Army Corps shares more details about Niagara Falls Storage Site cleanup
Apr. 24—With the first phase of cleaning the Niagara Falls Storage Site in Lewiston getting underway this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shared how that process will work and where materials being removed will go.
The Army Corps hosted another public meeting about the cleanup efforts at the Lewiston Senior Center Tuesday night, emphasizing that the safety of workers and the public is their priority.
"Safety is tied into everything we're doing," said Project Manager Brent Laspada.
The site at 1397 Pletcher Road was used to store radioactive waste resulting from the Manhattan Project, with the 10-acre interim waste containment structure holding the majority of radioactive materials, like uranium, thorium, and radium.
The first phase involves cleaning contaminated soil and groundwater outside of the containment structure, including chlorinated solvents, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are all carcinogens.
An estimated 6,000 cubic yards of dirt outside the IWCS is also contaminated and will be backfilled. Five legacy building foundations will also be examined for any containment residue.
Pre-remediation work and air monitoring of the site will start in May, with mobilization work starting about the same time and the building investigations taking place in June and July.
Active remediation will begin this July, with trucks carrying the contaminated materials away from the site through January. Site restoration work is also expected to be complete by January.
Around 25 trucks will come out of the site each week with 640 used in total. All trucks will be decontaminated before leaving, they will have hazardous waste placards on them, and the waste will be secured in shipping containers.
From the Pletcher Road site, the trucks will go south on Harold, Swann, and Model City roads before going east on Ridge Road. They will go south again on Townline Road before heading west on Lockport and Packard roads by the Niagara Falls International Airport and Air Reserve Station.
From there, they will get on the I-190 and take interstate highways across New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to Belleville, Michigan, around 30 minutes west of downtown Detroit. The city is home to the US Ecology Michigan Disposal Waste Treatment Plant, which stores and treats hazardous waste.
"There's only certain facilities that can take stuff like this," said David Fournier, an Army Corps environmental engineer. "It can't just go into a regular landfill, like Modern next door."
Per the requests of local residents, the truck route avoids the Tuscarora Reservation and the Lewiston-Porter and Niagara-Wheatfield school districts.
Throughout the mobilization and cleanup process, the site will be monitored for radionuclides, particulates in the air, and volatile compounds, some samplers going 24/7 while others as contractors do remediation work. A meteorological station will be set up to help monitor if winds cause any elevated readings.
"It's an important aspect of ensuring safety for our workers on site, and also to ensure that we don't spread contamination out into the community," said Jim Stachowski, a senior environmental engineer.
The next two remediation phases center on the Interim Waste Containment Structure, The Army Corps plans on awarding a design contract in 2025 and new infrastructure needed for remediation will be complete by 2027.
The cost of cleanup is around half a billion dollars, with all funding coming from the federal level.
The Army Corps does not plan on holding another Niagara Falls Storage Site public outreach session until April 2025, when it will share Phase 2 remediation design plans. More information about this and other cleanup efforts can be found at the Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District website.
