The G. W. Lisk Company is applying to be added to the state’s brownfield cleanup program for environmental cleanup of its site.
The company, established in 1910, is on 26 acres at 2 South St. in the village directly south of Clifton Springs Hospital. It produces solenoids, linear variable differential transformers and flame arrestors and has historically performed metal plating operations.
As part of its plating operations, the company used tri-chloro-ethylene (TCE), cadmium, nickel, zinc and hexavalent chromium. Environmental tests performed in 2014 found the presence of chlorinated solvents in the groundwater along the property boundary with Clifton Springs Hospital.
While investigating the former Clifton Springs Sanitarium site, the presence of TCE from the Lisk property was identified. Additionally, samples from two springs and a fountain on the hospital property showed the presence of chlorinated solvents, but no contamination was found in the hospital soils.
A 1991 spill report found that TCE was dumped multiple times into an onsite water well at Lisk, and there are 10 plating operations discharge outfalls from Lisk into Sulphur Creek, which runs through the Lisk and hospital properties.
Additional studies are now underway.
