and tributary network
The Niagara River hub connects altered tributaries, navigation channels, contaminated embayments, residential fill, source-site cleanups, and habitat projects without treating the entire river corridor as one cleanup site.
The river page organizes the regional record by reach, tributary, embayment, source site, and restoration project.
Navigation and sediment-remediation corridorBlack Rock CanalThe canal received strategic legacy-sediment dredging and remains connected to Scajaquada Creek and Unity Island habitat work.
Highly altered urban tributaryScajaquada CreekScajaquada enters Black Rock Canal after passing buried, channelized, sewer-connected, and site-specific cleanup reaches.
PCB source-tracking tributaryTwo Mile Creek — TonawandaTwo Mile and Rattlesnake creeks were included in the 2018–19 USGS/DEC passive-sampler investigation, with local sources not assumed from proximity alone.
Residential fill investigationCayuga Island Industrial Fill InvestigationCayuga Island sits within the Little Niagara River landscape near, but distinct from, major regulated disposal sites.
Lower-river tributary and embayment recordGill Creek / DuPont–Olin Chemical CorridorGill Creek has its own industrial-source, sediment, remediation, and monitoring history within the larger river corridor.
Industrial drainage and river pathwayPettit Flume / Durez OutfallThe Pettit Flume record follows a defined facility-to-river pathway and does not characterize adjoining shoreline reaches.