cleanup · Niagara County
Time 1-Hour Cleaners
Niagara Falls
Dry cleaning at 2526–2532 Pine Avenue left PCE contamination and documented off-site soil-vapor impacts. Cleanup at this 0.24-acre site includes air purification, sewer replacement, basement sealing and vapor extraction. DEC site 932158 remains Class 2.
The documented story
What happened here?
The 2025 construction report places dry cleaning at 2532 Pine Avenue by 1969, relocation next door to 2526 in 1982, and the end of active cleaning there in 1988. Garment pressing and drop-off/pickup continued afterward.
The two small parcels sit in a densely populated residential and commercial neighborhood. A small business footprint can leave contamination requiring controls within buildings and beyond its property lines.
Chronology in context
Turning points in the public record
2012
DEC's Class 2 notice reported PCE and breakdown products in soil and soil vapor above applicable criteria, with off-site vapor impacts requiring further investigation.
2015–2016
Air-purification units were installed at 2532 Pine Avenue.
2019–2021
Vapor-extraction installation finished in September 2019; startup followed in January 2021. Sewer replacement and basement sealing also occurred in 2021.
February 2025
The construction report documents the system at 2532 Pine Avenue; its publication date is not the installation date or sitewide cleanup completion.
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.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- The 2012 notice establishes off-site soil-vapor impacts, while calling for additional sampling to define extent and potential exposure. It does not establish effects throughout the surrounding neighborhood.
- A 2020 sewer inspection found cracked piping. Air screening identified drains and the sewer vent as likely major contributors to indoor-air impacts.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- Three extraction wells and two passive air intakes serve the basement. The old sub-slab sewer was grouted and capped, with a replacement above the slab. Sealing addressed cracks and utility penetrations.
- Water buildup in extraction wells complicates operation and requires dewatering; the report calls for evaluating performance improvements.
Then and now
The site today
DEC's map record, checked September 25, 2026, lists site 932158 as Class 2. A completed interim system does not mean all site investigation, remedy selection or management is finished.
Field stop: view the 2526–2532 Pine Avenue frontage from the public sidewalk. Subsurface equipment and building interiors are not public exhibits; do not enter to inspect the remedy.
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.
Dry Cleaning & Chlorinated Solvents
Neighborhood businesses connect solvent use with groundwater and vapor cleanup. These are separate sites and remedies, not one shared plume.
Excavation, biological treatment and continuing management at a small residential-neighborhood site.
Pine Avenue vapor controlsTime 1-Hour CleanersBuilding and sewer work illustrates the complexity of vapor mitigation in a commercial and residential setting.
Buffalo neighborhood cleanupBestway CleanersA separate Seneca Street solvent investigation extending beyond the source parcel.
Canalside solvent cleanupStarlite Dry CleanersFormer cleaning operations left a separate soil and groundwater treatment problem.
Jamestown solvent historyC&B Dry CleanersA compact parcel with a consequential subsurface cleanup.
Separate Jamestown propertyAnderson CleanersRelated by the cleaning process, not evidence of a shared plume with C&B.
Shopping-center cleanupNorthtown Plaza / Former Dry CleanerPCE cleanup and vapor controls in a suburban commercial setting.