EPA To Remove Dioxin-Contaminated Hooker Chemical Landfill From List Of Nation’s Most Hazardous Waste Sites

One of the oldest Superfund sites is coming off the list of the U.S.’s most hazardous waste locales after nearly 30 years. EPA announced last week that it will take the Hooker-Hyde Park site in Niagara Falls, N.Y., off that list next month. Hooker Chemical, purchased by Occidental Chemical in 1968, disposed of some 80,000 tons of mainly chlorinated organic waste at the 15-acre site from 1953 to 1975. The agency estimates that the waste contained between 0.7 and 1.6 tons of the toxic compound 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. In September 1983, EPA put this industrial landfill on its list of the most hazardous sites. Waste at the site has been left in place and capped to prevent precipitation from filtering through the contaminated soil. Occidental has installed pump-and-treat technology to remediate contaminated groundwater and a system to collect dense, oily liquids, which are then transported to a hazardous waste incinerator. EPA is delisting the site because it says all appropriate responses—except for continued operation, maintenance, monitoring, and regular reviews—are completed.