The announced closing of Chemour Co.’s reactive metals plant on Buffalo Avenue will leave 200 jobless in Niagara Falls and will slash the city’s water board revenue by nixing its second largest customer.
Chemours officials announced in November that they woud stop production at the Reactive Metals Solutions site in Niagara Falls by the end of 2016. About 200 employees and contractors at the Niagara Falls plant will be affected.
The closing of the site operated by Chemours Co., which split from DuPont in June, will subtract $2.4 million from the Falls’ Water Board’s budget lines upon closing. Board Chairman Ted Janese called that sum “substantial” to the organization’s $30 million budget, which is also reeling from the closure of the Niagara Generation power plant.
Together, Janese said his organization will look at a little more than $3 million in losses for 2017. His board has six months to address what will be a roughly 10-percent 2017 budget shortfall before discussions even begin, he said.
Only the Falls’ Canadian-based recycling facilities — the Norampac and Greenpac mills — outrank Chemours. The pair pays out $5.7 million yearly.
“Three million is an awful lot of money to address just on the books,” Janese said. “But fixing the issue on the backs of the blue collar workers at the water treatment plant is not something I’m in favor of.”