Site history: The site received at least 159,000 tons of
industrial waste from approximately 1943 to 1970.
Location: Niagara Falls, New York.
Trustees:
Case status: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has
completed remedial implementation. The site is currently in the long-term
operations and maintenance phase. The trustees negotiated a natural resource
damage settlement with the responsible parties and produced a final restoration
plan. Restoration is ongoing.
Overview: The Hooker-102nd Street Landfill Site is located on the eastern edge of the
city of Niagara Falls, New York, along the Niagara River. The Niagara River flows approximately 19 miles
before discharging into Lake Ontario, which then discharges via the St. Lawrence River to the St. Lawrence
Estuary approximately 545 miles downstream of the mouth of the Niagara River.
The site is an inactive 22-acre landfill that received at least 159,000 tons of industrial waste from
approximately 1943 until 1970. The primary contaminants of concern at the site are PCBs,
hexachlorocyclohexane, and mercury. Sediments in the shallow 10-acre embayment adjacent to the site were
contaminated by groundwater containing volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organics, pesticides,
chlorinated dioxins and furans, and trace elements including arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. Niagara River
sediments were also contaminated with semi-volatile organics, pesticides, and mercury.
NOAA trust resources at risk at the site include the American eel, alewife, salmonids, smelt, stickelback,
white perch, and deepwater sculpin. Eel are an important component in the diet of Beluga whale, another trust
species of concern. Commercial fisheries are present on the southeastern portion of Lake Ontario for yellow
perch, white perch, and brown bullhead.
State and federal natural resource trustees conducted a natural resource damage
assessment for the site to assess and restore the public’s natural resources
and services that were potentially injured by the releases of hazardous
substances.
