The 102nd Street Landfill Site is a 22.1-acre property owned by Occidental Chemical (OCC) and Olin Corporation. A 42-inch storm sewer crosses the property from its origin near the Love Canal Site to its discharge point into the Niagara River. The Site was operated as separate landfills by OCC, Olin Corporation, and their predecessors (Companies) from approximately 1943 through 1970. The landfills have been closed since 1970. While operational, at least 159,000 tons of liquid and solid waste were deposited into the landfill. These deposits included at least 4,600 tons of benzene, chlorobenzene, chlorophenols, and hexachlorocyclohexanes.
Chemicals of concern detected in on-site soil, groundwater, and adjacent sediment in the Niagara River include arsenic, cadmium, mercury, benzene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, chlorobenzene, chloronaphthalene, chlorophenols, chlorotoluenes, dichloroanilines, dichlorobenzenes, dichlorophenols, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexanes, lindane, mirex, PCBs, PCDDs (including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), pentachlorophenol, phenol, tetrachlorobenzenes, toluene, trichlorobenzenes, trichloroethylene, and trichlorophenols.
Chemicals have migrated from the site into the Niagara River both in groundwater and transported by surface water. A ROD was signed by the USEPA on September 26, 1990. The major components of the remedy were capping the site, construction of a slurry wall to contain the plume of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL), recovery and treatment of groundwater and NAPL, and dredging and off-site incineration of contaminated Niagara River sediments. The USEPA later determined to consolidate dredged sediments on the landfill site rather than incinerate them off-site.