cleanup · Niagara County
Witmer Road Disposal Site
Town of Niagara
Historic disposal and burning area at James Avenue and Witmer Road, now associated with salvage-yard use. DEC's 2024 characterization plan describes ash and slag piles, drums, chloropicrin containers, chlorinated compounds and metals in investigated media. The site remains an active characterization record, not a completed-remedy site.
The documented story
What happened here?
The Witmer Road property was reportedly used during the mid-twentieth century for disposal of lime clean-outs, air-pollution-control waste, slag and burned municipal debris. Later salvage-yard activity added a separate modern operating history.
The site remained incompletely characterized for decades. DEC's 2024 work plan compiled earlier investigations and identified remaining questions about fill piles, drums, soil, groundwater and current salvage-yard conditions.
Poison bottles, burn pits, baghouse dust, slag, and salvage yards overlap at one active investigation
Witmer Road preserves several disposal stories without yet yielding one simple source
1982-2024span from the first intrusive borings to the current characterization plan
Industrial disposal era
Different industries reportedly sent different residues
County and state files describe lime cleanouts from ISCO process vessels, Airco baghouse dust, slag attributed to Vanadium Corporation, and refuse burn pits. Poison-labeled chloropicrin larvicide bottles were documented during a later right-of-way assessment.
1950s onward
Salvage-yard use covered and disturbed the older disposal landscape
Historic reports place automobile salvage operations on the site and adjoining properties. Scrap, fill, burning, and industrial residues therefore require mapped areas of concern rather than one generalized dump label.
1982-1990s
Early borings found metals and organic compounds but did not finish the story
USGS and later investigations reported copper, iron, chlorinated solvents, phthalates, hydrocarbons, PCBs, lead, and chromium in selected samples. Regulators found no imminent risk at that stage but preserved the need for future assessment.
2024-present
A new investigation includes a radiological check
Because records associate Vanadium slag with the property, the current work plan requires a TENORM survey alongside soil, groundwater, and waste characterization. That requirement is a test for possible radiological material, not proof that the entire site is radioactive.
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.
DEC orders a new characterization of a historic burning and disposal area
The work plan targets ash and slag piles, drums, chloropicrin containers, chlorinated compounds and metals across the James Avenue/Witmer Road property while recognizing that characterization has not yet produced a final remedy.
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
- Early 1950s–1965
Industrial wastes, slag and burned refuse were reportedly placed at the property.
- 1982–1994
Early investigations sampled fill, drums, soil and groundwater; health officials noted that changed land use would require reevaluation.
- 2000
Utility right-of-way work found volatile compounds, drums and containers labeled for chloropicrin or larvicide.
- 2022
A DEC-requested site visit documented numerous drums, waste tires, staining and sheens associated with the salvage yard.
- 2024
DEC issued a final site-characterization work plan to address remaining data gaps.
Environmental record
Documented impacts
- Historical records describe ash, slag and lime-like fill piles, partially buried drums and industrial or municipal burning residues.
- Earlier sampling identified chlorinated volatile compounds and metals in groundwater and chloropicrin in a fill-pile sample.
- The 2022 salvage-yard observations were being addressed through a separate notice-of-violation process and should not automatically be attributed to the historical disposal program.
Response
Cleanup and controls
- The current public record emphasizes characterization rather than a completed final remedy.
- Sampling is intended to define contaminants, media and boundaries before remedy conclusions are made.
- Access, operational enforcement and any future cleanup actions should be tracked as separate but related records.
Then and now
The site today
Witmer Road remains a research-in-progress location. The pin identifies a documented disposal and investigation property, not a finished contamination boundary or a finding about nearby parcels.
Research status
Open questions
- Add the site-characterization results and DEC classification decision when published.
- Separate historical disposal material from present salvage-yard compliance findings in every future update.