cleanup · Niagara County
Solvent Chemical Site
Niagara Falls
Former Buffalo Avenue chemical-manufacturing and disposal site where benzene and chlorinated benzenes affected multiple groundwater zones; containment, treatment, and monitoring remain part of the remedy.
The documented story
What happened here?
Before Solvent Chemical, DuPont built and operated a WWII government-contract plant at 3163 Buffalo Avenue to manufacture impregnite, a treatment intended to protect Army uniforms against poison gas. Army records place Niagara Falls impregnite projects in 1940-1941. Hooker reactivated this property for impregnite production from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean War.
Impregnite CC-2 was a chlorinated protective treatment, not a PFAS. Its manufacture and application involved toxic substances, including aniline-related production sludge and the solvent tetrachloroethane. That protective role does not establish that this property manufactured mustard gas or phosgene, or that local warfare-agent production continued uninterrupted from WWI through WWII.
The former Solvent Chemical plant at 3163 Buffalo Avenue used numerous buildings and aboveground and underground tanks for chemical manufacturing, storage, and waste handling. Benzene, chlorobenzene, and several dichloro- and trichlorobenzenes affected on-site soil and both overburden and upper-bedrock groundwater.
The cleanup record covers three connected but distinct features: the plant property, an Olin Hot Spot between the property and Gill Creek, and an 18-inch concrete storm sewer that once ran west across DuPont Drive and industrial land before discharging to the creek. The sewer was removed or abandoned in place and no longer requires routine operation and maintenance; groundwater and nonaqueous-phase liquid remain the persistent work.
New York selected the remedy in December 1996, and long-term operation began July 1, 2004. Collection systems control overburden and bedrock groundwater, extracted water receives pretreatment before permitted discharge, and a cover limits contact and infiltration. The newest reviewed periodic report documents three monitoring rounds from March 2024 through March 2025.
Chemical manufacturing left a plume in multiple groundwater zones
Solvent Chemical required containment beyond the former Buffalo Avenue plant
3 zonesshallow, intermediate, and deep groundwater considered in the remedy
World War II; 1951-1953
A chemical-warfare protection plant before Solvent Chemical
DuPont built and operated a government-contract plant at 3163 Buffalo Avenue to manufacture impregnite for Army uniforms. Army records document Niagara Falls projects beginning in 1940-1941. Hooker reactivated this property from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean War. Impregnite was a protective treatment; this does not establish mustard-gas or phosgene manufacture at the property.
Materials and production wastes
Protective treatment involved hazardous chemistry
Impregnite CC-2 was a chlorinated compound, not a PFAS. An appendix to a 1991 court decision reproduces a plant monograph describing toxic aniline-related sludge discarded in drums; the dump's identity remains unresolved in that account. The Army also identifies tetrachloroethane as a highly toxic solvent used to apply CC-2 to clothing, later replaced by a water-dispersible formulation. Loss of protective effectiveness does not establish harmless wastes or breakdown products.
Industrial operation
Solvents and chemical intermediates moved through a dense manufacturing corridor
The Buffalo Avenue property manufactured and handled organic chemicals in an area bordered by other large chemical operations. Historical storage, processing, and disposal created source areas containing benzene, chlorobenzenes, and related compounds.
1996 remedy
The state treated the site as a multi-depth groundwater problem
DEC's selected remedy addressed contaminated soil and shallow, intermediate, and deep groundwater. Recovery, treatment, source controls, and monitoring were designed to contain movement rather than rely on natural disappearance.
Long-term management
Operating systems remain part of the site's present tense
Periodic reviews track treatment performance, monitoring wells, institutional controls, and maintenance. Cleanup progress therefore means a managed system continues to intercept and evaluate contamination.
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.
Groundwater control becomes a decades-long operating system
The remedy moved from construction to operation in July 2004. Collection, pretreatment, NAPL checks and monitoring continue because chlorinated benzenes occupy more than one groundwater zone.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ↗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
- 1940-1941 and World War II
Army impregnite projects developed at Niagara Falls; DuPont built and operated the government-contract plant at this property to make protective clothing treatment.
- 1951-1953
Hooker reactivated the property for impregnite production during the Korean War.
- 1970s
Solvent Chemical operated a later chemical-manufacturing business on the former military-contract property.
- Industrial operating era
Chemical manufacturing, tanks, waste handling, and a storm-sewer route created soil, groundwater, and drainage source areas.
- December 1996
DEC issued the Record of Decision selecting a multi-part containment and treatment remedy.
- Remedial construction
The plant property, Olin Hot Spot, and former storm sewer were addressed through groundwater control, collection, pretreatment, cover, and drainage work.
- March 2024–March 2025
The latest reviewed periodic report documents three rounds of system, groundwater, and NAPL monitoring during a 15-month transition to a new reporting schedule.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Benzene, chlorobenzene, three dichlorobenzene isomers, and 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene are principal contaminants of concern.
- Dissolved contamination and nonaqueous-phase liquid occur in shallow overburden and upper-bedrock groundwater zones.
- The former storm sewer created a direct historical route toward Gill Creek, but its completed removal or abandonment is distinct from the groundwater systems that still operate.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Overburden and upper-bedrock groundwater are collected or hydraulically controlled to limit migration from the plant and Olin Hot Spot areas.
- Extracted water is pretreated before discharge, while the cover limits exposure and infiltration.
- Groundwater, NAPL, treatment performance, and engineering controls are inspected through long-term operation, maintenance, and periodic review.
Then and now
The site today
Solvent Chemical remains an active long-term remedy more than two decades after operation and maintenance began. The buildings are gone and the storm-sewer task is complete, but the groundwater and NAPL source cannot be understood as a finished excavation; protection still depends on collection, treatment, cover, monitoring, and maintenance.
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 Electro-Chemical, Roessler & Hasslacher, and DuPont waste trails
A manufacturing lineage links the Buffalo Avenue works to Necco Park disposal and Gill Creek discharge records. DuPont's separate WWII impregnite property has its own manufacturing and cleanup history.
EPA inventories sodium-process debris, chlorinated residues and solvent-bearing sludges transported to the separate landfill.
Plant drainage and sediment pathwayGill Creek / DuPont–Olin Chemical CorridorHistorical accounts describe DuPont PCB-oil drainage and reactor wastes entering Gill Creek; sediment cleanup and groundwater controls followed.
Separate DuPont wartime propertySolvent Chemical SiteThe 3163 Buffalo Avenue impregnite facility is distinct from the Niagara Plant and Necco landfill; company ownership alone does not trace its wastes to either.
Wartime chemical production and its environmental record
WWI agent production, a mustard-gas plant project, WWII protective treatment and later disposal histories have different evidence. These connections do not establish continuous warfare-agent manufacture, a shared plume, or a verified destination for WWI gas-production wastes.
DEC identifies Area D phosgene manufacture; military records document a mustard-gas project with unresolved actual output.
Oldbury predecessor productionHooker Main Plant / Occidental Niagara PlantOldbury manufactured phosgene in 1918, decades before its acquisition by Hooker.
WWII and Korean War protective treatmentSolvent Chemical SiteDuPont and later Hooker manufactured impregnite at 3163 Buffalo Avenue. The treatment was protective, not proof of poison-gas production.
Later Oldbury disposal connectionHooker / 102nd Street LandfillOldbury acquired landfill parcels in 1924. Later phosphorus-waste burial does not establish a destination for its 1918 gas-production wastes.