Niagara County Radiation Removal Sites

EPA Continues Cleanups at Niagara County Sites

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is continuing its cleanup and investigation work at Niagara County properties where radioactive slag material fill was discovered in soil on the properties. 

EPA completed cleanup efforts at the following Niagara County locations:

• Niagara Falls Boulevard site, Niagara Falls, NY (9512, 9524, 9540 and 9626 properties and adjacent wooded area) EPA cleaned up two on-site businesses – a bowling alley and a building supply center. EPA excavated or removed radioactive slag material from the adjoining parking lots between the two businesses. EPA also removed material from inside the building supply center including in an office space, two warehouses and two storage rooms. After EPA demolished the floors in the building supply center, EPA removed the waste materials and then restored those areas. The work began in 2016 and was completed in 2020.
• Upper Mountain Road, Town of Lewiston, NY (access road bordering a residential property) EPA removed contaminated material from a culvert crossing and portions of a gravel driveway that serve as an access road to a wooded lot and residential property. EPA finished removing the contaminated material and adding the clean backfill in 2020. EPA conducted two cleanup activities at adjacent residential properties between September 2021 and September 2023. EPA removed contaminated soils from beneath the two basement areas and outside yard areas at these properties. Both families were temporarily relocated during excavation and restoration activities.
• Holy Trinity Cemetery site, Town of Lewiston, NY (two residential properties adjacent to the cemetery property) EPA removed contaminated material from a garage and driveway at one property and from a driveway and patio at the other property. EPA finished cleaning up these properties in the spring of 2021.
• Donovan Head Start Property, Niagara Falls, NY The Community Development Institute (CDI), the owner of the Donovan Head Start facility at 1631 Main Street In Niagara Falls removed and disposed of radiological material in a playground and parking lot at the rear of the facility in 2023 with EPA oversight. The two contaminated areas received industrial radiological materials, known as slag, a fill material decades ago. The two-story building did not contain any radiological contamination. Restoration of the parking lot, walkway and playground were accomplished in the late summer of 2023.

SITE HISTORY

The U.S. Department of Energy surveyed the Niagara Region in 1978 by aerial surveillance for radiation and found low levels of radioactive materials at these locations. It is believed that in the early 1960s, a glass-like, granulated by-product called, “slag” from former industrial facilities was used as fill material at these specific properties. The fill material contained “technically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials”, which are industrial by-products enriched with low levels of radioactive elements found in the environment. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Department of Health surveyed these properties and referred them to EPA.