An aerial view of the former Tonawanda Coke property on the west side of River Road, which has been undergoing cleanup and remediation to remove toxins created from the plant’s decades of “extremely dirty” operations. Crews working for developer Jon Williams didn’t even know what they would find when they began to clean up the heavily polluted former Tonawanda Coke site. Now, four years later, after clearing away vast quantities of benzene, coal tar and other toxic byproducts, Williams awaits approval for the final remediation plan for the main property along River Road.
A public hearing is set for Tuesday. If he gets the green light, this cleanup could finish by fall 2025 – and initial work to revive the property could begin soon after. “We’ve basically taken every threat off the site,” Williams said.
“Now what’s left is to get the site into a place where we can redevelop. So it’s good – everything around is much better than it was three or four years ago.” The state Department of Environmental Conservation is reviewing cleanup options for the main Tonawanda Coke property.
That’s where the company burned coal to make coke, a valuable industrial-era fuel, for a century while spreading dangerous chemicals into the air, soil and groundwater. Williams’ Ontario Specialty Contracting has razed most of the buildings and removed tens of millions of pounds of materials from the site. The company expects to spend more than $100 million on the cleanup, a p.
