The United States Environmental Protection Agency completed a three-year, $7 million operation that excavated roughly 10,000 tons of radioactive material from two Upper Mountain Road properties in Lewiston. Days after the cleanup was sealed, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to recoup the expense, targeting the corporate heir of a long-defunct lead-smelting company.
EPA’s three-year, $7 million cleanup in Lewiston
The agency began digging in September 2021, removing contaminated sands, refractory bricks and other debris from the homes at 789 and the neighboring address. The effort uncovered eight metal plates stamped with the name “Titanium Alloys Manufacturing Co.,” confirming the origin of the waste. The EPA declared the site an “unacceptable risk” because of elevated gamma radiation, radon gas and airborne radioactive dust, prompting the evacuation of the occupants.
Origins of the radioactive fill and the role of Titanium Alloys Manufacturing Co.
Founded in 1906 and acquired by NL Industries, Inc. in 1948, the former Niagara Falls firm imported heavy-mineral sands from Florida and Australia to produce zirconium and titanium products. One output, zirconium tetrachloride, was used to coat fuel rods for nuclear reactors, and the company “had licenses from the federal Atomic Energy Commission to recycle radioactive thorium and uranium” in its electric furnaces. Another product, barium titanate, entered the electronics market; from 1940 to 1951 the plant was the sole U.S. manufacturer of that compound.
The excavated material included gray, black and maroon sands matching the composition of the company’s processes, layered with a “white, chalky substance” later identified as barium titanate. According to the complaint, “the material was found in what appears to be a former quarry that spanned the two residential properties, including underneath both homes.” Aerial photographs reveal that “Based on aerial imagery, the pit was filled in with the waste material sometime between 1938 and 1951.” The house at 789 Upper Mountain Road was constructed atop this fill in 1957.
From a personal wrongful-death claim to a federal CERCLA suit
Philip Palmeri moved into the property with his wife, Tracey, in 2011. Two months after joining a broader 2017 lawsuit against Union Carbide and other Niagara-County firms, Tracey was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2019, a consultant hired by the couple measured gamma radiation in the crawl space that was “30 times background levels.” State health officials alerted the EPA, which confirmed an “unacceptable risk” and removed the family in September 2021. Tracey Palmeri died in April 2022 at age 44.
Seeking accountability, Philip filed a state-court lawsuit in April 2024 against NL Industries, Inc., alleging the company’s waste caused his wife’s death. The case was transferred to federal court, but “a judge ruled last year that “the statute of limitations had run,” noting that Palmeri did not learn the responsible firm’s identity until five years after Tracey’s diagnosis. The judge added that the decision was “not a fair result,” yet no remedy was offered.
Department of Justice action under CERCLA
On Thursday, the Justice Department lodged a claim under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the 1980 legislation enacted after the Love Canal disaster. CERCLA “holds polluters liable for all costs of removal or remedial action incurred by the United States Government.” The complaint names NLI Holdings, Inc.—the current corporate parent of the historic titanium firm—as the liable party, citing the same metal plates and chemical analyses presented in Palmeri’s suit.
The EPA officially closed the cleanup on October 26, 2023, just under the three-year limitation period for cost-recovery claims. The Department of Justice filed the suit within that window, seeking reimbursement of the $7 million spent. Neither the DOJ attorney nor a representative of NLI Holdings responded to requests for comment.
