Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger called it an emotional day Saturday just minutes after the century-old Tonawanda Coke stacks came crumbling to the ground.
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Cleanup at the site has been an ongoing process for several years, but officials say there is still a long way to go before any redevelopment of the area is possible.
"Our landscape has changed for the better, and it's a bright new tomorrow for the Town of Tonawanda and the River Road corridor," said Emminger. "This is an important step, but it's certainly not the last step to get this site redeveloped to where we want to. Just three short years ago, on this site, this plant was operating.
In March of 2013, Tonawanda Coke was found guilty of 11 counts of violating the Clean Air Act and 3 counts of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
On July 20, 2018 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued a “Cease and Desist, Notice of Violation, Notice of Intent to Revoke” to Tonawanda Coke. In the DEC letter, they cited the “company’s seeming disregard for environmental laws, rules and regulations” and go on to say that Tonawanda Coke “operations show a blatant disregard for the environment and the health and welfare of the surrounding community.”
On July 23, 2018 the U.S. Department of Justice issued a letter citing violations of the consent decree agreed to in the previous DOJ case against Tonawanda Coke requiring the company to comply with national emission standards. Tonawanda Coke appeared in Buffalo federal court on September 4, 2018 related to these alleged violations. The plant was subsequently shut down in October 2018.
In 2020, the United States Environmental Protection agency announced completion of its remediation efforts and handed the site back to the New York State DEC.
Riverview Innovation & Technology Campus purchased the property and is intent on getting the site redeveloped within the next few years.
"This is another step in the process," said owner Jon Williams. "As significant as the environmental cleanup has been, the stacks were a very visible representation of what was here - that was the point of contamination - the air was polluted. For having the stacks come down, I think for the community and Western New York, it just means it's not coming back - this is the next step in the site's development."
Williams said we certainly can expect more structures to come down in the future.
"Visually, you'll see the buildings behind us come down," he continued. "The boiler house, the material handling buildings, the tanks behind you right now, you'll see a lot of physical structures get removed. Remediation will probably start in earnest toward the end of this year or beginning of next year. By the time the site is ready for redevelopment, it's some time 2024-2025."
So far, the cleanup of the site has resulted in the removal of more than 4,000 tons of waste, asbestos containing materials, and scrap from previous operations. Thirteen above ground tanks have been emptied and demolished and transported offsite for proper disposal, and more than 2,000 drums and containers of chemicals have been removed from the site.