cleanup · Niagara County
Remington Rand
North Tonawanda
Former industrial complex where investigations documented petroleum, chlorinated solvents, PAHs, metals, and PCBs. Interim removals and a managed remedy supported restricted-residential redevelopment while preserving soil and groundwater controls.
The documented story
What happened here?
The Remington Rand property belongs to North Tonawanda's long manufacturing history. Remington Rand assembled several office-machine, filing-system, and business-equipment companies into a nationally recognized industrial corporation, and its local plant became a substantial part of the city's factory landscape.
Later environmental investigation documented a mixed industrial contaminant profile rather than one single release. Petroleum, chlorinated solvents, PAHs, metals, and PCBs reflected decades of machinery, fuel, electrical equipment, material handling, and changing operations.
A local plant in a national labor confrontation
Tonawanda workers helped expose a blueprint for breaking strikes
1936-37the multistate Remington Rand strike
May 1936
Tonawanda joined workers across six plants
Workers in Tonawanda, Ilion, Syracuse, Ohio, and Connecticut struck after organizing across the company. Remington Rand moved machinery, hired replacements, supported company unions, and used threats of closure and public disorder as pressure against the walkout.
1938 federal decision
The court record preserved local names and tactics
A federal appeals decision enforced the Labor Board's findings and identified Tonawanda union officers among discharged workers. The larger proceeding helped document the coordinated tactics later known as the 'Mohawk Valley formula.'
Industrial decline and reuse
The workplace contracted, but the labor record remained
Later layoffs and changing ownership reduced the local operation before the property entered investigation and controlled reuse. Environmental findings belong to those later industrial areas; they should not be retroactively assigned to the 1936 strikers.
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.
A canal-side factory moves through trolley, engine, filing-system, and office-equipment production
The long succession of manufacturers explains the mixed petroleum, solvent, PCB, PAH, and metals record better than assigning the property to one product or one owner.
Lumber City Development Corporation ↗Brownfield cleanup supports 81 canal-side lofts under continuing controls
The reuse brought residents into a former factory complex only after environmental remediation and with restrictions and management suited to controlled residential use.
Lumber City Development Corporation ↗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
- Manufacturing era
The property supported Remington Rand and successor industrial operations within North Tonawanda's rail- and canal-served factory district.
- Industrial decline
Manufacturing contraction and property reuse left aging buildings, tanks, equipment areas, and subsurface impacts requiring investigation.
- 2000s
State investigation and interim actions addressed petroleum, solvents, PCBs, PAHs, and metals in targeted areas.
- 2010
DEC reported completion of major interim remedial measures supporting controlled redevelopment.
- Present
Restricted-residential or other approved reuse depends on covers, institutional controls, and site-management requirements.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Petroleum and chlorinated solvents affected portions of soil and groundwater.
- PCBs were associated with electrical or industrial equipment areas.
- PAHs and metals occurred in historic industrial soil and fill.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Interim measures removed tanks, contaminated material, or other identified sources where required.
- Remaining impacts are managed beneath approved covers and through land-use and excavation controls.
- Environmental easements and site-management obligations preserve the assumptions under which redevelopment was approved.
Then and now
The site today
The former plant has moved from heavy industrial use toward redevelopment, but its environmental history remains embedded in parcel-specific controls. Reuse should not be described as proof that all residual material was removed.