cleanup · Chautauqua County
Standard Portable
Mayville
Former metalworking property where TCE was used and spent solvent was stored or disposed in an exterior underground septic tank. Investigations documented affected soil and groundwater extending onto adjacent village property; the cleanup record is separate from Mayville's PFAS investigation.
The documented story
What happened here?
Standard Portable used TCE in metalworking operations at 13 West Lake Road, a roughly one-acre property near Chautauqua Lake that had previously housed Wappat Saw Company. Records identify an exterior underground septic tank used for spent solvent; the tank was removed in 1996, but investigation later documented TCE and breakdown products in soil and groundwater extending onto adjacent village property.
The location is close to the separate Mayville drinking-water PFAS investigation. DEC's PFAS work did not identify Standard Portable as the source, so the two records must not be merged.
One buried tank created a solvent plume - but not the village PFAS source
Standard Portable shows why nearby contamination stories must remain separate
1996year the solvent-related underground septic tank was removed
Industrial operation
TCE cleaning connected a workshop to an underground disposal feature
The metalworking operation used trichloroethene as a solvent. Spent material entered an exterior underground septic tank, creating a source area above an important aquifer and within roughly 588 feet of Chautauqua Lake.
1996 onward
Tank removal did not end the groundwater investigation
The septic tank was removed in 1996, but soil and groundwater investigations found TCE and breakdown products including dichloroethene and vinyl chloride. The cleanup record follows affected groundwater onto adjacent village property.
2021 investigation
Chemical fingerprints separated the site from Mayville's PFAS question
A DEC pilot investigation found low PFAS concentrations and a profile different from the village drinking-water findings. The agency ruled Standard Portable out as the source under investigation, even though its chlorinated-solvent remedy remains valid.
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.
TCE from a metalworking septic system is traced beyond the factory property
Sampling documented affected soil and groundwater extending onto adjacent village land, turning a small industrial disposal feature into a community land-use and monitoring issue.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ↗Two separate Mayville investigations require careful public explanation
Standard Portable's chlorinated-solvent cleanup and Mayville's later PFAS investigation occupy the same community but have different sources, compounds, boundaries, and response programs.
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
- Industrial era
Metalworking operations used TCE as a cleaning and degreasing solvent.
- Historic disposal–1996
Spent TCE was stored or disposed in an exterior underground septic tank, which was removed when the property changed hands in 1996.
- Investigation
Soil and groundwater work identified on-site and off-site chlorinated-solvent impacts.
- Brownfield cleanup
The site entered state-supervised investigation and remedial planning.
- Present
On-site and off-site records continue as a coordinated chlorinated-solvent cleanup.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- TCE affected soil and groundwater at the former facility.
- The investigation also identified TCE breakdown products, showing that the concern was a subsurface solvent system rather than only the removed tank itself.
- The investigated groundwater area extended onto adjacent village property.
- The reviewed PFAS investigation did not support labeling Standard Portable as the source of Mayville's separate PFAS finding.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Source-area investigation, groundwater delineation, remedial design, monitoring, and state oversight form the cleanup record.
- The on-site and adjacent-village-property records should be read together for the chlorinated-solvent investigation while remaining distinct from the PFAS program.
Then and now
The site today
The Atlas shows one Standard Portable history and links it to Mayville PFAS only to explain that the investigations are nearby but distinct.
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.
Mayville's separate environmental investigations
The village contains two nearby but distinct records. Their connection is geography and public interest, not a finding that one site caused the other's contamination.