Yonkers, the fourth largest city in New York, has a 150-acre Brownfield Opportunity Area waterfront in an Environmental Zone running along the shoreline of the Hudson River. Yonkers has been attempting to redevelop the waterfront for over 16 years into a state-of-the art new green transit oriented development neighborhood. The BICC site is the largest of the sites totaling 16 acres of upland and 5.24 acres of underwater land. The remediation and redevelopment of the BICC Site is critical to the successful implementation of Yonkers’ development effort, and will be significant to New York’s tax base.

Site History

The BICC facility, in operation since 1886, manufactured high voltage cables until 1996. The property was expanded into the Hudson River using fill material from 1940 to 1976.

The Electric Research Power Institute (EPRI) Building, a 29,700 square feet building was constructed on the fill material and is the only remaining structure. The site contained 360,000 sq. ft. of warehouse and office structures, and open lots with commercial properties on all sides. On-site disposal of waste material, improper handling practices of products and chemicals and spillage are responsible for the PCB and metals contamination present at the site.

Remediation

The BICC Site was a former Superfund site and the volunteer took advantage of the very short window of opportunity for Superfund sites to enter the BCP. The extensive PCB contamination throughout the upland portion of the Site, and in contaminated river sediment in the surrounding Site’s unobstructed shoreline was fully remediated by 2012.  Sediment beneath the EPRI Building was remediated by capping which was completed in August 2016.