Interactive research map documenting the factories and industrial network that supported the Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear programs, along with waste sites and other sources of radiological contamination across Niagara Falls and the surrounding region. Read more at Greetings from Niagara.
Visible site groups
Modern findings legend
Radioactive waste landfill / storage site / FUSRAP site
Confirmed contamination — cleanup completed
Brownfield / redevelopment site
Approximate site area
Documented onsite radiological finding
✓ Surveyed uranium-work area — no elevated radiological finding
Survey footprint / elevated corridor section
TENORM means Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material — naturally occurring radioactive material whose concentrations or exposure pathways were increased by industrial activity.
FUSRAP means the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, a federal program for investigating and cleaning up residual radioactive contamination from Manhattan Project and early Atomic Energy Commission activities. A FUSRAP designation is separate from a brownfield designation, and FUSRAP material is not automatically TENORM.
Radiological waterways
Radiologically contaminated waterway — Rattlesnake Creek
Hydrologic transport pathway — Two Mile Creek
Click either waterway on the map for its history and supporting documents. The traces are approximate documentary overlays based on the supplied USACE and street-map references.
TAM / former NL Industries — six onsite survey areas
Former Electromet site — now Covanta — TENORM gamma-survey clusters
Tract I / former Power City Warehouse — two factory-level TENORM areas
Union Carbide / Electromet — 1980 onsite survey findings
Included: TAM / former NL Industries; Union Carbide / Electromet, including the location now operated by Covanta; and Tract I / former Power City Warehouse. These 28 triangles toggle with their factory groups. Their onsite positions are schematic transcriptions from survey descriptions/drawings, not surveyed GPS coordinates.
1978–1979 aerial survey
Boundary of the 1978–1979 aerial survey map
Ra-226 / Bi-214-associated aerial anomaly area
Th-232-associated aerial anomaly near Pine Avenue
2023–2024 EPA/DEC aerial survey
Boundary of the 2023–2024 aircraft-based survey coverage
2015 Robert Moses Parkway survey
Documented or reproduced TENORM survey location
The NHAP ArcGIS service did not return a tile at this location or zoom level. Switch back to the street map and try another zoom.
Version 0.69 map update: Rattlesnake Creek remains fixed to the user-verified junction and western endpoint. Two Mile Creek now keeps its Niagara River outlet, winds south through Sheridan Park and the Sheridan Park Golf Course, then bends southeast toward the former Linde area. The line remains an approximate documentary overlay rather than a surveyed GIS centerline.
Survey markers are approximate working coordinates reconstructed from addresses, distances, and the report figures. They must not be treated as verified parcel coordinates.
Follow the regional uranium-processing chain. Expand a stage for context, then select Show on map to zoom to the corresponding facility and display its numbered label.
1Uranium Ore from Belgian CongoShinkolobwe region, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)
High-grade uranium ore from the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), was shipped to the United States for processing. This stage has no local map marker.
2Linde (Union Carbide)Tonawanda, New York
Refined uranium ore into uranium tetrafluoride (UF₄), commonly called “green salt.”
3Electromet (Union Carbide)Niagara Falls, New York
Converted uranium tetrafluoride (UF4), commonly called green salt, into uranium metal and produced radioactive C-2 slag.
4Hooker ChemicalNiagara Falls, New York
Recovered remaining uranium from C-2 slag using hydrochloric acid.
5Lake Ontario Ordnance Works / Niagara Falls Storage SiteLewiston, New York
Storage, handling, burial, and disposal of radioactive residues and contaminated materials generated by Manhattan Project and later Atomic Energy Commission operations. A New York State Assembly investigation conducted in the aftermath of the Love Canal disaster uncovered accounts that workers associated with the LOOW removed radioactive waste from the site and used it as fill elsewhere in the region.
Radioactive waste from Union Carbide’s Linde and Electromet operations was transported to the LOOW/NFSS. Union Carbide also operated its own landfill on Niagara Falls Boulevard. Records uncovered by a private investigator hired to trace radioactive slag found at a Niagara Falls bowling alley further showed that some Union Carbide waste was diverted, dumped locally, or distributed as fill instead of reaching the federal storage site.
Final stage of the uranium-processing chain, where uranium metal was forged, rolled, machined, and fabricated into uranium rods and other components.
7Bethlehem SteelLackawanna, New York
Final stage of the uranium-processing chain, where uranium metal was forged, rolled, machined, and fabricated into uranium rods and other components.
8Guterl Specialty SteelLockport, New York
Final stage of the uranium-processing chain, where uranium metal was forged, rolled, machined, and fabricated into uranium rods and other components.
9CarborundumNiagara Falls, New York
Conducted uranium-rod research, later nuclear-fuel fabrication work, and plutonium-related research.
10Bell AerospaceWheatfield / Niagara Falls, New York
Conducted nuclear-weapons research and developed the RASCAL nuclear-armed standoff missile.
Map behavior: selecting a facility zooms to its existing marker, opens its popup, and displays a temporary numbered label. Selecting another stage replaces the previous label.
1985 ORNL Niagara Falls Radiological Survey A follow-up investigation of locations identified during the October 1984 mobile gamma scan. ORNL conducted onsite measurements from July 15–17, 1985, and published the findings in ORNL/TM-10076 in November 1986.