EPA resumes demolition work at Flintkote plant

LOCKPORT The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency resumed work this week on the demolition of the former Flintkote plant on Mill Street in Lockport.

The plant, which was partially torn down last fall, is believed to be one of the primary sources of pollution in Eighteen Mile Creek, which flows from Lockport to Lake Ontario.

The entire creek corridor has been declared a federal Superfund site. The EPA last fall bought five homes on Water Street in Lockport, whose back yards bordered the creek, and the residents were relocated.

EPA spokesman Michael Basile said the boarded-up houses will be torn down this year, and a chain-link fence will encircle the site.

Basile said the location of the former Water Street homes may be used as a staging area for future cleanup work.

Meanwhile, the demolition of Flintkote is targeted to be complete by the end of May, Basile said.

The hope is that we will have the walls down. There may still be debris piles (in late May), he said.

Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey said the demolition will be followed by more soil testing at the site.

Basile said subsequent work will depend on what we find and dont find after the Flintkote building is gone.

The former building materials plant was abandoned after a 1971 fire. The City of Lockport could have foreclosed on it for many years because of unpaid property taxes, but declined to do so because it feared being stuck with the cleanup bill.

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EPA resumes demolition work at Flintkote plant