Beacon Heights Landfill

Overview

Beacon Heights Landfill is a 34-acre former industrial and municipal waste facility in Beacon Falls, Connecticut. It operated from the 1920s until 1979, including years of open burning and unregulated waste burial. EPA placed it on the National Priorities List in September 1983, and active federal cleanup began in the mid-1980s.

EPA found 29 contaminants of concern across soil, groundwater, surface water, leachate, and landfill gas. These include volatile organic compounds like benzene, toluene, and xylene, as well as chlorinated solvents such as trichloroethene and dichloromethane, and other chemicals including bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate and chlorobenzene. In 1984, benzene and other solvents turned up in two private wells on Skokorat Road at levels above state drinking water standards.

Cleanup was organized into two operable units. The first addressed water supply and waste containment, the second addressed leachate management. Workers consolidated wastes, installed a multi-layered landfill cap, added gas vents, and built a leachate collection system that routes liquid to the Beacon Falls Treatment Plant. Construction wrapped up in September 1998. An Explanation of Significant Differences, issued in 1998, added wetlands replacement, a bottom liner, and landfill gas collection and treatment to the original remedy. Long-term operations and maintenance continue, and EPA completed its seventh five-year review in September 2023. The next review is estimated between September and November 2028.

Human exposure is under control, and groundwater migration is stabilized in its original area. The site reached sitewide ready-for-anticipated-reuse status in 2019 but has not been deleted from the National Priorities List. Institutional controls, including zoning restrictions that bar residential development, remain in place as long as contamination or cleanup components stay on site. These controls protect both the remedial systems and the surrounding community.

Community members can review site documents at the Beacon Falls Library at 10 Maple Avenue in Beacon Falls, Connecticut, or at the EPA Region 1 records center in Boston, Massachusetts. The EPA also maintains 43 publicly available documents and 25 news items on its Superfund website at www.epa.gov/superfund/beacon. For direct questions, contact the Community Involvement Coordinator or Remedial Project Manager.