Tucked behind an old shopping plaza at the corner of two major streets in Hamden, Connecticut is a picturesque surprise: 102 acres of ponds, forest, and habitat for deer, waterfowl, birds, fish, and turtles. Its diverse ecosystem includes a cattail marsh, a red maple swamp, and a 150-year-old oak-pine forest as well as wetlands that connect to the Regional Water Authority’s Lake Whitney water supply.
But what could be a public green space is instead off limits because of industrial pollution. Historically, Winchester Arms used this land as a site for gunpowder storage, munitions testing, and as a dumping ground for battery waste, solvents, and other industrial materials. Later it was purchased by Olin Corporation, and the land has now been left vacant for many decades, but contamination remains. Olin has been under a consent order from CT DEEP to clean up its toxic mess since 1987, but still hasn’t finished the job. Now, as part of the Six Lakes Park Coalition, we’re advocating for the cleanup of the property and the creation of a public park to benefit the community
Sign the petition to let state leaders know you support a Six Lakes Park!
Environmental Justice at Six Lakes
Six Lakes is connected physically, hydrologically, and historically to the adjacent Newhall neighborhood. Many of Newhall’s predominantly Black, working class families came to Newhall during the Great Migration to work in the nearby Winchester Repeating Arms Company factory. The land on which Newhall was built was once a system of wetlands that flowed into Six Lakes. These marshes were filled with industrial and municipal waste by Winchester and the Town of Hamden over the course of decades before being developed with modest single-family homes.
The neighborhood underwent a large-scale environmental cleanup in the early 2000s due to the advocacy efforts of Newhall community leaders, but the emotional legacy of contamination lingers today, and numerous homes still suffer from un-remediated damage. The creation of a park at Six Lakes would be an act of restorative and environmental justice providing much needed green space to a neighborhood affected by decades of contamination.
Community Vision
As part of the process of advocating for a Six Lakes Park, we hosted a series of community visioning sessions in July 2024 to understand the needs and wants of the surrounding community to help inform the cleanup process.
Now we’re continuing to collect community input through a community survey. Share your thoughts and ideas for the future of Six Lakes!
