Our Environmental Legacy

Between 1942 and the late 1960s, predecessor companies to LANXESS supported the Canadian and United States governments' war efforts through the manufacture of a number of different chemical products. Manufacturing these and other products, along with historical waste disposal practices that are no longer permissible  by today’s standards, created an environmental legacy of contaminated soil, creek sediment and groundwater.

The extent of this legacy became evident in the early 1990s when it was discovered that the underground aquifers supplying Elmira’s drinking water had been inadvertently contaminated, forcing local water wells to close. 

Continued investigations in the late 1990s and early 2000s identified creek impacts sourced from contaminated soil along some areas of the plant’s west creek bank and from the historical disposal areas on the east side.

Over the past three decades, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on remediating this inherited environmental legacy. Through the input and efforts of the community and the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks (MECP) significant achievements towards a cleaner and healthier environment have been made. And we look forward to working together with all stakeholders to continue that progress.